Stray, a 2022 adventure game developed by BlueTwelve Studio and published by Annapurna Interactive, follows a stray cat who accidentally falls into a walled city populated by robotic machines and mutant bacteria, and needs a drone friend, B-12, to help him return to the surface.

Gameplay

The game is played from a third-person perspective. Players can travel through the game world by climbing obstacles and jumping across platforms, and may also manipulate the environment to create new routes. The player may collect items throughout the world and hack electronics to solve puzzles. The Zurks and Sentinels, which want to kill the player, must be kept at bay throughout the game. Players also have the choice to have their character engage in activities such as dozing off, vocalizing and snuggling up to non-playable characters, most of which will usually evoke a reaction. Several levels possess open-world features, allowing gamers to move freely.

Story

A group of four cats make their way through the remnants of an abandoned facility. Unfortunately, one of them slips down a crevasse that leads to an uninhabited subterranean city. In a lab there, the cat assists in loading an AI into the body of a tiny drone which names itself B-12. It informs that it had previously aided a scientist, but it has lost much of its memory and needs time to recover it. B-12 pledges to help the cat return to the surface, and they continue to explore. To their surprise, the city, although completely unoccupied by humans, still has robotic slaves, Companions, who have attained self-awareness and constructed their own society among the ruins. However, they are also confined underground, and the ruins are infested with Zurks, germs that have evolved to consume both living creatures and robots.

How long is Stray?

In terms of the primary objectives, it usually takes about 5 hours to finish Stray. Nevertheless, if you’re an avid gamer who wants to thoroughly explore every element of the game, you can anticipate spending roughly 10 hours to reach complete 100% progress.

Reception

The reception of Stray was largely positive. Reviewers complimented the visuals and art direction, with some noting its effective use of lighting. The combat scenes, however, were more divisive; most deemed them nail-biting and thrilling.

At the 40th Golden Joystick Awards, Stray was declared the PlayStation Game of the Year, and was given the Most Innovative Gameplay prize at the Steam Awards. For The Game Awards 2022, it was selected for six awards, including Game of the Year and Best Game Direction.

The game was hugely successful, becoming Steam’s top game of 2022 with almost 2 million copies sold.