SIM KITTY

STRAY is a sparkling feline adventure that always lands on its feet

- Jon Bailes

The early novelty of playing as a cat in Stray soon gives way to a striking realization-we often behave like cats in games anyway. Particularly in platform-puzzlers like this, our first inclination is to explore, looking for unorthodox routes up the sides of buildings, say, or jumping on furniture and seeing which objects we can manipulate. Stray simply makes such activities more natural, giving us the perfect form for the job.

The feel of your kitty is crucial here, and it's instantly evident how much observational work has gone into her animation. The slender ginger tabby is one of a small feline colony living in a disused industrial district long since reclaimed by nature. As the game opens, your gang waits out a storm in a concrete shelter, where you can instigate a little play fighting or mutual sniffing and smearing. These interactions are full of recognizable details the way ears flick and rotate, the stretch routines-and if you like cats (as I do), Stray should have you at 'meow'.

Next morning you venture out with your crew, leaves still dripping from last night's downpour. You might pause to lap at pools of water, or employ a tree trunk as a handy scratch post, in between bouts of leaping up steps and across gaps. At first it seems overly prescriptive that you can only jump when a button prompt appears on a nearby ledge, box, or pipe, with a successful landing guaranteed. Yet this system is ideally suited to the litheness of an animal with measured aims, who cares not for frantic hopping but scans the environment for clearly reachable surfaces. And while there are points when Stray abuses its control by refusing to let you jump on barrels and boxes merely because they aren't part of the essential path, the overall result is a slick, satisfying loop of pause, look, leap that sustains the feline illusion.

NASTY PIECE OF ZURK