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Stray (finished)
3 years ago
The Cat Game is out, and I wanted tell you a little bit about it. Don't worry, no spoilers. :D
Stray is a beautiful little game with a focus on story and atmosphere. I completed it in about 8-9 hours, but, don't let its shortness dissuade you.
The world and environment is positively alive with detail, from characters that look and feel like they belong, to the cluttered, lived in look of the locations themselves, making it all look and feel genuine and natural. The game's music is a treat to listen to, adding to the atmosphere seamlessly, whether you're exploring one of the towns, or dodging threats in the less hospitable locations.
And that brings me to the gameplay. The mechanics and controls are simple, with barely half the buttons of the controller being used. Overall, the gameplay is quite minimalistic; there's no HUD to clutter your view, and no stats to keep track of. There's barely even a tutorial as you're tossed right into the game from the beginning. In fact, the game pretty much leaves you to your own devices. There's no hand-holding, and no repeated reminders about your objective. If you forget what you're meant to do, you can ask your little robo-companion, or just wander around until you inevitably find where you're meant to go, by accident.
The puzzles are relatively simple, but still require some thinking, and make you feel smart for figuring them out. And, the stealth sections aren't much different. However, it should be noted that there's no backtracking in Stray, and once you move on from a location, you can't return to collect anything you've missed. There is a chapter select feature, but using it forces you to restart the selected chapter from its beginning, resetting any items you might've picked up and used, forcing you to re-find and re-use them. Triggering the game's autosave will also overwrite any partial progress you've made in a later chapter, meaning that if you quit part way through Chapter 5, and go back to Chapter 3 to collect one thing you missed, you'll need to restart Chapter 5 from the beginning, using the chapter select feature, in order to continue. But, given the relative size of the locations, and the number of items and collectibles, it's not difficult to find most of them just wandering around. There are some hidden nooks and crannies to find, which you'll have to look carefully for, but, that's all part of being a cat.
And, on that subject, I want to acknowledge the superb work the devs have done in emulating the fuzzy protag of this game. As mentioned in an article, which I'll link below, the devs worked with not just one, but three real life cats, and other references, to get a close representation of the subtleties and uniqueness of a feline's behaviour, movement, and looks. Even the environment itself is clearly designed with "cat" in mind, and you'll find yourself leaping from ledge to ledge, knocking over bottles, paint cans, and robots, and even clawing at carpets and couches in true cat fashion. If you play Stray on a PS5, you'll even be treated to your controller physically and audibly purring when laying down in certain locations. I imagine other controllers would also emulate this, but, given the advanced definition of a PS5's vibration function, I suspect other controllers just wouldn't be able to compare.
My only real issue with this game is its apparent lack of a manual save feature. Stray, like virtually every modern game, has an autosave function, but, that's all. The game does not save when you quit, nor is there a menu option to save. There are locations which you can lay down and nap, which I feel would've been, hehe, purrfect for a manual save location, but, alas, they do not work that way. If it's a been a long time since your last autosave (the menu tells you how long ago it was), and you've collected, or done a few things in that time, you may find yourself hesitant to just quit without first progressing the story in order to trigger an autosave.
All in all, Stray is a very chill and relaxing game to play. Explore and interact with the characters and objects to learn more about the world, and how things ended up in the state they're in, or just be a cat, doing cat things. The story isn't super deep and complex, but the characters feel genuine and natural, and, you might even feel your heartstrings being tugged on, now and again.
As I understand it, this is the first game from this dev team, and I hope it does well. I truly feel like there is potential in revisiting this world, and this fuzzy protag, in a much larger game, and I hope that if Stray proves a success, we some day will. I'd really like that.
At the time of writing this, Stray is ~$40aud (which I believe is under $30usd), and only around 15GB, and is, in my opinion, a worthwhile experience. Give it a try, won't you?
https://blog.playstation.com/2022/0.....e-out-july-19/
Stray is a beautiful little game with a focus on story and atmosphere. I completed it in about 8-9 hours, but, don't let its shortness dissuade you.
The world and environment is positively alive with detail, from characters that look and feel like they belong, to the cluttered, lived in look of the locations themselves, making it all look and feel genuine and natural. The game's music is a treat to listen to, adding to the atmosphere seamlessly, whether you're exploring one of the towns, or dodging threats in the less hospitable locations.
And that brings me to the gameplay. The mechanics and controls are simple, with barely half the buttons of the controller being used. Overall, the gameplay is quite minimalistic; there's no HUD to clutter your view, and no stats to keep track of. There's barely even a tutorial as you're tossed right into the game from the beginning. In fact, the game pretty much leaves you to your own devices. There's no hand-holding, and no repeated reminders about your objective. If you forget what you're meant to do, you can ask your little robo-companion, or just wander around until you inevitably find where you're meant to go, by accident.
The puzzles are relatively simple, but still require some thinking, and make you feel smart for figuring them out. And, the stealth sections aren't much different. However, it should be noted that there's no backtracking in Stray, and once you move on from a location, you can't return to collect anything you've missed. There is a chapter select feature, but using it forces you to restart the selected chapter from its beginning, resetting any items you might've picked up and used, forcing you to re-find and re-use them. Triggering the game's autosave will also overwrite any partial progress you've made in a later chapter, meaning that if you quit part way through Chapter 5, and go back to Chapter 3 to collect one thing you missed, you'll need to restart Chapter 5 from the beginning, using the chapter select feature, in order to continue. But, given the relative size of the locations, and the number of items and collectibles, it's not difficult to find most of them just wandering around. There are some hidden nooks and crannies to find, which you'll have to look carefully for, but, that's all part of being a cat.
And, on that subject, I want to acknowledge the superb work the devs have done in emulating the fuzzy protag of this game. As mentioned in an article, which I'll link below, the devs worked with not just one, but three real life cats, and other references, to get a close representation of the subtleties and uniqueness of a feline's behaviour, movement, and looks. Even the environment itself is clearly designed with "cat" in mind, and you'll find yourself leaping from ledge to ledge, knocking over bottles, paint cans, and robots, and even clawing at carpets and couches in true cat fashion. If you play Stray on a PS5, you'll even be treated to your controller physically and audibly purring when laying down in certain locations. I imagine other controllers would also emulate this, but, given the advanced definition of a PS5's vibration function, I suspect other controllers just wouldn't be able to compare.
My only real issue with this game is its apparent lack of a manual save feature. Stray, like virtually every modern game, has an autosave function, but, that's all. The game does not save when you quit, nor is there a menu option to save. There are locations which you can lay down and nap, which I feel would've been, hehe, purrfect for a manual save location, but, alas, they do not work that way. If it's a been a long time since your last autosave (the menu tells you how long ago it was), and you've collected, or done a few things in that time, you may find yourself hesitant to just quit without first progressing the story in order to trigger an autosave.
All in all, Stray is a very chill and relaxing game to play. Explore and interact with the characters and objects to learn more about the world, and how things ended up in the state they're in, or just be a cat, doing cat things. The story isn't super deep and complex, but the characters feel genuine and natural, and, you might even feel your heartstrings being tugged on, now and again.
As I understand it, this is the first game from this dev team, and I hope it does well. I truly feel like there is potential in revisiting this world, and this fuzzy protag, in a much larger game, and I hope that if Stray proves a success, we some day will. I'd really like that.
At the time of writing this, Stray is ~$40aud (which I believe is under $30usd), and only around 15GB, and is, in my opinion, a worthwhile experience. Give it a try, won't you?
https://blog.playstation.com/2022/0.....e-out-july-19/
