[Figure 1: Opening scene to Stray]“Most people don’t want to admit it because it’s dumb. But even standing by something creates closeness to a story.”
Stray is a single player adventure like game, where the player controls the actions of a stray cat within a walled city populated only by futuristic robots and some sort of mutant bacteria. The game is often referred to as a walking simulator by netizens, but does feature small puzzles and platform traversals. The game was announced in 2020 and released two years later after much anticipation, and quickly received reviews praising its creativity and narrative elements. The game is currently available for the PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and on Windows and macOS. Reviews claim the content is appropriate for players 8 and up, though different features of the game may feel more suitable for various age ranges, with the adventure aspect appealing to young audiences, main game with all the features appealing to young adults, and the political subtext intended for more mature audiences.
I played the game on a Windows PC trough a Steam download, making the graphics significantly larger and therefore much more immersive. The story begins with an emotionally elicit cutscene, with the player learning how to control the character (the cat) by interacting with what appears to be their family, before suddenly falling and becoming lost from them. This scene sets a premise to the player, causing them to feel emotional, abandoned, and lost, which may serve as a motivation for the narrative to follow. Much of the initial appeal of the game is immediately the graphics and unique art style, particularly as the player enters the futuristic world — an environment that appears to be once inhabited by humans and since abandoned.
By incorporating familiar elements to the player, such as buildings that contain furniture used by humans, streets that appear to connect parts of a human-made city, sewage systems, and more, the player is then further immersed in feelings of abandonment, as they traverse a dystopian world reminiscent of everything they know, now only populated by machines and a single cat.
[Figure 2: Chapter 2 scene depicting “The Dead City”]Then, immediately the player experiences the game as sense-pleasure, with stunning graphic quality, unique noises when bumping into objects, and even cute cat noises when jumping up and down platforms. The game also has some sort of make-believe aspect, with the player controlling a cat (arguably the most appealing feature of the game), and despite taking place in a world somewhat reminiscent of our own, the world feels foreign, providing the excitement of discovery along new territory.
I went into Stray completely blind to the underlying story line, though I did hear some netizens refer to it as cyberpunk and apocalyptic. The first 45 minutes of gameplay felt almost entirely like a walking simulator that included the ability to jump on nearby platforms to traverse through the world. There were some small puzzles here and there used to progress further, and a single escape scene in which the player has to avoid dying to mutant bacteria (where I learned it is actually possible to “die”, though you respawn at the last checkpoint), but for the most part I spend a big portion of the gameplay experiencing the world solely by walking through it.
The setting of Stray can appear at first glance to be open-world, but the physical boundaries are clear and tight to players, providing an extra layer of
support by making it impossible to get lost or take a wrong turn. This mechanic causes the game itself to feel very linear, as there is almost no room for side journeys along the way. Though the game spends a big portion at the beginning feeling like nothing more than a path to discovery, the player seems to slowly uncover an underlying narrative by observing their surroundings, forcing them to pay attention to or interact with the world around them.
[Figure 3: Player gains access to an inventory]Due to the linear feel of the game, there is some level design where players unlock new parts of the city, providing a feeling of progression. Later on in the game (~1 hour into gameplay), the player gets the opportunity to solve puzzles and become more immersed in the narrative, with new mechanics like an inventory, a support companion, and new quest. Despite the addition of cutscenes and added objectives, the player continues to walk along a predetermined path to “level progress”, forcing the narrative to unlock slowly alongside the adventure.
Though I’ve only played a handful of walking simulators, Stray stands out primarily due to character design, as players find themselves with the new ability to meow, stop and scratch on doors and rugs, and land on their feet when jumping from high places. The uniqueness of the world it takes place in also provides unique and appealing aesthetics to the player, making it attractive to all five senses while remaining very approachable to gamers at all levels of expertise.
[Figure 4: Example of platform traversal and spacebar mechanic involved]
Ethics Portion:
[Figure 5: First chase scene between player and zurks]I have played many video games that implement some form of violence on differing scales as both ways to drive the narrative and as an optional mechanic (e.g. killing zombies in TLOU as compared to slaying slimes in Stardew Valley). In Stray, the violent elements are similar to the latter example, with it being possible for the blob-like mutant bacteria (referred to as a “zurk”) to attack you and harm the character, and for the character to attack the bacteria causing them to explode into liquid. Because I went into Stray blind, I wasn’t aware of any of the mechanics or dynamics that would come into play. Though at first the environment is eerie in parts, causing me as a player to sometimes feel uneasy, the beginning of the game still somehow felt safe as I had no reason to be cautious over what lurked around the corner. During the scene where the player must escape the bacteria, I was aware it was a chase scene due to the change in music, but I didn’t know what the consequences of being caught were. Curiously, I let them overtake me and quickly died before respawning. Immediately, being aware this was a mechanic in play caused me to feel more anxiety, and a heightened sense of urgency to escape. Then, during the rest of my play through whenever there were groups of bacteria or other unfamiliar NPC’s I felt a sense of uncertainty and anxiety, anticipating another chase scene or need to escape the “level”. The inclusion of violence in Stray felt like a component that adds to the narrative, causing me as a player to question the purpose of the bacteria to the story, and why NPCs may see the player as a threat in their community. Though it is looked down upon to harm animals (particularly small ones) that are not harming you, this is not a norm in this community, indicating some connotation of fear around live creatures. Without this form of mild violence in the game, there is less of an incentive to be cautious and strategic — feelings which I think immersed me more in the gameplay. In general, adding violence gives players a reason to perk up and engage in other game mechanics as a way to survive and progress through the game. However, it does take away from the initial “cozy” feel of simulating a cat walking around a foreign city, causing the game to feel less like a walking simulator and more like a quest-style game.
[Figure 6: The Last of Us scene depicting the ‘infected’]In games where the player anticipates violence, either through advertisement of the game or familiarity with the narrative, it is not shocking when these elements appear. In fact, they are often fundamental to the game itself. Although I have played a lot of games that incorporate violence — either as necessary or optional — there was always a clear reason why the violence was occurring. For example, players are generally familiar with what zombies are, and have an understanding that they are wired to attempt to kill the player for survival, so when the player learns they must fight against them in a zombie game this comes across as unsurprising. Then, the motivation for participating in violence was clear even before playing, and players did not need to explicitly uncover why the zombies were attacking them — they already understand this without being told. However, in games like Stray, incorporating violence between unfamiliar entities causes the player to question why such violence is happening, which is revealed later on as the player progresses through the narrative. Then, in a fantasy walking simulator, where stories are often revealed through progression, the inclusion of violence causes a player to curate questions about the state of the world and what its norms happen to be.
