Stray PS4 Video Game New Italian Play Station 4 Sealed Cat Game

Stray starts with a relatively simple premise, but its strangeness and uniqueness begin to break through the moment you start exploring the world.

It's an adventure game set in a cyberpunk world where we are a nameless cat, who has ended up in this unknown cybernetic city full of robots.

From this four-legged perspective, we explore the world, try to figure out how to find a way to reunite with our family, and perhaps help some robots along the way.

Exploration is a fundamental component of Stray, both through rather linear locations that guide you along the main path or force you to face a series of obstacles, and in larger hubs that allow you to slow down the pace a bit to immerse yourself in the game world.

What's surprising about all this, especially if you've already seen some gameplay footage of Stray, is that so far all we've seen is a cat hopping around the world, up and down machinery and architecture, going from one point to another, but during our preview session, the developers made it clear that Stray is not intended to be a platformer. The points where you can jump, such as from one barrel to another, or even up the side of a building via air conditioners and fire escapes, are highlighted on the screen with an indicator. As much as it might pose a challenge, the developers found during testing that having people constantly miss jumps or fail to find the right path didn't give the feeling of playing as a cat.

And so our adorable stray will jump with a certain confidence from one point to another, but much of the gameplay is built precisely around cat behaviors (and in some points you'll also have to choose which path to follow, for those who are worried about excessive linearity of the experience). We have a dedicated meow button, because how could it be otherwise, but there are also a series of small interactions or puzzles to solve that are designed based on how a cat would act. In one puzzle I saw, the protagonist could knock a series of bottles off a ledge, which, in any other circumstance, would be a typical annoying cat move. Here, however, it serves to teach you that you can also knock a paint can through a window so you can get down into the apartment below and continue on your way.

Acting like a cat also helps to show how the world is designed for us to reach places where, by contrast, the robotic inhabitants cannot, such as climbing the thin branches of a tree to find access to seemingly out-of-reach locations. You can also sleep in certain spots when you need a nap, typically cat-like, which seems more like a cute mechanic than a real necessity, and of course you can use your claws to scratch various surfaces. Sometimes the pawing is just to scratch the couch like any self-respecting cat would, but other times it can become a useful mechanic, such as when you scratch a door and a robot inside opens it to figure out where the disturbance is coming from. Although I didn't get to try it firsthand, BlueTwelve explained that using the DualSense on PS5 will give the sensation of scratching, also because this mechanic is handled via adaptive triggers.

One aspect we haven't seen in detail yet is combat, but that doesn't mean there won't be tense moments during the adventure. BlueTwelve showed us a chase sequence against hordes of rat-like enemies that in some ways reminded me of the escape moments in Crash Bandicoot. Furthermore, the developers hinted that there will also be stealth moments that require hiding under objects like cardboard boxes.

What struck me most about the demo and captured my attention the most is certainly the world that BlueTwelve is building around Stray. The use of lighting, colors, and the density of details make the world created by the small Canadian studio truly splendid to behold and, among other things, deliver unexpected variety. Dilapidated and crumbling alleys give way to populated centers full of robots living their lives, while others have created a community in The End Village, a unique city built on a pile of trash from which robots scavenge the resources they need.

I also caught a glimpse of a more structured city, with a myriad of dazzling lights, statues, and fountains dotting the streets. The world design created by BlueTwelve is both consistent and varied, with unique and original locations, so I'm really curious how all these elements will merge into a unique experience that will be playable without loading screens (except after a potential death, for example). All locations are designed to be explored: the team has hidden a series of collectibles, some of which are necessary to progress in the story and others, instead, that only serve to better understand the context.

Along the way we met B-12, an adorable little robot that lives in a backpack that our cat will find at the beginning of the adventure.

It will be of fundamental help in exploration, in the more interactive phases, in memorizing data bits known as memories, or also for collecting objects and translating the language of robots (cats are intelligent, but they don't have an innate knowledge of robot language).

I saw many small things during this gameplay demo, as the protagonist and B-12 looked for clues, bringing them to the attention of one robot after another, but BlueTwelve has intentionally kept the story under wraps to avoid spoiling the journey in any way.

I'm quite curious about what awaits us in this 7-8 hour adventure, but I'm quite convinced that the attention to detail and love for cats demonstrated by the development team will make the journey noteworthy. The cybernetic world conceived by BlueTwelve seems truly promising and well-executed, and until I get my paws on it, I'll continue scratching couches everywhere.