Stray Release Date, Trailer, And, Gameplay - What We Know So Far
Cats finally get their moment in spotlight in the action-adventure "Stray." Its not just a fluffy, oh-so-cute premise, either. Injured and alone, the feline hero crash lands in a dangerous, robot-inhabited city. The bulk of the title takes place in this dystopia, where humans seem to have disappeared. With the help of a drone companion named B-12, the cat must survive the horrors of this mysterious land and find its way back home. Expect stealth, action, and puzzle-solving as you progress through this cyberpunk-inspired environment.
Developer BlueTwelve Studio might not be a big name yet, but the unique premise of a game experienced through a cat's point of view was enough to attract publisher Annapurna Interactive. Following its reveal, "Stray" also caught the attention of feline fanatics everywhere. Here's what you to need to know about the third-person adventure.
What is the release date for Stray?
"Stray" will launch on July 19, 2022 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam. It will also be available via PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium, which is Sony's Xbox Game Pass counterpart. In short, PlayStation Plus members at those tiers won't need to pay for the game because it'll come with their subscription. The studio formally announced "Stray" in June 2020 with a 2021 launch target. It was then pushed back to 2022 without a concrete release date.
Annapurna Interactive confirmed Stray's release date during the June PlayStation State of Play. However, it's technically been in development for years. According to BlueTwelve, "Stray" originally started as a series of gifs called the "HK_Project." Thanks to these gifs and their positive reception, Annapurna eventually reached out to BlueTwelve in 2016 and the team realized its vision for a cat-themed cyberpunk adventure.
Is there a trailer for Stray?
"Stray" has multiple trailers. Its first trailer mainly introduced the setting of the adventure: the run-down, neon lit streets of a robot-inhabited city. It's devoid of humans, as evident by the "rip humans" graffiti on the walls and lack of warm-blooded lifeforms. Instead, robots of different sizes roam the streets. Even the cat has its own drone companion that helps with translating the local language.
Later, Annapurna released a more detailed gameplay walkthrough. Developers explain that the cat must find a way to properly interact with those around it and escape the city. Sometime this means disrupting the peace of the robot citizens like real-world feline companions. Why not knock over trash cans and sleep in someone's lap? In the gameplay trailer, it even rubs against a robot's leg. On a more sinister level, the cat needs to evade and fend off mutated rats.
The latest trailer combines the best of both setting and gameplay to showcase the cat's travels through abandoned subways, rundown apartments, and dark alleyways.
What's the gameplay like in Stray?
What would a cat do? That's what BlueTwelve kept in mind during its project. "Stray" stars a cat as the main character, so you can only explore and observe the world as a cat. It has its own motivations that might be difficult to relate to, but the world still appeals to the person behind the screen with the stories it tells. In fact, the team added B-12 to the game to expand the ways it could unfold the narrative. Expect lore revolving around the demise of humanity and many cat-related antics that the player will need to pull off.
B-12 sometimes adds context to the situation with speech; however, the cat still calls the shots. You can slink through dark alleys, paw at microwaves, and meow loudly to progress the plot. As per the PlayStation Blog, the development team took inspiration from their own pets and two office cats to really nail this delivery. Oscar and Jun, the cats in question, were especially loved for the "cheerful liveliness" they brought to the studio and the inspiration they brought to the title.
"Seeing them interact with objects around the office (even sometimes shutting down our computers at the worst possible moment!) gave us quite a lot of inspiration for the various cat interactions that are possible throughout the game," wrote producer Swann Martin-Raget.