Stray is a Platformer Adventure game developed by BlueTwelve Studio. The platforming genre is nothing new and we have a ton of games in it. Whether you like platformer games like Mario or Sonic that are simply fun to play or games like Super Meat Boy or Celeste that give you a tough challenge, you won’t easily get tired of the genre. But when we add the genre of adventure the game gets even better. We already have seen games like these with Psychonauts 2 and Kirby and the Forgotten Land. And what better way to narrate your story than with the help of a classic Silent Protagonist? Stray is a game that does exactly that, it takes two of the best gaming genres and narrates a beautiful story with the help of a cat. So let us take a look at this review of Stray and why it is a game that you must play.
Stray Review
There are many things to love about this game starting with arguably one of the most adorable protagonists of all time. But allow me to break this review down into the three crucial parts that make up this game. Oh and the Story section of this review will contain some minor spoilers for this game. Now let us check it out.
Story
The story of this game begins with some cats that are playing around. There are 4 cats in the game and our cat gets separated from them and falls. And this fall is the event that starts everything. We begin our journey by just roaming around, learning about the new place that we fell into, and looking for a way out. And while the place is deserted for the most part we do come across mouse-like creatures. But these aren’t just any creatures but rather bacteria that can devour anything. As we continue our journey we come across a Robot B12, who similar to us, is looking to go back outside. And since our Cat and the new robot share the same goals we get a new companion.
Now, this is the part where the story begins to take an interesting turn in the story. While searching for the exit we come across a village with robots. Not the one like B12 but the ones that are bigger and more humanoid. And even though they are scared of us at the start our cat earns their trust in no time. This is where the main story begins, these robots are the ones through which we learn more about the exit, these mouse-like creatures known as Zurks, and the horrors that lie ahead.
Game mechanics
No matter how well written the story is a game can’t solely rely on it or its characters. And that is where this game’s mechanics come in, this platformer is quite beautifully designed. If I had to complain about something I would say it is the lack of freedom to jump. You can only jump when you are near platforms. Don’t get me wrong I get the level and world design, and also the fact that this is not a cat simulator. But when you have a cat this cute you definitely want to make it jump around on random things. But this complaint is more of a nitpick.
Speaking of cats and jumping I definitely loved the library safe puzzle. In it, you had to jump on books, because when you drop the entire pile of books fell. So it felt really nice, making a mess as a cat. And this was just one puzzle. The other parts like the one where you get the super detergent or simple things like using an empty can to stop a ventilation fan felt well designed.
Also, the story parts where you had to run around from the Zurks before getting the Defluxor added to the horror.
Theme
Lastly, one thing without which this review can’t be complete is appreciating this game’s theme. I’ll be honest when I started playing, I went in blank and for the love of cats. I did see some screenshots so it was easy to assume the game is in some cyberpunk universe. But what I did not expect is how well the story will justify it. The whole theme of a cat working together with robots to fight an unknown species hunting them works really well for the game. The game has a mellow start where you don’t know what to expect but then it takes a sad but beautiful turn when you meet the other robots. And the more you get to know the Robots, the more the game starts adding its darker elements.
Dell G15 Performance Review for Stray
Stray is a game that doesn’t have strong system requirements. Even if your PC is a year older or maybe even two, you should be able to play the game smoothly. In order to play it, you just need 8GB RAM. Intel i5 2nd gen processor or AMD FX-6350. And for your graphics card, it should have 2GB VRAM that should be at least Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti or AMD Radeon R7 360.
The laptop model we used for this review was Dell G15 which had AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with 16GB DDR4 RAM. And its graphics card was Nvidia RTX 3050 4GB. So you can expect the game ran perfectly with no issues.
To make sure we were pushing the game to its limits we decided to keep the resolution 1920×1080. All settings at high and Sharpness maxed out. And as you might assume the laptop had no problem handling it.
Here are the stats of the FPS and temperatures you can experience while playing Stray on this laptop:
- Average FPS: 76
- Maximum FPS: 104
- Average GPU Temperature: 80 degree Celsius
The only minor noticeable issue that you can face while playing this game is its fan. Although it wasn’t obnoxiously loud you certainly could notice it at times. But if you are immersed in the game, you won’t even notice that. And since this isn’t the most graphically strenuous game the laptop was more or less on the cooler side. So you shouldn’t expect it to heat up as you could for some other games. And we can easily say you should experience no problems while playing Stray on this laptop.
Verdict
As the title suggests, Stray is definitely a Platformer that you haven’t played before. Whether it is its story, puzzles, or its theme, you should find something to enjoy about it. You don’t even need to be a cat person to enjoy this game. Although if you do like dogs there is a mod for it that you can use for PC. And speaking of it, this game has some of the best mods and quite an active modding community. So if you are trying to complete the game 100% you will have plenty of reasons to. And even without mods, the game is simple but good enough that you can replay it whenever you feel like revisiting it. So if you are looking for some new game to play and just want to relax, then Stray is an easy recommendation.
That is all for my review of Stray. If you liked it and need help on deciding which other games to play check out our other Reviews, right here at Gamer Tweak.
