A near purr-fect cyberpunk platformer that never strays to far off the beaten path
Platform: PS4/5 & PC
I need to preface this review by saying: I am a dog guy. Since getting wee Nugget for my 2nd birthday, I haven’t gone a year of my life without man’s best friend. I mean I even loved Dog’s life, do we remember smell-o-vision !?
All of that is to say, I didn’t go into this game with the feline tinted glasses some downright dishonest cat lovers did. I’m the opposite. I wanted to hate the little furball. So, you can take my word for it when I say that this cat-former is an absolute delight. It may be a fleeting fun time at 5/6 hours but his fits the simple gameplay and tight level design to a T as games like this can drag if they overstay their welcome.
The game opens with you and your cat posse exploring the outside world. Right away you get the sense of a post-apocalyptic setting: broken down buildings, vegetation reclaiming the world and an eerie silence. While you are topside the game really emphasizes the “Last of us” feel, only this time the last of us seem to be four cats. You and your buddies get separated as you fall into the depths of “walled city 99”, cities that were built to stave off the fall of humanity. This was clearly a failure as all that inhabits the city now are robots and the only real enemy of the game: “Zurgs”. Little is known about where these one eyed critters came from but it is clear that they played a part in the downfall in humanity and have now developed a taste for metal. From here, spoiling as little as possible you climb your way from the dark slums to a neon lit city of robots in an attempt to help the “outsiders” and get back to the real world with your mysterious drone buddy, B-12.
Throughout the various stages of this prison city is where Blue Twelve’s level design really shines. You start in the Slums where all but all light has been snuffed out, the streets littered with robot remains, you instantly get the feeling something terrible is happening here. As you move up the levels you soon see the robots living like more of a society: some work painting buildings, fixing tech, trading goods and even get “oiled up” at the bar as you walk around knocking over every bottle in sight like the menace to society you are. The world gradually brightens as you move up the levels, neon signs everywhere as robots rebel to use them to recreate the sunlight they have lost trapped down here. By the latter stages you are in full on cities complete with clothes shops, nightclubs and a Police force complete with Robo-jails for any naughty bots. The cyberpunk future they have crafted just makes you pause and marvel every time you enter a new area. The game also has a futureistic aesthetic all it’s own. Clearly set in a time with technology far beyond our own, yet every computer you see looks Windows 98 at the newest with block monitors and pixelated text on every screen. It almost takes a similar approach to Fallout and Borderlands games, placing you firmly in the future but maintaining a retro feel and it works to perfection in this cyberpunk world.
This unique style is so well complimented by the music, epic drum beats adding to the discovery when you enter a new area for the first time, sleeping next to a robot playing music on his jerry can guitar after you gave him some old world music, almost airhorn like sirens blaring when Zurgs are chasing you that makes you feel as uneasy as the cat must be. Just excellent work everywhere.
Last of all and probably one of my only sticking points with the game is the gameplay. The platforming is fun enough, X to jump onto a crate then on to a higher crate to walk across a pipe, par for the course for platformers. The added layer of being tiny adds more depth as you sneak through bars in doors, under sewer drains, in tiny windows. Small cat into small space is fun, I am a simple man. I have zero issue with the traversal, it is always satisfying and flying around the city on a little “bucket zipline” is amazing. My real sticking point was the lack of danger throughout. Sentinels are serviceable in the stealth sections but the Zurgs never really get off the ground. There is five minute segment where you get a “light gun” to fight them off but once that is done the Zurgs start to feel like a bit of a footnote despite being the big bad of the story and seemingly contributing to the fall of humanity. There is also once or twice when you fall from the height of the Blackpool tower, lick your paw and move on like your Ethan Winters. I know I have nine lives but I can limp for longer than 30 seconds.
These very minor nitpicks aside, I had an amazing 5-hour slice of fun with Stray. Rare in the open world centric place we find ourselves in gaming right now. Perfect from a platformer standpoint, a heartfelt story about the need for companionship and a dedicated meow button. What’s not to love? The many unanswered questions in the endgame leave me certain of a sequel.
RM RECOMMENDS
+ Purr-fect platforming
+Stunning art style
+ Heartfelt story
+Amazing visuals
- Never any REAL danger
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