Testing «Stray»: a heartfelt feline adventure in a splendid cyberpunk setting

A leisurely walk with my family through a deserted part of town. I tease my siblings and listen to the birds chirping. But while balancing along an old water pipe, it happens: the pipe breaks and I fall into the depths. Luckily I play a cat in «Stray»; otherwise the game would be over already. I find myself in a strange location, far away from my four-legged siblings.

«Stray» is set in a dystopian future inhabited by robots with screens for heads. No trace of humanity. The first time my calico encounters an inhabitant, they recoil in fright and run away. Either evidence of a horrible cat allergy, or robots have never run across Felis Catus.

An unusual duo

Birdsong and sunshine have given way to countless rows of dark houses. At the end of an alleyway, a flickering neon-coloured sign catches my attention. I see arrows, obviously pointing me in a specific direction. Around the corner, a display board with the words «Follow me» lights up. Don’t know if cats can read in this world, or if «suspension of disbelief» is coming into play here. Be that as it may, I keep following the coloured lights. Thanks to my feline affinity for acrobatics, I effortlessly climb onto dumpsters, jump onto rooftops, and finally clamber into a slightly open window, shimmering with bluish light.

There I make the acquaintance of a small drone called B-12. She lost all memory of her former owner, a scientist, and wants to find her again. Thankfully, she also knows in which direction to head. Helpful as I am, and because I wouldn’t know where else to go, I let the flying tin can guide me. During our wanderings, we get to know an ever-increasing array of inhabitants, all more human than it would at first seem.

Simple but motivating game mechanics

A guard advises us to seek out the Outsiders. They’ll be able to help us escape from this mysterious city. I climb and jump like the lithe cat I am, effortlessly overcoming any obstacle. The first area especially allows a lot of freedom in exploration and discovery. One of my first tasks is to find diaries in abandoned apartments. In the process, I have to solve little image puzzles, allowing my drone to open a safe, or lock up fans to get to previously blocked locations. I trade soda cans for a power cord with a vendor, which the local hacker needs in turn to decipher a code for me.

Most of the game consists of simple environmental puzzles. Later on, I also have to hide from turret drones and escape flesh- and metal-eating monsters that look like headcrabs from «Half-Life». The game is relatively linear, but always offers room for exploration. Mostly to collect additional memorabilia for my drone friend, leading to further background on the world and its history.

A feast for the eyes

This world is inviting by its design alone, convincing me to stay and look around a bit longer. The cyberpunk scenario, with its lively robot inhabitants, looks simply stunning. An apartment that looks like the owner enjoys playing Jenga with books and tube monitors. Fascinating. The sparsely populated slums that the game starts in are later followed by a vibrant city that’ll knock you right over with its resplendent lighting.

The eyes of a cat also offer a fresh perspective. I either had to walk along the ground and look up at larger individuals or eye them from a safe distance while walking along a balcony. The fact that I regularly knocked over flower pots or drinks at the bar before sharpening my claws on furniture didn’t seem to bother anyone. While the robots usually behave quite akin to humans, they show superhuman composure here.

However, being a cat doesn’t stop at destroying furnishings. You can drink from puddles, nap in the most impossible of places, snuggle up to anyone’s legs, and meow on command. Developer BlueTwelve Studio has also managed to make the cat’s animations almost perfect. Only in a few places did I notice that there wasn’t quite as much budget allocated here as there was for horse testicles in «Red Dead Redemption 2».

Verdict: not only for cat lovers

With a cat in the lead role and a world populated by robots, «Stray» offers a novel setting. It’s just so much fun, exploring an unknown world with the ease of a fluffy furball. If you have a flair for cyberpunk like I do, then the neon glowing environment exudes twice the appeal. Together with perfectly tuned sound design, you can really immerse yourself in this world.

Even though most of the game’s mechanics, such as switch puzzles or climbing passages, offer nothing new strictly speaking, your feline garb does provide a fresh perspective – in two ways. The fact that the game isn’t too action packed for the most part lets me enjoy the environments in peace. As the game progressed, I slipped more and more into the role of my animal protagonist. I deliberately took detours just to knock over a few bottles, or snaked my way around robotic legs only to immediately make a run for it when they tried to pet me. Cats, we’re unpredictable.

The fact that even I felt like playing through chapters one more time to fill the final gaps in my flying companion’s memory speaks volumes. At six to ten hours, «Stray» is a rather short game, but it will remain in my memory for a long time.

«Stray» was provided to me by Annapurna Interactive. The game is available from July 19 for PC, PS4, PS5 and is included in the PS Plus Extra and Premium subscriptions.

We talk more about «Stray» and other gaming and tech topics in our weekly digitec podcast, out every Thursday.