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This game is rated PEGI 12
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GAMES Stray
Stray Review
Posted: 2 years ago, last updated 2 weeks ago.
Author: @GeekDadGamer, Jo Robertson and Ben Kendall.
Overview
It's a combination of exploration and puzzle-solving interspersed with more fast-paced action sequences. You have a pack on your back that enables you to interact with the environment.
But, similar to games like Limbo or Inside, the real focus is the story and the setting of the game. "Lost, alone, and separated from family, a stray cat must untangle an ancient mystery to escape a long-forgotten cybercity and find the way home." It's a game that asks questions about human survival and our relationship with machines. What better creature than a cat to unlock the humanities forgotten future?
Game Details
Release Date: 19/07/2022
Platforms: PC, PS4 and PS5
Content Rating: PEGI 12
Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds
Players: 1
Genres: Adventure, Narrative, Puzzle and Traversal
Accessibility: 17 features
Developer: HK Dev Blog (@HKDevBlog)
Lists
View our choice of games like Stray. This game is good if you want to:
Duration
Play Style
Age Ratings
Content Rating
Rated for younger players in the US. Rated ESRB EVERYONE 10+ for Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence. Players sometimes encounter parasitic blobs/mice-like bots that can attack and kill the cat. Players can access a UV light to defeat the mice-like bots, causing them to explode and emit splashes of colored liquid.
Skill Rating
9+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Still, it's important for parents and guardians to consider the maturity required to process the game content. The skill here is more choosing traversal routes and observation to find things rather than platforming timing.
Costs
Stray
 | PS5 | £24.99 | – | Free PS Plus Extra |
| PS4 | £24.99 | – | Free PS Plus Extra |
 | PC | £23.99 | – | – |
Accessibility
You sometimes need to hold down buttons, such as to scratch an object. On Playstation 5, the adaptive triggers can increase the force required depending on the object (ie. a tree requires more force to scratch than a less hard object). During some sequences, you are chased and as such are against the clock. You have to rapidly press buttons, at the same time as controlling the movement of your cat.
The autosave feature saves your progress every couple of minutes, so you never lose much progress.
The text in the game is often fairly small and can be of low contrast with the background in specific scenarios. The voices throughout the game are gibberish, but any important dialogue is presented in textual form with the name of the speaker.
Navigating through the game can be tricky, as there is no map and only occasional (text-based) reminders of where to go, so exploration is often required, and it can be easy to get lost for long periods.
Often, the game can be fairly low-contrast, with every object a similar colour, especially indoors, where all objects are seen under orange light. There is optional motion blur (enabled by default), but depth-of-field effects are not able to be turned off.
When around specific objects, you are shown the button to interact with them, but this does not occur for every action. When it does occur, the button prompt is fairly small, and doesn't always appear in the same place on the screen.
Diversity and Inclusion
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