Stray Review – Kitty Gone Cyber City
Stray on PC
Many of my favorite moments from games set in dystopian, cyberpunk settings are simply meandering through city streets. I’m endlessly fascinated by their dingy confines, lit up by bright neon signage advertising some product or service at odds with the air of despondency brooding from the shadows. Stray features one of the most compelling renditions of this tropey, near-future aesthetic I have ever explored, and uniquely, from the perspective of a cute cat.
French developer BlueTwelve Studio’s debut game is a puzzle platformer about unearthing the mystery of a strange, fallen metropolis. Its protagonist, an orange tabby separated from its family by a stroke of misfortune, accidentally finds itself caught up in a society of sentient robots whose society mimics a long, lost human species who lived there previously.
The companions, as they’re known, live in safe zones dotted throughout the city, constantly in fear of Zurks, a creepy and voracious species intent on eating everything in sight — flesh or metal. But these bizarre creatures aren’t all they’re hiding from; the companions live in isolated communities, sealed away from the outside world. They are convinced that conditions outside the city walls are too hostile to sustain life — the reason the cities were built hundreds of years earlier.
And yet, the chance appearance of a furry feline from beyond the walls suggests to them that life might exist after all. So begins your plight, first to make contact with companions in villages afar, and then to open the seal that has kept the city entombed for so long.