Stray is the [i]purr[/i]fect proof that sometimes all a game needs is a beautiful world and one orange menace knocking everything off the shelves.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3776503425
In Stray, you play as a [i]very[/i] good boy [b]=ↀωↀ=[/b]. You are a small orange cat living with a group of other cats in the remains of a world long abandoned by humans. Things start peacefully enough. You walk around with your little cat family, headbutt against them, play with them, its very cute! Then one badly placed paw changes everything. You fall deep into the ruins below and become separated from the other cats. Alone in a strange underground city, your main goal is simple: Find a way back home. Naturally, things get slightly more complicated once mysterious robots and some very hungry leeches enter the picture.
What caught me most about Stray is just how easy it is to get lost in its world. The city is beautiful, and full of little details. There are neon signs everywhere, robots trying to live normal lives, hidden rooms and secrets to find, rooftops to climb and small stories tucked away in unexpected places. You also eventually meet a tiny robot companion called B-12, who helps you understand the world around you and gives the story much more heart than I expected from a game where my main boy occasionally stops everything to scratch a rug.
And besides scratching carpets and couches, you can knock objects from shelves, jump onto tables, crawl through tiny spaces, rub against peoples legs, sleep in comfortable spots... [i](and generally become a furry public nuisance)[/I]. Some of these actions help you solve puzzles. Others achieve absolutely nothing, but I can tell you theres so much satisfaction to knocking of a can of paint from a rooftop and watching it splatter all over.
Then there is the most important feature in the entire game: There is a button dedicated entirely to meowing. I probably pressed it more than a thousand times. Walking down a street. [b]Meow[/b]. Meeting someone new. [b]Meow[/b]. Solving a puzzle. [b]Meow[/b]. Being chased by horrible creatures. [b]Panicked meowing[/b]. Standing in an empty room with absolutely no reason to make a sound. [b]Meow[/b]. Even better, my real Siamese cat started answering the cat on the screen. So at some point I was controlling a cat that was meowing at my cat, who was meowing back at the cat. Technology has peaked. [b]˃ᆺ˂[/b]
Stray is also very easy to get into, even if you do not play many games. The controls are simple, jumping is forgiving and the game usually makes it clear where you can go. You do not need perfect timing every time you leap between rooftops, since the cat handles most of the actual jumping for you. There are a few chase scenes, stealth sections, environmental puzzles and later enemies that force you to carefully plan where you move. None of it becomes brutally difficult, though.
[b]Steam deck:[/b] Works perfectly!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3778225843
[b]Highly recommended[/b]. Stray may be a small adventure, but it leaves one hell of a paw print behind. Yep, Stray earns its place among the cool cats.
