At its core, Stray is a platform puzzle game. You jump. You climb. You knock things over. But the twist with Stray is that you’re a cat.
In the opening moments of Stray, you meet your nameless protagonist in the ruins of an abandoned city with a loose pack of other strays. You become separated, and the remainder of the game follows your attempts to rejoin your kitty family.
Over the course of an expanding narrative, this journey becomes so much more.
Your kitty avatar discovers that their home isn’t entirely abandoned, but below the surface, and entire, weird, dysfunctional civilization of robots slogs along. They repeat routine tasks, seem incredibly blase about their circumstances, and many need help of one sort of another.
Frankly, it’s shocking how many problems computerized, bipedal, dexterous creature have that must be solved by a tiny black fuzzball with above-average agility and a little AI companion.
Sorry if that’s a spoiler. You get a little AI companion.
The robotic world is mysterious and run-down. It hints at glory days so far gone that our modern era has become ancient history. The robotic custodians of this future can’t create, just maintain, and everything is slowly falling to ruin bit by bit despite their efforts.
How has this all gone wrong?
What calamity befell civilization?
Why does a cat need to fix all these problems?
Stray answers some of this, but mostly, you’re a cat, and the real puzzle is how to get back home. And it’s a great little journey getting there.
If you love cats and games, and missed this one, it’s a great one to pick up.
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