The first attempts at Stray began in 2015, when the founders of BlueTwelve, Coolas Koola and Vivien Mermet-Guyenet, decided that after being hired under the aegis of Ubisoft, their next goal would be an independent project. After publishing the first graphics and getting the support of the then unknown publisher Annapurna Interactive, the team working on the game grew to five people, and the vision began to take real shape. Inspired by Blade Runner and Kowloon Walled City, the visuals and gameplay taken directly from the behavior of the creators’ cats, tightened together, aroused interest from the moment the game was announced in June 2022. Few, however, expected that the final effect would surpass any predictions.
Get away, but where?
The title stray is a male who lives with his family in the ruins of civilization and, as for the representative of Felis catusbefitting, his main activity is exploring the surroundings. It is unfortunate that during one of such sightseeing trips, our hero is separated from the group and ends up in a dead city – an endless sequence of rust-eaten and decaying buildings, inhabited only by robots showing dangerously many human features. The resourceful cat soon makes contact with one of them, devoid of most of the memory of the B-12, whose goal turns out to be surprisingly similar: finding a way out of the metropolis covered with eternal night. To do this, the two heroes will have to not only use their cleverness, but also learn the truth about the past of the extinct city and the fate of human civilization. And also – maybe – save what’s left of it.
While the above summary may seem a little bit exciting to science fiction buffs, Straynot necessarily the story itself – because if you analyze it from the general plan, this one is not the most complicated one. However, it is quite different with the presented world that supplements it. The creators managed the difficult art of telling stories with the help of the environment; in particular nooks and crannies of the location there is such a large amount of information that the story that took place far before the events of the game is its most fascinating element. Discovering new secrets not only makes pushing forward gain additional meaning, but despite the fact that they are based on motifs repeatedly used by pop culture, it evokes this special kind of longing for a utopia lost forever.
A land of eternal sorrow
Stray builds such feelings not only with the help of a well-thought-out lore, but also, to a large extent, an audiovisual setting. As the word was said at the beginning of the review, both the location design and the color palette are inspired by classic cyberpunk achievements, mixed with inspiration taken from a real city-ruin. The quality of the graphics of BlueTwelve’s production based on Unreal Engine 4 is not something that would redefine virtual entertainment, but it is thanks to the artistic intention that each of the several places has its own charm and is a unique blend of retro-futurism and post-apocalyptic elements.
The sensations intended for the eyes are an integral whole here with the extremely atmospheric soundtrack by Yann Van Der Cruyssen, considered to be one of the best this year. Music in Stray never stands out, but it plays a key role in creating a mood of reflection and a tangible feeling of communing with something that, although its glory is long behind it, is still worth saving. In other words, therefore, the coherence of the vision that the game wants to present to us is probably the key aspect that puts it at the forefront of this year’s productions.
Cat matters
It would be a mistake, however, to think that the value of Strayis limited only to the inevitable reflection, something filled with sadness – the opposite to this state of affairs is the gameplay itself, which allows you to do all the things that are appropriate for representatives of the cat family, which are presented on subsequent YouTube video compilations. In addition to jumping on the roofs of buildings and performing further tasks leading us to the end of the fun, we will also be able to throw paint cans, run on computer keyboards or piano keys, scratch carpets and sofas, and finally … sleep. Although they may seem trivial, all these little things give the feline hero authenticity and simply put a smile on his face – just in time for a more thorough exploration of the surroundings.
This, in turn, is the core of the game proposed by the production. As it happens with cats, we will be able to squeeze through places inaccessible to other heroes or find new paths leading to hidden locations. It is difficult to talk about the second Dishonored and its alternative ways to perform individual tasks, because Strayhowever, it is a much smaller and more linear thing, but within the scale proposed by him, it should be appreciated that “licking walls” in search of additional content is rewarded by the game. In addition to visiting individual places, we also have a few escape sequences, as well as a bit of combat. Although it is difficult to say that there are particularly many such gameplay cutscenes, they successfully achieve the assumed goal of diversifying the gameplay.
Successful escapade
In the electronic entertainment industry, we can find a bunch of items, the perfectly designed components of which create a whole much weaker than if considered separately. With Stray , it is almost exactly the opposite – while it is difficult to consider the game of the French developer as groundbreaking in any aspect, its strength lies in the matching of all the components. It can be debated whether we are really dealing with a production that deserves all the noise around it – but the red-haired cat cannot be denied that it knows exactly where it is going and … of course, it falls on its feet.
