Stray Game Review: Nails Feline Experience, as Cat Jumps and Slinkers Through a Dystopian World

gadgets.ndtv.com:

In Stray — out Tuesday on PC, PS4, and PS5 — humans are nowhere to be seen. They have either left for another world, or have perished as a species. You can piece together bits and parts that Stray feeds you across its narrative. Though the humans are gone, their fingerprints are all over the world of Stray, a cyber city enclosed under a giant dome that brought to my mind Zion from The Matrix. You're safe within its confines, but dangers lurk — or rather, zurk. I'll explain that in a minute — everywhere outside of it. And just like in the Wachowskis' seminal movie, the outside world, the one that's open to the sky, is considered to be uninhabitable in Stray.

According to developer BlueTwelve Studio, it will take you about eight hours to play Stray in full, and 10 hours maximum if you're a completionist.

The hours I spent in Stray were all largely spent inside the game's dome world, which is inhabited by lanky AI robots with screens as faces, who I imagine were also designed by the missing humans. They take after their creators in many ways, be it feeling cold, wearing clothing, or living in apartments that feel reminiscent of ours. They have even divided themselves into various roles and occupations. There's a guardian, a weaver, a barkeep, a programmer, a market seller, and trash scavengers. Others are happy to just toss paint buckets from one roof to another. For all intents and purposes, the robots are the humans on Stray.

And in the middle of all this is you — a cat. If you didn't already know / the cover image didn't give it away, Stray puts you in control of a stray cat who somehow finds its way into the dome world. Very early on, you will be gifted with a floating droid companion in B-12, who helps you carry an