Image by user32212 from Pixabay
After its release last July 20, I spent the next month finishing this game 3 chapters at a time ('cuz I only had time to play once a week)--- so who knew what started out as an unfortunate accident for our furry little protagonist turned out to be quite the journey of its lifetime!
Disclaimer: GIFs and screenshots were taken from various points of my total 13-hours of gameplay from those once-a-week sessions I had.
So maybe I'm a bit late to the party of players who had their hearts quite taken with our titular character who only goes by 'Stray' (we've decided to call him Orange though XD), but I just had to mull over a lot of details and get over the feels of letting friends go this adventure had profoundly given me...
For starters, I'm assuming we all have an idea on how our cat MC got separated from the pack, which leads us to explore further into this post-apocalyptic city to find a way out. Sounds right about crazy with you playing as a not-so-large feline with a teeny-tiny drone as your trusted guide--
Meet B-12, he's in charge with hacking you pass whatever security still remains of this Dead City
Which makes this whole partnership between these two surprisingly work, with you just having to bounce and dodge unfriendlies on your toebeans-- which didn't exactly start out easy for a noob player like me, but I did get the hang of it as the level progressed. Although I am glad for the reprieves inbetween chapters where I can just be a cat.
Another aspect of this game that may have added to the buzz is the lack of humans present, we're a thing of the past, and all that remains are the Companion robots who we've left behind with whatever memory they've had of us as a species. It's a fascinating step to evolution, but I was mostly taken with how humanity themselves had come a long way in order to have built this neon-lit city against whatever disaster they were expecting.
Really loved how I could explore all the open windows in the Slums (finding and gathering the Outsiders' notebooks is part of the storyline progression after all), refusing to talk about the Sewers Antvillage was a delightful cat-climbing stint, Midtown-- for all its hype in finding Clementine-- was underwhelming to explore (although finding a couple of B-12's memories here were quite fun), and lastly the Control Room where it all ends. Making a mess out of that too sterile section of the game wouldn't save you from the bittersweet ending that came as a consequence of opening the city.
Now you may ask if all of these feels is all that this game is gonna give you BUT, if you were actually diligent in doing all those side quests and just letting curiosity kill you (the cat) just to complete B-12's memories, then your ordinary backpack will have quite the makeover aside from the 6 badges you've managed to earn along the way.
Orange looks quite proud of himself
So if you're wondering if this game is worth to play, then I'd say it's the best take I've ever experienced playing as a cat in such a brilliant setting! I loved taunting and obliterating my way past the zurks, sneaking past the sentinel drones was a piece of cake unless they were chasing my tail with electric shocks at the ready, that was a pain. But mostly if you have a soft spot for cats (or maybe animals in general), Stray didn't need to try too hard in making us cheer for our feline friend's success, despite the sacrifices made, the lesson learned here about letting go is hopefully about making way for more journeys to be unlocked in the future.
