For the greater part of four decades, PLATFORMING GAMES have stayed with the tried-and-true model of placing the player in the shoes of a two-legged humanoid. However, BlueTwelve Studio places the player in the shoes (or paws) of a beautiful orange stray cat.

The premise of Stray is that you are on a quest to find your family in a grim and gloomy sci-fi environment, without giving away too much of the plot.

The platforming genre is made to feel like a brand-new batch of catnip in a superb way by Stray. The energizing dynamics of the game will have you fully embracing your furry form as you effortlessly move through gaters, make unbelievably long jumps like a cat, and do much more. You control a little yet agile feline in this game.

Yes, there is indeed a wonderful “Meow” button that is specifically designated in this game too.

For dedicated cat lovers, Stray is a must have

The dystopian future shown in Stray is a strange glimpse into a world where humans are unheard of, robots are all around, and your meows can accomplish amazing things. The planet has a striking appearance, and the brief voyage is filled with lovely atmospheric music. It takes four to six hours to complete the whole game.

You get to explore the location and learn about the story as you go from the sewer of the city to the penthouses at the top of the tallest skyscrapers on this planet with a lot of verticality. You bring a little cute lightheartedness to the otherwise terrifying and scary world since you are a cat.

You can even do cat-specific behaviors in the game, such as cramming yourself into a bucket to travel across a zipline and rapidly scratching rugs (in addition to using the Meow button). At various points during the game, I had to actually pause and utter the word “Aww!”

To see how well the game’s cat realism would stand up, I also allowed a true cat lover to play it and solicited her feedback. She was having a wonderful time. This cat owner found the cat’s movements and behavior in the game to be quite realistic.

Even the interactions between the cats—snuggling affectionately or arching their backs at times of danger—felt remarkably real. Anybody who spends time around cats will be able to recognize the sounds your character produces when leaping or exerting themselves.

Cats detest it when anything does not feel balanced, therefore according to my cat consultant, the only thing that would be unreasonable for a cat to achieve would be to remain completely calm while moving up and down or ziplining in the bucket.

The main character of Stray is actually Murtaugh, a stray cat that BlueTwelve Studio creators adopted after finding him on the streets of Montpellier, France. I could not help but adore the creators of Stray even more after learning this.

This game ought to be at the top of your list of must-play games in 2022 if you love cats. If you are on the fence about picking it up, Stray is a brief but charming tale about a cat that must navigate a cyberpunk society to find his way home.

The word “open-world” becomes trite as rotten fish when it is used in every other game today, even when the experience is largely a linear affair. Although there is no spoken dialogue in Stray, the game’s end-to-end experience gives it more life and panache, and the plot nevertheless manages to touch you on the inside.

Our conclusion? It is well worth your time to play Stray, which is currently available for the PC, PS4, and PS5. It’s a great game with a very low price.