Stray

Stray. The cat game. Meow meow meow meow. I have been looking forward to playing Stray since I saw its announcement with the PlayStation 5. Exploring a world as a small animal has a lot of gameplay advantages. Try Moss in VR as an example of this.

But like the majority of the YouTube and streaming world, I was keen to play as a cat. If you use the internet at all, you have probably been inundated with Stray gameplay. This is part of the reason this entry is going to be relatively short. The other is I am going to do my first proper review of Stray soon. So in a week or so you will hear a lot of my thoughts in more detail.

First up, I played almost all of Stray with Enzo lying on top of me. Did this help with immersion? Nope. Was it cute as hell? Absolutely!

And cute as hell describes the opening of Stray. You play as a ginger cat, playing with other cats and exploring the world. There aren’t any objectives or exposition dumps – you are a cat. That kind of thing isn’t important to you as a cat. You just are.

Stray uses environmental storytelling incredibly well, and the world is surprisingly detailed. Exploring the world of Stray is a fun experience, and while it sounds cliche, you do get out of it what you want. Do you want a casual experience where you go from point a to b? You will enjoy Stray. Do you want to explore a world searching for lore and building up the story of what has happened? You will enjoy Stray.

I have heard people complain Stray devolves into a ‘standard 3rd person shooter adventure’. People that say this stopped playing about halfway through. I can see where the sentence comes from, it’s not a totally false summary. But this happens for one level and is an optional way to play it. That’s as much of a spoiler I will get into.

That isn’t to say Stray is perfect. Early on, you find B12. A little drone that acts as a translator and story focal point more than anything else. You as the cat become more of a vehicle for B12 than your own character. Well, that’s how I felt for a little while. An attachment does from between your cat and B12. While forced at first does become a very natural character attachment.

Don’t think cats can form an attachment? Scroll up and look at Zo happily curled up on me. That type of comfort around me didn’t happen in a day, but the bonds can definitely be formed.

Yes, Stray is a short game. I think this works in the game’s favour though. While delayed, Stray is an incredibly polished experience that works well. The only big complaint I have is in the context-sensitive controls. This isn’t a problem with Stray exclusively though – getting the prompts right is hard to do development-wise. So I did miss some exploration parts the first time through as I wasn’t in the perfect position for the jump prompt to appear.

That’s it. That’s my biggest complaint about the game. Occasionally it was hard to hit the right spot for the prompt to appear. If that’s the worst I can throw at it, Stray is doing pretty well.

The humour is fun both in-game and in achievements/trophy names. Stray’s journey is a mixture of peace and adversity, and the pacing of that story feels right. There are cliches and tropes in the story, but also ‘Where did that come from’ moments as well that don’t feel forced.

Exploration is amazing in Stray, and while there are puzzles to be solved, they generally aren’t brain-breaking. There is an argument that a cat wouldn’t be solving a lot of these puzzles, but B12 would. It’s part of what makes the duo work so well together.

It took me about 8 hours of playtime to finish Stray and find 100% of the collectibles, including badges. There is a Platinum trophy on offer, and there is a good chance I am going to try and do it. I am going to play through Stray one more time ‘normally’ to try and memorise the best path to continue the story. During this run, if Rabbit isn’t watching me play, I might try and do some of the skill-based remaining trophies.

This means I can do one last run for the final planned trophy – finish the game in less than 2 hours. I usually enjoy these runs in the Resident Evil games. The world of Stray is one I definitely think I will enjoy exploring to nail this speed run.

So yes, I very much enjoyed Stray, and think many players will as well. If you have PlayStation Plus Extra or higher, you can play Stray for free. You won’t regret it.

Stray got fired up near the end of last week. I am going to play it through at least twice more. Once with Rabbit watching the story, and once more trying to finish the story in under 2 hours. Stray is going to be my next Platinum, I only need to sit down and work out the best path.

For the moment though I am picking apart specific trophies with Chapter Select. I am loving the pun names in Stray. My favourite Stray trophy to unlock so far is called Productive Day. It’s one of those annoying time-based ‘just leave the console on’ trophies. I don’t mind this one in Stray though.

For Productive Day, you need to sleep for an hour. That’s it. No dexterity, no path or puzzles to solve, just find a spot and nap. While this is happening, you can hear the cat purring through the DualSense controller. I had some YouTube up on the screen while the controller was next to me on the couch. The slight rumbling and purring was soothing, if not great for battery life!

So I have two trophies left before earning the Platinum for Stray. One I am going to get with the playthrough with Rabbit, which I am surprised I didn’t already earn. You have to perform the ‘Scratch’ action in every chapter. I don’t remember ever passing up an opportunity to scratch, but I am guessing I did!

The other one as mentioned is to finish Stray in under 2 hours. It took me almost 7 hours to explore and have a wonderful time, but I never looked for an ‘optimal’ path. I didn’t pay any attention to codes or make a list of required or optional puzzles. This is going to be taken care of with the run with Rabbit. The little explorations and pauses for notes will be good to go through with another set of eyes.

Two more runs with unskippable cutscenes and forced conversations don’t phase me. That’s how much I am enjoying Stray. I can’t recommend it enough. If you get the chance, definitely check out Stray. There is so much to enjoy, even if you aren’t a cat person.

I am finally in a position with my foot where I feel comfortable playing games for longer stints. It’s not that I am not enjoying Xenoblade Chronicles, but I am aware that games are also being passed by. So this week, I sat down and tried the speedrun trophy for Stray. This was all I needed for the Platinum and was a game that I could stop playing if I overestimated endurance.

So settled on the couch, I had my new headphones on and Stray fired up. I was ready to play it through, and hoping I remembered enough I could finish the whole game in under 2 hours. Worst case, I was a little off time-wise but relearned what I needed to do to power through Stray’s story.

It was at this point Enzo decided I needed ’emotional support’. What better way to play the cat game than with your cat?

I played Stray over a couple of sessions. The first session was pretty good – I made it to the second last chapter in 1:23. 37 minutes including cutscenes and forced scripted sections. Tight, but I was pretty sure I could do it. After dinner and a break, I then sat down to finish my run. Would this be the night I got the Stray Platinum?

Dashing through the game without exploring showed me how much of Stray is scripted. This isn’t a slight, but when you are racing the clock it can slowly build tension. I wasn’t expecting that. Passing through the final door, I kept waiting for the ‘I am Speed’ trophy to pop.

It doesn’t appear when you pass through the final door. I looked when Stray takes control away from you for the last scripted section – nothing. I began wondering if I had taken longer than I thought to finish the last two chapters. Had I messed up the run when I was so close to finishing the last Stray trophy?

Nope. It was the developers messing with me. I have played horror games with less tension than the last couple of minutes of waiting for this trophy!

Now that I have the Platinum, I still don’t think I am finished with Stray. I may do one more playthrough, or at least show a friend a couple of chapters. I can’t picture any DLC or anything appearing for Stray. The story is done, at least in its current form.

A follow-up game in the same universe is a possibility. Take control of one of the robotic Outsiders making their way in the new world? Or you could play as the same cat meeting up with the now free robots. Stray has a lot of sequel possibilities, but nothing quick to drop in that I can see.

It will be interesting to see what BlueTwelve Studio comes up with next, even if it’s not related to Stray. But if you haven’t played it, I do encourage you to try it out. Watching someone else play Stray on Twitch or YouTube will let you enjoy the story. Actually playing though is a different experience. If you get the chance to play Stray, I highly recommended it.