Stray improves adventure games by turning you into a cat

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There are many things in Stray that are similar to other adventure games. In order to avoid powerful enemies, you have to solve puzzles, navigate a dense urban environment, and use stealth. There are people to befriend. There is a key difference between Stray and itsTrademarkiaTrademarkiaTrademarkias. Stray feels refreshingly new because of the shift in perspective. You are still in a big, complex world, but now you can see it from the ground up. Everything is different from the exploration to the puzzles. It's one of the best games of the year so far, because of its mix of joy, sadness, and sometimes horror.

Stray is a game where you play as a cat that is separated from its feline friends at the beginning of the game and goes into a world populated by robots. The initial goal is to return to the surface. The quest becomes more than that quickly. The mysteries of the world begin to pile up as you are joined by a cute drone. You rise through the layers of robot society to learn more about the lives and history of humans. There is a swarm of bug-like monsters called the zurks. The machines are restricted to underground slums due to the fact that they have cute little cats.

A nice twist is provided by the story. It makes sense that your hero doesn't talk because it's a cat. Stray is a game where your actions do the talking and sometimes you can communicate via translation from your drone buddy. If you do favors big and small, you can help a grandpa knit a poncho out of electrical cords, or help a dad and son get together in a sewer. Stray's story is relatively short, but it covers a lot in the game's runtime, with themes ranging from wealth inequality to environmental disaster, not to mention the all-too- important fate of the cat itself.

Stray plays in different genres at different times. It takes a lot of time to figure out how to get around a very vertical city. The jump button is contextual, meaning you can only jump when you see an X on a ledge. It took me a while to get used to it, but it makes a lot of sense. You plan your course up or down a building or through a dangerous path in Stray as you move around. It is similar to watching a cat climb furniture and countertops to get to the top of a fridge.

Getting around involves a lot more than just planning the right route. It could be as simple as knocking down a plank of wood to build a bridge, but often they are more involved, with multiple steps that could require anything from repairing machines to scaringrobots with a well-placed meow. There is a button on the controller. This isn't a straight action game where you have a lot of options. Outside of a brief section of the game, you don't have a weapon, so all you can do is run, jump, meow, and perform other context sensitive actions like scratching a door or batting something off of a shelf. The experience is more about looking for clues and figuring out the best way to get to where you want to go. The fact that you're a cat with limited options and a ground-level viewpoint makes them feel very different in practice.

There are a few short action sequence which add tension to the experience. You can either run away or use a limited weapon to destroy the zurks early on in the game. These moments can be frightening, but they can also be frustrating. I had to memorize the patterns of the bugs in order to plot a safe escape. The game has a generous checkpoint system so that you don't have to replay large sections. The action shifts to stealth later on as you have to avoid ROBOTS in order to get in. hiding in cardboard boxes

The pace of Stray is impressive because you move back and forth between the action and adventures. I didn't feel like I had to spend a lot of time on one thing. As soon as a portion of the game felt boring, I was able to move on. The same thing happens for the story. As you move up through the various levels of the robot world and learn more about this not-implausible future, the stakes get higher. The end is sad.

Quiet moments are also part of the experience. You can just be a cat with Stray. You can lie down on a snoozing bot for as long as you want, make a mess of carpets and couches, or scratch up carpets. Sometimes these actions are necessary to solve puzzles, but more often than not, they are fun to mess around with and help get you in that cat mindset. One of the funniest moments in a game is when a cat puts on its harness.

Stray doesn't overstay its welcome. I played through the whole thing in two sittings because I couldn't put it down. You have an experience that scratches an itch I didn't know I had when you mix that carefully plotted narrative with a game that lets you meow on command.

The PS4 and PS5 will get Stray on July 19th.