Several days after finishing “Stray,” I’m still chewing over the right words to describe it. It’s adorable. It’s devastating. It unspools a haunting thread about humanity but also encourages you to lose a lot of time just running around doing silly cat things — leaving a trail of kitty prints through fresh paint, snoozing in a comfy corner, etc. — that have zero effect on the game. That juxtaposition had me invested in the game from start to finish, and its poignant themes haven’t left my mind in the days since.
You play as an unnamed orange cat trying to return home after an ill-fated jump sends you plummeting into the sewers of a dilapidated cybercity. The androids that walk its neon-lit streets call it the Dead City, where they live among what appear to be relics of a once-human population. You team up with a small drone, B-12, that connects to a harness and can hack terminals, translate the language of the city’s robotic inhabitants and unlock clues called “memories” to learn more about what the hell happened to this place.
Before you ask, yes, the cat freezes up and falls over when it’s first put in the harness, just like a real cat would. The developers took great pains to authentically capture all the cuteness and chaos of cats in its gameplay. Playing “Stray” felt like a surreal 4D experience at times: There’s a dedicated “meow” button, and my orange cat Cheeto, who lay beside me as I played, perked up whenever I hit it and the sound echoed through the PS5 controller (the cat will also meow randomly — again, just like a real cat).
Read the full review here.