Stray: A Purr-fectly Great Game

 When I saw Stray, I knew I was going to get the game. Getting to play as an adorable cat in a futuristic dystopian cyberpunk city setting and exploring was totally my vibe. The settings for the game are easy to work with. I was able to turn subtitles on and adjust the camera settings as well as the audio. Once that was set up, I was ready to dive in. Stray starts by showing a group of four adorable cats outside in what looks like an abandoned building with leaves and leafy vines everywhere. I was immediately drawn in by how beautiful this setting was. 

A beautiful view with cute cats. 

This also introduces you to the game controls with the star of the story; a cute ginger tabby. The game shows you how to move around, how to push things with your paws, and how to meow. Yes, there is a meow button and I laughed with delight at the cute meows from the cat. I ran around for a few minutes just yelling, "I'm a kitty!" because that's the level of joy the game brings right away just letting you be a cat. 

Ginger kitty with a cute black kitty. 

After the initial introduction, the family of cats leaves their home and go exploring. This shows you how to jump and move along ledges as well as drinking water from puddles. As the ginger cat travels with their family, a mistimed jump causes the cat to fall and get separated from its family. I gasped when it happened because it's a shock and I felt sad for the cat. I was also relieved when I saw the cat was okay and then started exploring where the cat fell and this is where Stray's adventure really begins. I was fascinated by noticing that there were buildings that looked abandoned and then as I kept exploring I saw that it looked like a dead city. Here were shops and apartment buildings, but where were all the people? I then saw a surveillance camera and meowed at it. I was stunned when the camera moved in a nodding motion if to say yes. As I moved across rooftops and alleyways, I kept finding more surveillance cameras and meowing at them and each time the camera nodded. String lights lit up indicating a direction the cat should go in. I was intrigued by this mystery of who was controlling the cameras. 

Little cat in the big city. 

That question was soon answered upon meeting a little drone robot, B-12 who acts as a translator for the cat and also reads signs and notes to give the players ideas about the surroundings as well as clues about what happened to the city. B-12 floats along while the cat wears a little saddle pack that carries B-12 when they're not active. I found the city wasn't totally abandoned as we met humanoid robots known as Companions. Each one was different and seemed to model themselves after a variety of humans ranging from guardians to musicians to cute little grannies. 

I didn't even know eating anyone was an option. 

I really liked the first area because I could just explore and talk to the various Companions and do a few fetch quests here and there like finding sheet music for a musician Companion. I liked the freedom that Stray gives you with exploring because it let me take my time with the game and just enjoy doing cat things like knocking things off shelves or curling up in a cinnamon roll position and nap. I also made friends with many of the Companions who really seemed to like their new feline friend. I of course did some of the story things along the way because the goal was to get back to the surface and Stray very smartly makes that objective easy to follow while making that freedom of exploration accessible. 

Just taking a cat nap and listening to the music.

That's not to say things don't get intense once in a while. As the journey continues we find very scary robots that look a bit like giant ticks called Zurks. The music would get a little spooky and I knew I would have to run from the Zurks or be eaten. I failed that a few times and poor ginger kitty met an untimely demise. The story does explain the Zurks as you go, but finding them in an area always made me wary on how I moved and figuring out ways to outrun them or avoid them. Luckily, they aren't everywhere so a few terrifying Zurk moments here and there, but then back to exploring and being a cat having their best adventure. 

Ugh, Zurks. They're the worst. 

As I kept exploring and moving the story along, I was impressed by how unique each area was. The attention to detail with the style and art is incredible. I also loved that each place had really thought about places cats could climb, lounge, and jump. The movement of the cat was fantastic and I could tell they had really studied how cats move and behave with every jump, meow, and sprint. There were moments where I had fun being a little ball of chaos like jumping up on a table and knocking things off or scratching up a couch. I also enjoyed simply stopping and gazing at the scenery. There are so many great things to look at in Stray.

I love this area. It's so cool! 

The story for Stray itself is interesting and I found myself invested in wanting to know what would happen next and figuring out where to go. When I finished Stray, there was this feeling of wow, what a great game. It hit all the right notes for storytelling, but also a beautifully endearing joy of getting to simply be a cat. I loved those moments of the game best, where I could take a nap with a Companion friend or interrupt a Mahjong game by jumping on the table. I loved that the game gave me so many opportunities to just be a cat. I loved everything about Stray because of these elements and I'm so glad I played it. Once you're finished, you can go back through each chapter and pick up any achievements you missed which is really nice because there was a nap achievement I wanted and got for my little cat friend. The game itself isn't very long. If you're playing for only the story, it's about five to six hours. If you want all the achievements it's about seven to eleven hours. For $30 that's not bad. For me, Stray was a purr-fectly great game and I loved being a cat. 

Sometimes you just need to curl up and nap with a friend. 

*Stray is available on the following platforms: Steam, Playstation 4, and Playstation 5

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and discuss mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer

As Far As The Eye: Charming, But A Struggle To Play

 *Note I was given a game code for the Nintendon Switch by Goblinz Studio for my honest review of the game. 

As far As The Eye has very charming art and is a turn based strategy resource management game. The story introduces a group of nomadic people who must travel to a place known as the Great Meeting before the flood known as The Sigh arrives. The whole premise of the game is to plan out your journey, gather as many resources as you can, and manage those resources during your journey. The game is set up into chapters with the goal of getting to your destination before the flood arrives. 

Chapters in the game. 

The game doesn't really give you much of a tutorial. It kind of throws you in and gives you tips on what to do in the first chapter so you can get a feel for it, but I really wish there had been a better guided how to especially for the first chapter regarding the map layouts known as halts. Each halt has a different layout and you can choose which one to travel to on the map menu. 

Exploring the halt. 

There is a bit of a timer as you gather materials and you can build temporary buildings like a quarry to gather stone for building. You can assign tasks to each person and when they finish one task you can assign them to another. Before you leave the halt, you can put things you gathered into your inventory. This gives you a little tetris like mini game to make everything fit. Once that's done, you're off to the next halt. 

Getting ready to organize inventory. 

Another aspect of the game is the people in the group can change or upgrade their job class. For example, a builder can upgrade to engineer or a trapper can upgrade to a fisher. This also means they can gather a bigger quantity of resources and they also do it at a faster pace. 

Changing job classes. 

All of those things seem nice and the art style of the game is cute and the concept is interesting. However, As Far As The Eye was a struggle to play because of so many technical issues on the Switch. The game would freeze in places or it would crash. Sometimes the inputs for the controls would not work or would delay or a chapter wouldn't load. There were so many issues like this that it felt like the game was not tested enough for consoles and felt unfinished and frankly it feels completely irresponsible to release the game in this condition. It made what could have been a good game, a frustrating mess. It should have been play tested more and it's very clear it wasn't. Until those issues are worked out and addressed, it's better to wait to play this game.

Building on the map. 

*As Far As The Eye is available on the following platforms: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Steam, Xbox One, and Mobile

*Join our community on Twitch as we play games and talk about mental health: https://www.twitch.tv/mothergamer