DO NOT BUY Stray - VERY disappointing

Hello and welcome back to a new video. So

recently I've been playing the brand new

game called Stray, and as an avid fan of

cats and adventure platform games, I just

knew I had to play this game.

Unfortunately, so far it's been kind of

disappointing and lacking in luster.

So if you don't know what Stray is, I

wouldn't be surprised because I didn't

even know what Stray was up until

recently. But it's one of PlayStation 5's

flagship brand new games, which is also

coming out on other platforms such as

PlayStation 4, and also it has a PC port

released which will be coming out shortly.

So as you may have understood already,

Stray is basically a game where you play

as a cat and you're in this dystopian

apocalyptic world which is full of robots

and doesn't have any more human beings in

it. And you play as this cat and you have

a sidekick companion little robot thing

that helps you along the way. And

basically the gameplay boils down to just

running around, messing about, being a

cat, platforming elements, a lot of

puzzle-solving elements, and some random

gameplay where you run away away from

these weird raw chicken looking alien bug

things. And unfortunately, after playing

the game for several hours, I just have to

say that the game feels kind of boring and

dull and uninspired. I didn't really feel

like I wanted to play the game until

completion and finish the game, even

though that wouldn't take a very long

time. People were saying that it only

takes about 4 hours to finish the entire

game, and that is just kind of rubbish in

this day and age where we're used to open

world games where you have huge worlds and

you can get hundreds of hours of gameplay

and enjoyment out of them, but 4 hours is

just kind of rubbish for a modern-day

game. And although the price tag isn't

really that expensive, it's only about $30

or £22 or your regional equivalent

currency, it's just still a little bit

expensive for what you get out of it,

which is basically just a couple of hours

of entertainment. In comparison to going

to the cinema where you only have to spend

about £10 and you get a couple hours of

entertainment in the same way, it doesn't

really feel like a good value for money.

And even is kind of interesting and quirky

playing as a 4-legged cat. I don't really

know of any other games where you play as

an animal on 4 legs. Sure, there's lots of

games where you play as an animal that

stands up on 2 legs and can speak English

and has like a personality and acts like a

human. Those games are kind of common,

but in Stray it is kind of unique how you

can play as a pretty regular cat who just

runs around on 4 legs. In the beginning

when you start playing the game, that is

pretty funny and interesting and seems

original and unique, but after a while the

gimmick wears off and you just realize

that you're playing this very hard to

control, clunky feeling kind of animal,

which doesn't really feel good to move

around the game world. A large part of the

game involves platforming, and

unfortunately the platforming in this game

is kind of rubbish and boring. So you

never really have full control over where

you're jumping and how you can like

precision aim at your jumping and where

you land and what part you're going to

jump from. It's kind of automated, kind of

like auto-aim assisted jumping where you

approach a ledge and you just wait for a

little button prompt to appear, and then

you press it, and then your cat kind of

automatically flies to that point. It's

kind of like Hitman 3 when you approach an

edge, it just says a button prompt and you

press it, and then he automatically does

an animation to perform the action. It

doesn't really feel like you're in full

control of the character. It's not like a

100% fully controlled platforming

experience, which I find to be kind of

rubbish. And you would think that as

you're playing as a cat, you would feel

very agile, the movement should be very

responsive, just like a cat is in real

life. But unfortunately, in Stray, the

movement of the cat feels kind of clunky,

unnatural, and unresponsive, and it felt

kind of frustrating at times, especially

when turning the cat round on a point.

The controls can just feel a little bit

finicky and fiddly, especially when you're

trying to line the cat up with a jump

you're trying to make. As for the game

world, although it is quite pretty to look

at, it's kind of dull and feels a bit

lifeless seeing as there's no human beings

in this world. It's just full of robots

and for some reason cats, the main

character doesn't really have any kind of

personality, and you never feel like you

can connect with the character because

it's just a cat and it never talks and it

doesn't really have any kind of human

emotions. It's basically just what you

would expect from a cat in the real world.

I just found it kind of difficult to

actually care about the story or the cat

character or the little robot character

because they're just so lifeless and so

lacking in personality and character, as

you can expect from basically a very

simple animal life form. So apart from

platforming, you'll also be doing some

puzzle solving. There's a lot of puzzles

in the game, and none of these puzzles are

very challenging. They just feel very

tedious and very dull. Basically, most of

the time you'll just be dragging or

pushing some kind of box or objects around

so you can trigger some kind of switch.

Or maybe you do some platforming to grab

onto something that you can swing around

so you can move around some kind of box or

block or objects so you can unlock some

kind of switch to open a door. Basically,

all the puzzles just feel like that, and

none of them are very fun or satisfying.

Satisfying once you solve them, and you

just feel like you're trying to rush

through the puzzles so you can get to the

next stage. The only thing that makes it

time-consuming is having to wait for the

animations and actually having to get the

blocks and stuff in place in the first

place, which as I said before isn't really

any kind of challenge if you're above the

age of 7. I just don't understand why so

many games are so insistent on putting

these stupid time-wasting puzzles in their

games. Well, that's basically it, isn't

it? They want to waste your time, or they

want to say that there's more stuff to do

in the game so don't feel like the game

feels really short. So they put these

time-wasting puzzles in the game to make

it feel like the game's longer, when

actually doing the puzzles in itself is

not really fun at all. It's just something

you're forced to do. The puzzles never

really make you use any kind of creativity

or originality. It's just like a very

simple, basic kind of puzzle that won't

even challenge anyone. So it just feels

like a waste of time. As for the story,

it is very unoriginal, very dull, and

predictable. So basically you're in this

apocalyptic dystopian world, blah blah

blah. Humans did something bad and

everything went wrong. Now there's no more

humans and there's just robots left with

cats. And I thought this storyline, this

plot concept, felt and seemed kind of

familiar. And I remember watching this

show on Netflix where the main characters

were a bunch of robots exploring this

deserted wasteland of a city where there

used to be humans. And then they find a

cat, and then they think the cat is a

bomb, it's going to explode. And it really

reminded me of that, but instead of being

robots, you are the cat. And it felt kind

of unoriginal in a way. The story also

kind of reminded me of that Disney Pixar

movie called WALL-E, where it's like a

little robot and there's no humans because

they trashed the planet and then had to

leave and go trash somewhere else, and

then it's just left in this very empty,

depressing world. That's kind of what

Stray is like. That's the kind of world

that they were going for. And although it

is quite pretty to look at, it's kind of

shallow and doesn't have a lot of depth,

kind of like my ex-girlfriend. In general,

I felt like the game was kind of

interesting and quirky, but then the

gimmick wears off. And basically the

entire game feels a bit like a minigame

from another game. It's like you're

playing GTA and then you can play some

kind of cat simulator that only lasts a

couple hours. It doesn't really feel like

it's a fully fledged game on its own. It

just feels like, yeah, it just feels like

a little minigame, part of a side quest or

a side game of part of another game. It's

just not really that great. I don't really

see what all the hype is, why people are

loving this game so much. I think it's

basically just because it's got a cute cat

as a cat character. And if you're a fan of

cats, if you're a cat lover, yeah, you'll

think this game's really funny and cool

and cute and everything. And don't get me

wrong, it is quite cute. You can do some

pretty cute cat things. And if you wanted

to be a cat, then this is probably one of

the closest ways of experiencing what it's

like to be like a cat in a game in some

way. So in conclusion, I would have to

give this game a 6.2 out of 10. I don't

really feel like I would recommend it for

this price point. Maybe if the price comes

down a little bit, then maybe I could

suggest it, only if you are an avid lover

of cats.