Finally this summer I waited for the first release I was waiting for.
And hello everyone!
I’ve been quiet on this page lately. Because I can’t work in my own way. It’s good that this is all temporary, but I now have a worthy reason to break the silence.
On July 19, the long-awaited release was added directly to the “PS+ EXTRA” subscription. Stray. I immediately plunged into it headlong. It was long-awaited because Sony pushed this low-budget and intimate project at their main events. Therefore, right now, let’s figure out whether Stray has its own feature and to whom it is definitely recommended for completion.
I worked a little on a visual version of this material for your viewing pleasure:
I would like to start by trying to express exactly the feeling of the game genre in an emotional sense. That is, the bottom line is that it’s not difficult to look up a genre on Google, but when playing you notice somewhat unexpected mechanics or an atmosphere for a genre on Steam.
My personal opinion is primarily a “Stray” platformer, but not a simple one, but with a twist because you play as a furry friend. You’ll have to jump and crawl into different cat-only places. Climb on chests of drawers and cabinets, fortunately the controls and the feeling of control of the cat are very decent. Thank you very much Dualsense for these impressions.
And around the meowing main character there is a very strange and interesting world. A world in decline of human culture due to technological progress. Simply put, neon, smoke and real cyberpunk. That’s all I’m talking about?
Almost all the characters with whom we have to establish contact are robots, whose lives seem to be forcibly reminiscent of human culture. Hence the second unexpected subgenre of the game. You can talk to each character and have to solve their small quests.
For example, one robot needs a blanket to fix the transmitter that the fluffy needs to use in the plot. We have to find someone to exchange with in order to get wires and take them to a local embroiderer. And now she will connect something from wires. And most likely you will have to figure everything out without explicit pointers. From here I would like to call the game a quest with logic puzzles, platforming and a melancholic portrayal of one of the nine lives of the meowing protagonist. But here I should probably note that I highly do not recommend including any hints in the game. Still, it partially ruins the atmosphere!
Atmosphere
I think one of the biggest surprises https://casinocasino-com.uk/games/ in the game is the atmosphere. It just so happened that I recently watched a video from a colleague about the advantages of loneliness in game projects. By Alexey Lutsay. And damn. It is in this game, like no other, that melancholy, decline and loneliness are like a travel companion. I’m not that much of a creator myself, I’ve never been happy with being alone, but you can’t deny that feeling like you’re the only one on the entire planet is useful. As rewarding as it is outside your comfort zone. In general, I recommend Lutsay’s material to everyone to watch.
Back to Stray. Starting from the first impression from the moment you enter this world, ending with plot twists and communication with “NPCs”. Everything, including the soundtrack, creates a desire to constantly stop, listen and meow to those around you while peering into the sky, which by the way is just a ceiling. Yes, you heard right, the world here keeps secrets and I recommend that those who are especially curious pay attention to this project.
Speaking of sound design. For some part of the atmosphere I really need to thank the local music.
You can listen to part of the “sound” in the background in my video.
As for the communication of the characters, their language which the fluffy does not understand, and the necessary phrases are translated for him by his drone companion. Whose acquaintance took place in rather interesting circumstances.
Well, probably the circumstances in which from the very beginning you can see how all the robots living in this world began to acquire humanity. We began to engage in creativity, not to pretend, but to look for ourselves, each in his own interests. It makes the player even more pleasantly sad about the times when robots lived side by side with people. That probably sold the game to me. In the summer, when the next blockbusters would make me sick in terms of gaming). It was incredibly pleasant for me to reboot into Stray.
Which button to meow on??
Wait, the main character is the cutest cat. This means that all the ensuing pretty things can be carried out with the desire of the player! I was pleased with the physics of movement and objects with which the controlled cat can interact. Throw down stacks of books, throw paint from the roof onto the porch. Sharpen your claws on the sofa or tear up the wallpaper. All of the above can be done in this game.
What can we say, when in order to meow in the game, the developers have allocated a whole separate button. Fluffy can also climb, for example, onto a billiard table, push the balls with his paw, can take a bucket in his teeth in order to throw it into the fan blades, opening the way further, and jump along the railings and cornices.
Multi-story platforming in the game is done at the level. It’s interesting to look for a path to a goal or character. Jump on cornices and railings. Removing boxes from cabinets to see what’s interesting in them. And of course, for PS5 owners, the above action is accompanied by vibration and adaptive triggers.
Impressions from Dualsense.
Probably this block will not be of interest to all those who bought the game on Steam. And for a moment on Steam it is now the most popular product among users.
Let’s get down to business. The game features both vibration and adaptive Dualsense triggers. They all work for a great dive. T. e. You sharpen your claws on the carpet, the triggers tense up and create recoil, you pushed the bottle into the box, it doesn’t matter! There will definitely be a roar and a vibration that will pleasantly convey information about a fall on a tactile level, even if the object was not in your field of vision.
I praised the Dualsense gamepad from the very beginning and I won’t do that now. I know everyone is already tired of talking about how cool he can be. Well, on the other hand, what else can I say when in the moment I feel the purring of my gaming cat through the gamepad and this causes me incredible delight! I understand that many people don’t need this, in order to protect their platform they will argue about the inappropriateness of such sophistications with vibration. And I will tell such people this:
You shouldn’t hate something that you yourself don’t have, just because it will protect you in a dispute. If you like gamepads, take Dualsense, especially since the DSX utility in Steam will help you set it up even on a PC!
I mean, before you swear in the comments, start it yourself and there will be fewer reasons for an argument!
Duration, narrative and mechanics.
The game even at first glance screams about its low budget. On the other hand, in my recent video I touched on the topic of experimenting with genres in the indie sector.
The game is completed in 6-7 hours, and several key mechanics don’t have time to get boring before they are taken out of the gameplay. Therefore, it never even occurred to me to think about getting tired of this or that aspect of the game.
Falling asleep while listening to the game is yes! I repeat, the game is very melancholy and meditative. There’s not even any need for dubbing; almost the entire plot is narrated through caricatured conversations in an unknown language, as well as their often silent actions. As it seemed to me, this is one of the main insightful solutions.
As a player, I was able to connect with the characters whose character traits I guessed based on their non-verbal movements. And therefore, I began to see the outlines of those personalities that I wanted to see.
The game turned out well as expected. It’s worth playing for those who haven’t enjoyed the next AAA or their favorite online game for a long time. It’s worth playing if you’re looking for a melancholic atmosphere of loneliness, or just if you’re madly in love with this red cat.
That’s why I have everything. I will take a moment and invite you to watch perhaps a video version of my work or other videos on the channel. It’s very nice to see feedback from adequate people in the comments.
