Stray is the latest game to hop aboard the dystopian sci-fi trend, following in the wake of Cyberpunk 2077 and this week's The Ascent. Yet while those other titles prioritized grisly violence and chaotic gunplay, this offers a considerably cuter spin on the genre.
Stray Plot Summary
Developed by BlueTwelve Studio, Stray has you take on the role of a vagrant ginger cat, prowling the streets of an unfamiliar city in search of its family. For unknown reasons, this metropolis is populated exclusively by frightened automatons (with no trace of humanity to be found anywhere) who are very twitchy and cower at the first sign of trouble.
Their paranoia can be attributed to a colony of parasite creatures, known as "zurks," that are running amok throughout the city. As an equally small organic lifeform, you are frequently mistaken for one of these monsters and so most of the robots will regard you as just another threat.
One synthetic that is not afraid of animals is the B-12 drone. This helpful droid will accompany you throughout your adventure, helping you to solve environmental puzzles and even acting as an ambassador between you and the local inhabitants.
Stray Is a Different Kind of Cyberpunk Adventure
While their settings are very comparable at first glance, The Ascent and Stray could not be more different in terms of their gameplay and overall tones. The former title is all about acquiring destructive weaponry and imploding people into gloopy piles of viscera, while the latter gives you the opportunity to roleplay as an adorable cat doing adorable things around the city.
Speaking of which, a new gameplay walkthrough for Stray (debuted during yesterday's Annapurna Interactive showcase) revealed that it doubles as a wholesome feline simulator. You can curl up and snuggle up next to NPCs, lap up water from discarded bowls, roam the streets to pilfer food, appropriate leather couches as your own scratching posts, and demand affection from residents by rubbing up against their legs.
As if all this cuteness was not enough, there is gameplay to go along with it, as you will need to do the occasional bit of platforming, scale tall buildings, figure out how to break into houses, and evade the zurk hordes. On that note, the trailer demonstrated that not all of your interactions here are going to be quite so playful, as there will be a few scripted chase sequences and you will even gain the ability to fight the creatures by exposing them to some kind of ultraviolet light.
Whether or not Stray will be able to appease both cat lovers and the hardcore gaming crowd remains to be seen, but it is shaping up very nicely at the moment. With gorgeous visuals, an intriguingly dark world, and a very appealing tabby at its core, this is definitely one to keep an eye on.
When Is Stray Released?
While there is no firm release date for Stray yet, the latest trailer does confirm that it will be heading to consoles in early 2022. At launch, the game will only be available on PS5 and PS4 platforms.
