In Stray you play as a cat in an apocalyptic world. At it’s heart Stray is a game of exploration, discovery and lots of meowing.

What’s good?

You get to play as a cat! Seeing the world from the street level is a unique perspective in this game that keeps things interesting.

The puzzles are mostly enjoyable to solve and there’s a few bits to discover about the world, what happened and the general state of things.

I enjoyed sections running from the Zurks as these really played into the feeling of a tiny animal trying to escape using means that would not be open to a regular person. Also the areas with the Sentrys were great, but too short lived.

What’s bad?

I found the exploration of populated areas become mundane quite fast. With the usual quests being “Go find X” I never really found it obvious where the item might be, leaving me to ask a lot of the characters in the areas for directions, usually only to be given the same answer.

I can’t say I was ever lost for too long, but there were definitely moments where I felt I would rather be doing something meaningful with my life rather than trying to find a workers hat.

How much did I play?

I completed the main game but avoided a few of the side quests of trying to find out more about the world.

Conclusion

Stray was not the game I expected it to be. Brought in by the concept of being able to play as a cat, but in actuality it felt more like I was playing as the robot B-12 stuck in the body of a cat. A big part of me would have preferred something more akin to the fluidity Assassins Creed free running in cat form. Overall I did find parts of the game enjoyable but I’m not in any hurry to revisit the world to see what I might have missed.