July 30, 2022
00:15
This feline ride in a cyberpunk universe is unforgettable. Bonus: cats have never been so sublimated in a video game.
Those allergic to cats – literally and figuratively – will have a hard time remaining insensitive to the feline charms of “Stray”. From the first minutes, we melt: four cats take shelter from a storm in what seems to be an abandoned industrial plant. We embody one of them. The moment is tender, poetic. And the animations of the quadrupeds shout their love for cats as they ring true.
We give two or three strokes, we rub, we lick our ears. The four critters end up snuggling up against each other and waiting for calm. The PlayStation controller, equipped with speakers, begins to vibrate and purr. Magical.
The objective of the game, of course, will be to find the lost surface and pack.
Then, with the calm, comes the time to hit the road. Nothing is known of their destination. The places are deserted. Vegetation has long regained its rights in this world that humans seem to have abandoned. We jump from fence railings, we cross boards and pipes. And the accident occurs.
After a terrible fall, the little ball of fur that we embody finds herself separated from the rest of the gang. Isolated, underground, stuck in what looks like an underground city, she hobbles through the waste. The objective of the game, of course, will be to find the lost surface and pack.
Solve environmental puzzles
As he makes his way through, the little red cat finds himself chased by a horde of critters with an insatiable appetite. After a sequence, a bit tense, of headlong rush, he meets a small amnesiac drone who will accompany him and with whom he will befriend. A few new adventures later, we land in a city inhabited by a humanoid robot company and visibly endowed with conscience.
Seeing the cat land, they take to their heels. Normal, the only animals they meet are the voracious creatures that we met earlier and with whom they confused us. Fortunately, our flying companion can speak the robot, and the cat. He will therefore serve as an interpreter for a good part of the six-hour adventure.
With feline phlegm, the hero goes come to the aid of the metal inhabitants trapped in this underground urban ruin. To do this, you will have to solve a series of environmental puzzles: tipping a bucket to block the blades of a fan, distracting a robot so that it drops a can of paint which, in its fall, will open a new passage. The simple puzzles of “Stray” are not likely to fry the slightest neuron.
The great success of the game consists in discovering these particularly rich and vertical environments through the eyes of a little cat.
On the other hand, they very often ask, and this is the most pleasurable, to play tag: drop an object balanced on a shelf, walk around on the keyboard of a computer in order to enter an insane command, etc We can also, it is useless, but reinforces the immersion, scratch left and right or do what cats do best: nap. In these moments of absolute calm, the game camera zooms out and gives a panorama of the place around us.
And what places! “Stray” is a real visual treat. The cities we explore honor the canons of “cyberpunk“. For example, the sunlight never reaches the shallows of the dilapidated city. Anyway, in this society of somewhat hippie robots, the outside world is only a postcard, a fantasy forever inaccessible. A religion even. Instead of natural light, the robotic inhabitants have to make do with colorful neon signs. These colors stand out in the heavy, dense and cold atmosphere of the submerged city. We are not in “Blade Runner”, but not far.
©Stray
Impeccable artistic direction
The great success of the game consists in discovering these particularly rich and vertical environments through the eyes of a little cat. The hero of “Stray” can count on his agility to move with ease in the twisted alleys. A stack of crate becomes a handy platform to reach an air conditioning fan and then sneak across the rooftops through a gutter.
Developed by BlueTwelve Studio
Published by Annapurna Interactive
Available on Playstation console and PC. Price: 30 euro
Note from L’Echo:
Only downside, not everything is climbable and you can only jump the objects indicated by the interface. Impossible to understand why we do not land on such and such an object when we have already made much more perilous jumps. And the times when you find yourself on a roof when you wanted to touch the ground are not uncommon.
“Stray” can count on an irreproachable artistic direction. Both in terms of the decorations and the perfectly transcribed facial expressions of the four-legged companions. Unfortunately, the story, which we would have hoped was richer, ends up biting its tail. Its sets have more to tell than its scenario. But that doesn’t detract much from the magic of the start of the ride. She leaves an unforgettable memory.
A bit creepy at times
If it is difficult to resist the charm of its protagonist, his facial expressions and his meows, “Stray” is not just a cute ride in a particularly successful futuristic universe. The game allows itself indeed some more glaucous scenes. Without being terrifying, some environments happily veer into “body horror” and are reminiscent of “The Thing” by John Carpenter. These passages denote in relation to the rest of the adventure.