Stray Review | Nintendo Insider (2025)

I instantly fell in love with Stray. Even as a self-described “dog person,” I was mesmerised when the game was first revealed to the world in the PS5 The Future of Gaming Show presentation. Neon-soaked streets. Robotic citizens going about their daily lives. A cat wearing a backpack. What wasn’t there to appreciate, or at least be mystified enough about to want to know more?

BlueTwelve Studio is behind this third-person adventure, in which the greatest successes that the developer achieves are in how believably its character movement portrays a real-life cat, and in the game’s wonderful environmental storytelling.

After a morning spent pouncing on barrels, scratching trees, licking rainwater puddles and endlessly meowing, a playful leap onto a rusty water pipe results in Stray’s cat protagonist becoming separated from its family. Lost and alone, the weakened and stray feline must somehow find its way home.

An unknown presence guides you through Dead City using neon-lit signs and long-forgotten television screens, as you crawl through air vents, jam fans with paint buckets and knock planks down to safely cross wider gaps. A sinister threat emerges early on when you have to flee from Zurks (small creatures that reminded me of Headcrabs in Half-Life), only raising more questions about what exactly is happening in the world that you find yourself in.

It isn’t long before the cat befriends a small flying drone called B-12, whose memory is corrupted. Freed from the electronic network that it was trapped in, it, too, is searching for answers and only remembers that it once worked for a scientist who lived in Dead City.

The two characters in this unlikely duo complement each other, your newfound friend helping you to translate written signs and conversations with the robotic humanoids that dwell in The Slums, store items like keys and postcards, and otherwise guide you on your journey. Whereas the cat’s physicality allows you to interact with your surroundings, carrying fuses in its jaw, running inside barrels to roll them into position, or knocking items over with a swipe of its paw.

Aside from learning how to leap your way from A to B, Stray throws more than enough puzzles and obstacles to overcome in your direction. Digicodes for keypads are hastily scribbled on nearby whiteboards, fuses need to be yanked out to cut off power supplies, and there are doors that you will rely on B-12 to hack for you to be able to progress further.

Chase sections see you flee from the Zurk that pursue you, which feel as threatening as they are stressful. Meanwhile, stealth sections challenge you to evade security drones – fleeing to the safety of a nearby cardboard box whenever you misjudge your timing.

Seeing the world through the eyes of a cat is one thing, but there are optional items scattered throughout the world that will help B-12 recover its memories. These help to build a fascinating picture of the mysterious world that you exist in, with those who take the time to discover them rewarded with learning more about why it has declined into such a bleak state. There’s also sheet music to collect, which you can return to the guitar-wielding robot Morusque for them to play back to you.

To no one’s surprise, the Nintendo Switch is not as powerful as a PlayStation 5. Porting the game to the ageing portable home console has come with the need to make understandable concessions. Texture detail is reduced, and there are odd times when there are visual glitches. The game’s graphic fidelity may not rival its counterparts, and the frame rate stutters in more complex moments, but, despite such sacrifices, these never detract from the tremendous heart that the game was created with, which remains evident throughout.

It is the companionship between the cat and B-12, as well as the revelatory discoveries that they find together, that make Stray such an endearing experience. Whether playfully leaping across rooftops or simply finding somewhere to curl up and take a well-deserved snooze, the originality that fuels the game’s creative concept rightly helps it to stand out from the crowd.

Version Tested: Nintendo Switch
Review copy provided by Annapurna Interactive