| Platform | OVERALL |
|---|---|
| PlayStation 5 | 6.60 |
| Overall | 6.60 |
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Stray is a sci-fi adventure game where you play a cat exploring a future post human world run by robots. The concept garnered much attention because of the unique premise of playing as a cat, complete with being able to scratch walls, rub legs, and of course hop on desks and knock down objects cause cats are assholes. As a cat you can jump quite high and squeeze into small spaces but movement is actually quite limited for a “cat sim”. And that’s the kind of surprising aspect of Stray, it’s not a cat sim, it’s strictly an adventure game with the limited movement options if a cat. The core of the game is spent exploring areas for objects wanted by the multitude of robot NPCs. I liked the sci fi story setup and while the story never gets too explored you do learn a few things as to what happened to the humans and why are robots stuck in some enclosed city. I enjoyed the aesthetic of the world, by far my favorite parts of the game was just me exploring every nook and cranny often times looking for optional hidden objects. Now these objects serve zero purpose to the game outside some trophy hunting, they could have done more more to make it feel like an in game achievement but in the end the game just gives you some pointless cosmetic item, the true reward is your gamer score goes up. Still I liked the sort of scavenger hunt vibe of exploring these areas, looking high and low and using my cat jumping skills to sneak into high windows. Speaking of jumping it’s all automatic which is where this game solidifies that it’s more of a new take on the point and click adventure game than an action adventure game. When you want to jump you have to sim the camera at an object that looks like you can climb or drop to and wait for the X icon to appear then you auto jump to it. This works well most of the time but there will be moments where the game artificially prevents you from jumping on objects that very much look like you can access but because of game reasons are not allowed. It’s very scripted in that regard, you can only go where the game lets you which thankfully in the cities they give you a wide brith to explore. In between the exploring there are the more gamey sections where you solve basic puzzles and engage in mundane stealth sections. Gameplay mechanics are added and taken away relatively quickly, this adds some nice variety but also makes the gameplay have the depth of a puddle. Certain sections have these little critters that will swarm and eat you so having to avoid them becomes the trick. You can use the environment to lure and trap them to areas where your cat can escape but they can’t reach. Later your robot companion (oh yeah your cat is just a vessel for this robot that does all the communication and item gathering) gains the ability to shine a light that destroys the creatures, the trick being it has limited battery so you have to be diligent when to use it or not. Other areas have the classic camera with a cone of vision that the cat has to avoid. These leads to some decent puzzles of manipulating the world to get around them but again it’s all pretty basic. Smatter in a few exciting running segments and that’s basically the game in a nutshell. It reminds me of a much more simple less dangerous Limbo or Inside, obviously this is in 3D but that sort of environmental puzzle focus is what you get here just much easier. Graphically there isn’t anything that really stands out. The cat itself has simple textures, you don’t really see fur. The world looks nice with some neon filled robot cities, but again it’s a clear indie game. Music is fine, no themes stick out but it accompanies the locations well. If on a PS5 you get some nice cat sensations from the dual sense, like purring and scratching, simple stuff that enhance the cat sim aspect that I felt was lacking. Stray is going to get much more love than I give it just because of it’s unique concept. As an adventure puzzle focused game there are much better ones out there. If looking for an easy simple game with a cool premise and environment than I think Stray is worth playing especially if you have it free with a PS premium sub. |
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Posted by Dvader Wed, 27 Jul 2022 14:01:33
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gamingeek (1m)
As a cat can your rain down massive dumps around the environment?