Stray Could Only Exist As A Video Game, And That's Worth Celebrating
The question of ‘what is a video game’ is a broad one. I’d argue it’s broader than ‘what is a movie’, ‘what is a television show’, ‘what is a book’, and ‘what is a song’. Video games are the largest mass market media - they take the longest both to make and to be experienced, which makes them difficult to pin down. Stray though is undoubtedly a video game, and that makes it a compelling - and joyous - experience.
Narratives in video games have gotten significantly stronger over the past decade and a half, but that’s introduced a new problem for gaming. A lot of our very best games now feel like movies. The Last of Us, God of War, and Ghost of Tsushima all follow similar emotional beats and as impressive as they are to play, they are all built with the desire to mimic the prestige of movies. Days Gone tries and falls short.
Related: Exclusive Interview: Murtaugh, The Cat From Stray
Red Dead Redemption 2 lets you make your own fun off the beaten path, but if you stick to the main story, it’s very obvious that it’s channeling film as a core inspiration. Val Kilmer’s Doc Holliday is a clear influence on Arthur Morgan, while Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch shapes the game in general. I think gaming’s growing maturity is a great thing, and RDR2 is one of my favourite games. There’s nothing wrong with taking influence from movies, even if Sony uses the same sort of movie too often, but it’s still so refreshing that Stray is every inch a video game.
There’s no real narrative here. To quote another famous Western: Narrative? We ain't got no narrative. We don't need no narrative. I don't have to show you any stinkin' narrative! The game is about a cat who falls into a robot city and has to get out again. That’s it. They have a
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