“Stray” has more than one cat up its sleeve

Those allergic to cats, literally and figuratively, will have a hard time remaining desensitized to “Stray’s” feline charms. From the first minutes, we melt: four cats take shelter from a storm in what appears to be an abandoned industrial plant. We embody one of them. The moment is tender, poetic.. And the quadruped animations scream her love for cats while sounding real.

We give two or three caresses, we rub, we lick our ears. The four bugs end up huddling against each other and hoping for calm. The PlayStation controller, equipped with speakers, begins to vibrate and purr. Magical.

Then, calmly, it’s time to hit the road. Nothing is known of his fate. The places are deserted. Vegetation long ago regained its rights in this world that humans seem to have abandoned. We jump from fence rails, cross boards and pipes. And the accident happens.

After a terrible fall, the ball of fur with which we play is separated from the rest of the gang. isolated underground, trapped in what looks like an underground city, she limps through the garbage. The object of the game, of course, will be to find the missing surface and pack up.

As he goes, the little orange cat finds himself chased by a horde of critters with an insatiable appetite. After a somewhat tense sequence of precipitous precipitation, he meets a small amnesiac drone who will accompany him and with whom he will befriend. Some new adventures later, we land in a city inhabited by a company of humanoid robots and visibly endowed with consciousness.

Seeing the cat land, they start running. Normally, the only animals they know are the ravenous creatures we met before and were mistaken for. Fortunately, our flying companion can talk the robot and the cat. Therefore, he will act as interpreter for much of the six-hour adventure.

With feline phlegm goes the hero Come to the aid of the metal dwellers trapped in this underground urban ruin. To do this you will have to solve a series of environmental puzzles: knock over a bucket to block the blades of a fan, distract a robot so that it releases a can of paint that, when it falls, will open a new passage. “Stray’s” Simple Riddles Probably Won’t Fry The Slightest Neuron.

On the other hand, very often they ask, and this is the most pleasant, to play tag: drop an object balanced on a shelf, walk on a computer keyboard to enter a crazy command, etc. We can also, it is useless, but it reinforces the immersion, scratching right and left or doing what cats do best: take a nap. In these moments of absolute calm, the game camera zooms out and offers a panorama of the place around us.

And what places! “Stray” is a real visual delight. The cities we explore honor the canons of “cyberpunkFor example, sunlight never reaches the shallows of the ruined city. Anyway, in this somewhat hippie robot society, the world outside is just a postcard, a fantasy forever inaccessible. even a religion. Instead of natural light, the robotic inhabitants have to make do with colorful neon signs. These colors stand out in the heavy, dense and cold atmosphere of the submerged city. We’re not in “Blade Runner,” but not too far.

The great success of the game consists in discovering these particularly rich and vertical environments through the eyes of a little cat.. The hero of “Stray” can count on his agility to move with ease in twisted alleys. A stack of boxes becomes a handy platform for reaching an air conditioning fan, then sneaking across the rooftops via a gutter.

The only drawback, not everything is scalable and you can only jump the objects indicated by the interface. Impossible to understand why we do not land on this or that object when we have already made much more dangerous jumps. And moments when you find yourself on a roof when you wanted to hit the ground are not uncommon.

“Stray” can count on an impeccable artistic direction. Both in terms of the sets and the perfectly transcribed facial expressions of the four-legged companions. Unfortunately, the story, which we would have expected richer, ends up biting its tail.. His sets have more to tell than his stage. But that doesn’t detract much from the magic at the start of the journey. She leaves an unforgettable memory.