Stray Xbox Series X Review "A Purrfect way to spend an evening" 🐈 @HKdevblog #IndieGame #GameDev

It was only a few weeks ago on my movie-centric podcast that I was discussing emotional manipulation with my co-host. He was more bothered by it than me, but I still find that overtly sentimental forms of media that aim purely to tug at the heartstrings irk me somewhat.

This ties into my initial – misjudged – thoughts on Stray. When it was released last year on PlayStation, the positive reviews that it received – and more so the comments surrounding it – I found actively off-putting in the comparisons to games of a more ‘cinematic’ vibe.

After receiving it for review purposes and playing it through in two straight sessions I really do recommend it, if you were - like me – put off by the thought of a saccharine gaming experience. This is Tokyo Jungle territory.

A third-person adventure, Stray begins on a rainy afternoon, as a small tribe of stray cats play together in a concrete overhang. It is a grey, miserable place - from what we can see, there are endless rusting pipes and colourless blocks of stone reaching up into the sky above a waterway that nature has reclaimed. Lush, green plants grow through cracks in the concrete and birds flutter as the litter of cats make their way through what we insinuate is a place long since abandoned by humankind. It’s not long before tragedy strikes, and a single misjudged jump sees our feline protagonist taking an extremely nasty fall into the dirty mounds of trash below – and so our journey back to the light begins.

The brief introductory stage - before the stray falls - acts as a perfect tutorial to the basic mechanics of the game, which – in the early stages at least – boil down to making your way through the locations. I don’t want to give anything away, as finding out more about the word of the stray is a big part of the enjoyment, the other big part of the enjoyment is in…well, just playing it.

The world as viewed from a cat’s perspective is wonderfully realised, each movement, sound and gesture feels true to life, and the world is a giant sandbox for the stray to explore. The earliest sections are strong, and the sheer satisfaction of creeping under broken fences, across cables and through apartments whilst drinking in the astonishingly tasty visuals really grabbed a hold of me.

The richness of the game world, mixed with how great everything looks is a heady mixture that’s topped off by Yann van der Cruyssen’s incredibly evocative score, which seems to float along in the background, almost underselling itself in this, a game where silence has real power to it, rising at key moments in ways that perfectly accentuate the on-screen events and landscapes as opposed to simply attempting to trigger perfunctory emotions, it’s a vinyl-worthy soundtrack that really stuck in my mind throughout my time with Stray.

Again, not wanting to spoil any story beats I’ll keep this vague, but I do want to say that the game introduces – usually temporarily – various mechanics for areas of the game that add colour, whilst never feeling over-used. For example, there are stealth sections and combat sections as well as chase scenarios, but they all feel fair and are designed in such a way that you will never be stumped for long, with solutions usually being reached in moments as opposed to minutes, this breeziness lends itself to the core gameplay loop, as the reward here isn’t overcoming insane odds, but in just losing yourself in the mellow gameplay.

I’ve seen some comments that the game is too short, but I really didn’t have that issue, my preference being to have a tight gaming experience as opposed to a meandering one, especially in this more linear genre. During my 5 hours or so with the game, I never stopped getting entranced by the characters and locations I discovered, along with that lilting music.

Stray strikes me as a game that has had extraneous mechanics, content and sections removed – much to the benefit of the overall experience, as it makes for such a streamlined experience with just the right amount of variety in the various threads.

It may seem an odd thing to say, but I thoroughly enjoyed how the cat never stopped…being a cat. Whatever events occurred in the grand scheme of the narrative, the naturally (mostly) silent protagonist’s non-understanding of the sequences, twists and machinations makes you feel more of a voyeur passing through this place, unaware of the key part being played by our furry friend, it’s a charming balance that absolutely won me over.

SUMMARY

BlueTwelve Studios have created a game that pulled me in, not by making doe-eyes at me and vomiting rainbows, sugar, and unicorns - but by being a stream-lined adventure with simple, clear mechanics that are inherently satisfying to play whilst putting forward a detailed world full of character, wonder – and awesome audio.

My entire household enjoyed this adventure, and I’m very keen to see what the developers treat us with next.

Right, I’m off to scratch my curtains. And after I’ve scratched my mid-nineties haircut, I’ll scratch my goatee as well.