Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to play Stray as soon as the game came out. Therefore, I completed the game only recently and I am expressing my opinion about it with some delay. But nevertheless:
Actually, what can we say about the game??
This is a game in which the main character is a cat. What else do you need?? All. Game 10 out of 10. Dot.
Actually, not quite like that. Although it’s close! 🙂
We play, I repeat as a red cat, and the game begins with the fact that it allows us to enjoy the company of our furry friends, play with them and go to bed. Then this furry team goes on a journey, but at some point our charge jumps onto a very precariously secured pipe and falls down somewhere. Here, after Ryzhik (that’s what I’ll call the cat) licks his wounds, his adventures begin.
We will meet deceptively cute, but in fact very dangerous creatures called Zurks (suspiciously similar to headcrabs from Half-Life) and visit various areas inhabited by robots (in the game they are called companions, but for the sake of familiarity I will continue to call them robots) of the game world.
At first, we follow the clues that appear on electronic devices that cry out to a stray cat for help. Having reached the goal, we discover artificial intelligence and help it gain “flesh” in the form of a cute B12 drone.
It turns out that B12 has had most of his memories erased. When he sees a picture depicting the nature of the world outside the underground city quarters, he remembers that a catastrophe occurred there. And from the fact that our Ryzhik comes from this world, B12 concludes that the consequences of the disaster have passed and it is possible to bring the city’s population to the Outside (that’s what they call the world outside the inhabited territory). This is the plot of the story.
Well, all our subsequent https://denderacasinoonline.co.uk/bonus/ actions are aimed, firstly, at restoring the memories of B12 and, secondly, at getting out to the Outside.
With the second goal, we are helped by a group of enthusiasts who, even before our appearance, made every effort to get out to the Outside. In fact, they even call themselves outsiders.
The name outsiders is funny in itself. This is usually the name of losers who take last place in any competition. There’s a play on words here. On the one hand, the members of this group are considered losers and dreamers. But on the other hand, in the in-game world, the word itself does not have a negative connotation, since although robots have adopted the behavior model from the people who created them, they still cannot follow them in absolutely everything.
Visually the game looks very beautiful. Even if this is not the pinnacle of technology in the field of game graphics, everything looks very organic and alive. Our Ryzhik looks the most lively, the animations of which are simply gorgeous, with the exception of some minor oversights in the animation transitions, which, however, do not appear often and do not spoil the impressions.
Our Ryzhik can walk, run, jump, lap up water, rub against the legs of his companions, sharpen his claws (thereby damaging furniture), meow, sleep, misbehave (tipping over and breaking things laid out on shelves and tables), and also carry various objects.
However, at any time and in any place, we can only walk, run, misbehave and meow. Other actions are contextual. So, for example, you can only jump in places provided by the game.
Does this contextual action spoil the game?? I find it difficult to say. For some it undoubtedly spoils it, as it deprives the player of freedom of action. But it seems to me that the game was created not only for people who already have gaming experience behind them. And also for people who are not really familiar with games, to give them the opportunity to get positive emotions from controlling Ryzhik.
That’s why the game is so intuitive and, overall, quite simple. Both in terms of game mechanics and in terms of game difficulty. By the way, there is no choice of difficulty (so it’s also souls-like, haha!).
Personally, I just accepted the rules of the game and enjoyed it.
What do we have to do throughout the game, in terms of gameplay??
Until we reach the first settlement – the Slums, we are just moving forward and saving ourselves from headcrabs. Well, we’re also helping artificial intelligence take on flesh in the “face” of the B12 drone.
But once we reach the Slums, our scope of activity expands, as an exploratory element of gameplay appears here. You can search for memories to expand your knowledge of the game world and replenish B12’s memory of your personality. You can complete the tasks of some local robots to obtain purely collectible items, which are only displayed as badges on our Ryzhik’s harness, without giving any additional game benefits. It’s not at all necessary to do this, but you don’t want to miss them at all. You can “chat” with most robots. And most of them will get away with ordinary phrases, but some may say something interesting or funny. Likewise, you can provoke a reaction from others by meowing or rubbing against your legs. And in Midtown, you can jump on a robot lying on a bench and curl up on its “chest” with a purr (isn’t it cute?).
Well, besides this, do not forget about the main task. First you have to find one of the members of the Outsiders group, and then help him in every possible way in finding other members of the group and in achieving a common goal.
In terms of contextual action, the game can be compared to classic quests. But without the perverted logic of obtaining the desired result, which many of them suffered from, and without pixel hunting, which the vast majority of them suffered from. It’s very easy to understand what needs to be done to get this or that result. And even if you took a break from the game, forgetting about what you need to do at this particular moment, you can ask B12 about this, who will carefully remind you of the current goal.
In general, in the main plot, everything is quite simple. But to complete all the side activities, you will still have to work a little hard, since some of the items needed to complete the side activities are hidden quite cleverly.
To prevent the player from getting bored from exploration, these stages are alternated with combat forays into places inhabited by headcrabs. And towards the end of the game, even elements of stealth appear, when you have to hide from tracking drones that interfere with the mission.
At a certain point, we will even be given a weapon to destroy headcrabs, developed by a character whom others call Doc and who is an explicit reference to Emmett Brown, the scientist from the Back to the Future film trilogy.