Stray has only been released for a little over a week now and has already shattered expectations from fans. Its main pull was seemingly going to be from how it launched on PlayStation Plus for Premium and Extra subscribers, but its reach has extended beyond that as well. Besides already breaking Annapurna’s Steam record, Stray has also become a phenomenon with how excited real-life cats and dogs are to watch the fictional cat move around on screen.
There are multiple reasons why fans may be receiving Stray with as much positivity as they are. Stray is not terribly long, but its quality control is fantastic for how short it is, and its gameplay is smooth throughout. Further, Stray’s gameplay allows fans to play as a cat that behaves precisely as a cat normally does. Many cyberpunk and dystopian science-fiction games have hit the market in the last several years, but Stray has been able to uniquely identify itself through originality and wholesomeness within the same genre.
Stray’s Protagonist is an Ordinary Cat in an Unordinary Setting
Stray’s wholesomeness is neatly packaged into its narrative vessel, the stray cat that players maneuver and meow with to their heart’s content. But while players control this cat and perform basic fetch quests with it, it is not a creature of science-fiction that simply wears the guise of a domestic cat. Stray’s cat seemingly has no stake in any of the events happening in its dystopia, nor the lives of the robots it meets that inhabit different locations. Instead, the cat receives information through Stray’s tiny B-12 drone that can translate the robots’ language to it, and thus the cat and the player both comprehend what is being asked of them at any time.
Being able to play as a cat is essentially Stray’s entire marketing pull, and it works; players have a dedicated meow button, are encouraged to gently nudge objects over ledges, and scratch at select doors in order to gain access to new areas or NPCs. In this approach to gameplay, players who are not as fond of cats and their peculiarities may not be as engaged or entertained as those that are.
But its wholesomeness through this approach is undeniable, and makes it stand out from other science-fiction cyberpunk titles in recent years. This also provides other developers with the template for games featuring city-dwelling animal protagonists.
Stray’s Robots and Environmental Storytelling Convey Hope in a Dreary Dystopia
That said, Stray’s wholesomeness is also met with surprisingly layered themes that underpin the game’s atmosphere further. Put bluntly, Stray does deal with some domestic and existential concerns that are likely triggering or alarming for some players.
Stray does not linger on or dive into these themes too deeply, but they are inarguably present, especially when players reach Antvillage and Midtown. B-12 questions their own existence after acknowledging certain information about themselves and who they were when players arrive in Antvillage, and potent imagery of police brutality is depicted through security robots that roam through Midtown.
Still, some robots are primarily wholesome and invite players to snuggle up beside them for however long of a nap they wish. Stray never abandons its wholesomeness, but simply continues to layer on different themes and considerations that round out its cyberpunk atmosphere, particularly when it comes to the state that the robots live in or the presence of Stray’s Zurk enemies.
Quests are also elementary in design, but that simplicity becomes a rewarding feat of exploration rather than having to be difficult for the sake of complexity. Rather, gathering energy drinks, sheet music, and notebooks becomes an engaging task when the Slums have so much verticality and interiors to traverse. Stray’s ending could have leaned toward a more tragic conclusion also, but it maintains its wholesomeness all the way until credits roll.
Stray is available now for PC, PS4, and PS5.