Summary
- Stray impressed with its immersive portrayal of a cat's movements and emotions in a cyberpunk world.
- The marriage of an adorable cat protagonist and cyberpunk undertones in Stray created a fascinating world.
- BlueTwelve's challenge lies in maintaining Stray's charm in a potential sequel before the original slips into obscurity.
BlueTwelve and Annapurna’s Stray was everything it needed to be when it came out—a cute cat game with a surprising emotional depth in its story and character-to-character interactions. Stray doesn’t necessarily set itself up as franchise material since its story is fairly microcosmic and self-contained, but that doesn’t mean BlueTwelve shouldn’t keep its thumb on that pulse to capture lightning in a bottle a second time.
Stray could’ve easily been overlooked if it wasn’t for how greatly immersive it was in how it portrayed the cat’s movements and sensibilities. The same could surely be done for any kind of animal, whether BlueTwelve wishes to create another dystopian sci-fi world or not, and there’s limitless potential with such a premise while it is still largely niche and untouched. The intrigue of playing as an adorable cat hasn’t quite run dry yet and BlueTwelve is hopefully able to take advantage of that before it’s a concept that isn’t interesting or novel anymore.
Stray: How to Sleep for An Hour
Learn how to sleep for an hour in Stray for the Productive Day achievement.
Stray Has Greater Potential Than a Dystopian One-Off
Indeed, while Stray’s authentic cat protagonist was undoubtedly its star and the indie game’s primary allure, its cyberpunk aesthetic, tone, and landscape were runner-ups in terms of a fascinating world-building approach. ‘Cyberpunk’ isn’t a niche subgenre anymore by any stretch of the imagination, but Stray’s stood out as a wonderful backdrop.
Robot NPCs made for quirky conversations and creative fetch quests, let alone surprising and subtle pieces of social commentary like poignant depictions of police brutality.
Again, these aren’t emergent ideas, and yet they are presented in exciting and fresh ways, perhaps aided by the fact that it’s all seen from the tiny perspective of a cat. That won’t always be engaging, though, and BlueTwelve shouldn’t let too much more time pass before it capitalizes on how lovely Stray was.
Stray’s Adorable Gimmick is a Hit or Miss
Stray might end up being perfectly encapsulated as a single game that managed to impress with elementary controls and a ton of heart. It could feasibly be difficult for BlueTwelve to iterate on Stray in any meaningful way now because either end of the spectrum could be egregious: either a sequel sticks closely to how gameplay was designed in Stray’s puzzle-platformer and is perceived as benign or ‘copy-and-paste,’ or attempts to add a bunch of mechanics and becomes overstuffed to the point of not maintaining the original’s charm.
Even Stray might not have landed with everyone; if players didn’t find playing as a cat endearing at all it wouldn’t interest them in the slightest to play a highly similar sequel, for example. There’s no telling whether playing as a different animal in Stray 2 would have the same success or not. However, the marriage of all elements in Stray was cohesive enough to craft an experience that could be tough to outdo in a direct sequel.
That said, it would be entirely transparent if Annapurna simply wanted to cash out on Stray with another gimmick game that doesn’t have nearly as much substance and it would probably be best for the Stray IP and its adorable niche to be shelved indefinitely if that was the alternative. A Stray sequel might not be a strong enough contender to go up against any of the 2025 colossi like Grand Theft Auto 6 or Monster Hunter Wilds, but it could scratch an indie itch that turned out to be fairly quaint and enjoyable in its original outing so long as it doesn’t allow the original to pass into obscurity beforehand.
Stray
- Released
- July 19, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
Lost, alone and separated from family, a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten city.
Stray is a third-person cat adventure game set amidst the detailed, neon-lit alleys of a decaying cybercity and the murky environments of its seedy underbelly. Roam surroundings high and low, defend against unforeseen threats and solve the mysteries of this unwelcoming place inhabited by curious droids and dangerous creatures.
See the world through the eyes of a cat and interact with the environment in playful ways. Be stealthy, nimble, silly, and sometimes as annoying as possible with the strange inhabitants of this mysterious world.
Along the way, the cat befriends a small flying drone, known only as B-12. With the help of this newfound companion, the duo must find a way out.
Stray is developed by BlueTwelve Studio, a small team from the south of France mostly made up of cats and a handful of humans.
