A review of the adventure based on Stray, cats and cyberpunk

He’s a stray cat trying to save the world, and it doesn’t matter whether he realizes it or not: Stray has a lot of heart, and it’s refreshing to think about the guys on the French development team. BlueTwelve Studio The creators of this small but big adventure managed to bring such a story to the screen without getting lost along the way.

In fact, the concept of getting lost and then finding oneself represents one of the keys to interpreting the game, an artistic aspect that examines its brilliant narrative, extremely captivating atmospheres, and real photographs in action as we traverse the sometimes decadent, sometimes disturbing scenarios. This forms the background of the countryside.

So what was the story of the stray cat trying to save the world? We tell you about it in this thread Stray’s review.

History

this hero of Stray obviously doesn’t have a name: an orange-haired cat living in a peaceful cat colony near an abandoned sewer system. But one day something goes wrong, the cat falls into a sewer and finds herself in pain and isolation, with no idea how to get back to her friends.

Suddenly one of the heavy metal doors of the tunnels opens, the cat enters the gate and thus enters the Dead City for the first time. adjustment The adventure that a series of messages on the monitors intrigues him until he meets the B-12, a small drone equipped with a sophisticated artificial intelligence.

Android is helpless on its own lost memoriesA clue that can bring him back to his master, thereby forming an unprecedented alliance with the cat wearing a special harness, and taking it upon himself to carry him around in search of information and exploit their ability to interact with the cat. cat. ‘environment. But it soon becomes clear what the city’s problem is and what is happening to its residents.

The Zurks, small but dangerous lifeforms, actually controlled the boundaries of this perpetually dark and collapsing place, preventing its inhabitants from escaping. Only the life of a group of people who have agreed to transfer their consciousness into themselves over time can be called life. robotic objects?

Centuries have passed since this change, but no one has ever stopped dreaming of looking up at the starry sky overlooking the Dead City, which is actually just the ceiling of a gigantic metal structure: these are BeyondA handful of androids are determined to reach the Beyond to discover what lies behind this bleak appearance.

What drives the story in a certain way is his meeting with one of them, Momo: he wants to return from the cat colony we control, and this corresponds to Oltreggiosi’s ambitions, which makes him a junior honorary member of this special group. club. However, succeeding in the venture will not be simple or painless, as we will discover in the twelve chapters that make up Stray’s campaign. duration It works for about five hours or more, depending on the collections collected.

Gameplay

under your profile Gameplay, BlueTwelve Studio’s title emerges as an experience focused on narrative from the very beginning, so it’s not too demanding in an absolute sense, but can also feature well-established mechanics, it’s almost always very solid; Starting with platforming, which uses open-world specific solutions to keep the character connected to platforms until you press X to jump to another handle.

The system works very well and highlights a clear potential in a short time, but this is only expressed up to a certain point: there is a feeling that, like other aspects of the experience, the small development team is well aware of its limitations and chooses not to do so. dare a lot very simple environmental puzzlessome crazy chases but not too many cases of creation and delivery of relatively trivial objects, some code to decipher, and very little.

Of course, considering that we are facing the debut project of the French team, it is really surprising to perceive such a man. degree of foresightso much so that the sequences where the game loses some clarity, often when you find yourself running around being chased by the Zurks, are minimized and don’t affect the overall great impression.

We find many small ones built into this frame. gifts for cat ownerssurprisingly realistically reproduced and moves that see the protagonist of the adventure get their nails done on carpets and sofas, jump into a box (especially in the stealth stages, it worked in Metal Gear Solid after all…), rubbing against the legs of various characters, put them in a paper bag and take a nap turn to.

Technical realization and artistic direction

Stray’s best value is without a doubt excellent artistic direction Accompanying every transition, as we mentioned at the beginning, we are faced with real photographs in motion, extremely evocative and fascinating. Nothing is left to chance, the animations are very well done and the color choices look as precise as they are varied, helping to maintain a solid atmosphere throughout the game.

Beyond some typical themes of the vein cyberpunkIn BlueTwelve Studio’s title, we found clear references to games like Inside (without reaching that level of horror) and the great classic Flashback, as well as many Alita and AI – Artificial Intelligence movies. The developers have demonstrated remarkable talent, and if this is their debut, we look forward to learning what they can do in the future, perhaps with more resources.

L’rambling aesthetic It is an indication of how it is possible to achieve extraordinary results by staying away from triple A productions. The work done in this sense is truly admirable.

Moreover PlayStation 5 graphics are moving at 60fps, plenty of screen space reflection and very little ambiguity, which we already know will be fixed with the launch patch.

when it comes sound chamberthe protagonist’s meows are the smallest part of the sound design, here, too, they are supported by ambient music that is stylish and robust, which very well interprets the mood of the experience and also contributes to the creation of certain atmospheres.