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Stray wants to show there’s no such thing as curiosity killed the catExplore, scratch furniture and knock stuff over to your heart’s content
Explore, scratch furniture and knock stuff over to your heart’s content
Image credit:Annapurna Interactive
Image credit:Annapurna Interactive
When I look outside my window, I often see our two cats scrabbling up our back wall as they hop over the fence to visit the neighbour’s garden. Up and down they go, covering distances seemingly impossible for their tiny, wiry frames, yet without coming to any harm whatsoever. It’s an instinct the team at BlueTwelve Studio know all too well, having modelled their unnamed cat protagonist in their debut adventure gameStrayafter a couple of their own feline companions - and colleagues, it turns out.
STRAY | Release Date TrailerWatch on YouTube
STRAY | Release Date Trailer
BlueTwelve’s co-founders' cat Murtaugh is the main model for Stray’s ginger protagonist.
You’ll be using your agility and mischievous nature to explore and navigate this strange new environment, working out its rules and how you’re going to escape, Martin-Raget explains. However, one rather more mechanical rule you’ll come up against quite quickly when playing Stray is the limitation around your ability to jump. Your four-legged friend can only leap onto a platform when you see the safe assurance of a button prompt at your intended destination, you see, meaning you can’t accidentally fall to your death or miss a jump. Since our demo was hands off, it’s hard to say exactly how much this will affect the flow of our exploration when Stray finallylaunches on July 19th, but Martin-Raget tells us it was one of the only ways the team were able to prevent their playtesters from mis-reading the environment.
Well, hello to you as well.
“Quite early in the project, we moved away from classic platforming challenges. We did some tests with some people and seeing people constantly missing their jumps really didn’t feel cat-like, and the fantasy of being a cat that was in our mind was all about being smooth and being able to easily go where you want to, so we came up with this compromise of being able to have jumps in the game that are really easy to do but also allow for a lot of freedom. You’re still able to choose your path, you’re still able to go everywhere you want to go, but in a very smooth and agile way.”
In BlueTwelve’s defence, I’m not sure I’d fancy my chances navigating this robo city without that extra bit of help, either. Even through the slight haze of our Discord stream, it was clear that Stray’s cyber city was packed to the brim with small little details just waiting to be poked and pawed at. Boxes and bottles are scattered through alleyways and propped up on balconies, pipes stack and doubleback to create makeshift stairways, abandoned TVs blare out in a haze of static on rooftops, and buckets hang in the air on pieces of string, just waiting for a conveniently-sized passenger to send it plummeting downwards. As that old saying goes, if it fits, it sits.
A few UI prompts, then, are welcome additions in my eyes, especially when the rest of the screen is completely free of other HUD elements. The camera does a brilliant job of framing your cat’s journey through this mysterious world, but it’s not so rigid that you feel penned in. Indeed, while some sections of the city are more linear than others, its squares and main thoroughfares look to be tantalisingly open playgrounds to clamber about in. Most importantly, they look like completely natural, lived in places as well, not artifical creations designed for video game cats to waltz through unimpeded. Air conditioning units make for surprisingly handy ledges, for example, as do vending machines, awnings, gutter pipes, and metal barrels.
And the prize for best zipline in a game goes to…
You’re also not entirely alone on your journey. Early on, you’ll acquire a little backpack that houses a tiny robot pal called B-12. He’s your main conduit to understanding this world, allowing you to communicate with its resident robots as well as other bits of technology you’ll find around the city, such as translating signs and posters. But he also serves a practical purpose, providing objective reminders, a handy flashlight, and access to your growing inventory of items you’ll need to complete errands and various sidequests. After all, a cat’s got to havesomekind of pockets, right?
Evading a swarm of these pesky creatures forms one of Stray’s major escape sequences.
I didn’t get to see what these sidequests will really entail during my demo session. Aside from some classic fetchquests - bring a lost book back to particular robot, for example - this is where Stray will need to prove itself on release. While the world itself looks to be a fun place to roam around in, its lasting appeal will no doubt hinge on the reasons it gives us to go poking about in it.
So yes, consider my curiosity well and truly piqued. After two years of waiting, it looks like Stray is shaping up to be quite the substantial adventure, with Martin-Raget saying he expects a regular playthrough to last between 7-8 hours “at normal pace”, with completionists looking at something closer to 9-10 hours. That’s a lot bigger than I was expecting, in all honesty, although having now seen the city in action, it’s clear that BlueTwelve have put a lot of effort into making this place a fun and interesting setting to pass the time in. I’m also very much looking forward to shredding its wornout furniture, kneading its fleabitten carpets, fiddling about with its TV remotes and knocking over every single object in sight, because honestly, what else are you possibly going to be doing between quests and story missions when you’re such an adorable little fuzzball? Finally, we havea good cat in video games, so take note,fellow felines- this stray is looking to be the real cat’s meow.
