Future Classic

Modern games you'll still be playing in years to come

STRAY

THE BACKGROUND

If curiosity really did kill the cat, then there’s absolutely no hope left for the inquisitive ginger feline at the heart of BlueTwelve Studio’s debut cyberpunk adventure. That a first-time studio could come out swinging with a game as confident and cohesive as this (in a world as equally realised) is still impressive just a year on from its initial release, especially when you consider that Stray was made by a team of just 28 people.

Did Stray have the benefit of Annapurna Interactive’s publishing might and PlayStation’s marketing machine behind it? Sure. But despite the uncannily photorealistic visuals and precedent for being an early-ish showcase for what smaller experiences can achieve with the power of PS5, Stray maintains the spirit of a prestige indie game. Such attention to detail makes sense when you consider it’s the brainchild of two former Ubisoft artists, Koola and Viv, who sought to create a cat-centric single-player adventure with a futuristic twist soon after visiting Kowloon Walled City in China.

Being placed within such a dense, vertical city as this as a person would have been staggering enough. Fairly early on, however, the decision was made to increase the scale by shrinking you down to the size of a small mammal, swapping out human NPCs for robots in the attempt to render the location even more otherworldly. As Koola and Viv posted GIFs and images of this catmeets-cyberpunk concept to their blog in 2015 it soon caught the eye of Annapurna Interactive. Cut to seven years later, and the finished result has the makings of an instant Future Classic.

THE GAME