Listen Here
Video Game Review by Ethan Hockaday
Available on PC and Playstation, the video game Stray is a unique, fun game that won’t take your whole day to complete, nor leave your wallet significantly lighter. Developed by BlueTwelve Studio, this game will have the player using the full spectrum of their emotion as they explore the game.
Taking place in a dystopian, cyberpunk city, you play as a cat trying to find their way back to the surface, along the way helping the cities citizens with various tasks and uncovering the cities long forgotten secrets. In this review I’ll mainly be talking about the first couple of levels, so that any who are interested can play the game without feeling like they’re experience has been spoiled.
Starting with a Mufasa-style fall into an abyss, the player will traverse through the different levels of the game’s underground city. This fall will leave you in the cities sewers where the player will encounter the first inhabitants of the city, Zurks. Based off of bedbugs, these enemies will chase after your cat, latching on and feeding until has to move onto another of its nine lives.
For the majority of the game, any section that feature these ferocious insects will have you dodging and weaving as you run towards your next objective. While there is a brief period where you can fight back against them, this weapon leaves almost as soon as you’ve gained it.
After you’re first encounter with these critters, you’ll meet your companion for the game, a small flying robot called B-12. This amnesia ridden animatronic is your key to not only returning to the surface, but also finding out what happened to the denizens of this seemingly abandoned city.
From here the real story of the game begins, you’ll start finding out more about the cities past, where the Zurk came from, and why it is shut off from the surface.
Control wise, the game can be clunky with its movement and while the rest of the controls are simple (and there’s even a dedicated “meow” button) not being able to go where/do what I want can lead to occasional moments of frustration.
At the end of the day though, you play as a cat and the game leans into this, with options to knock stuff over, destroy furniture, and as previously mentioned, meow to your hearts content. I’d recommend this to new comers and video game veterans alike, as everyone will find they enjoy the content this game had to offer.
