Stray
Stray, “the cat game,” doesn’t put you in control of a cat. You are the cat, navigating a post-apocalyptic city by performing hyper-specific feline behavior: scratching doors, knocking things off ledges, and jumping everywhere you’re not supposed to. (There’s also a dedicated meow button.) Save for a few brief action segments, in which you use a drone to shoot malignant rodents, most of the gameplay is structured around rudimentary environmental puzzles. The joy of Stray is less about playing and more about inhabiting the fantasy of being an loveable housecat without the house. And even though it kinda whiffs the ending, everything prior to those final five minutes is worth living that fantasy out.
Rough Average Playtime: 6 hours
