Trying to complete some side quests and bounties on Cloister and every time I engage with enemies I die of Zyranium poisoning. I can engage the shield gadget but only for a limited time, which just postpones my dying. Are the enemies shooting the poison at me? Is it in the mines? Help appreciated! I love this game but I’m failing at everything I do on this planet.
Like I said in the title, Stray is charming. You play as a cat in a postapocalyptic world where there are no humans, just robots. The main missions involve doing favors for these robots, finding their friends, gaining access to restricted areas, and ultimately finding a way “outside,” because everyone has been confined to a dirty city by guards and corporations.
The cat is cute, and there are adorable details like being able to sleep with triangle, and scratch things with the left and right triggers. You also get a drone who helps you out with inventory and quest objectives, and he’s very cute too. As you explore you find his memories, and gradually learn about how he’s ended up in this world as a drone. The robots are adorable, too, which sounds weird, I guess, but they are.
The game’s exploration is excellent and there is a lot of puzzle-type platforming, like figuring out how to get into locked areas, and this is the part I most enjoyed. I did not enjoy the enemy encounters, though. Early on you have to run away from these bug like things, then you get a thing that pulverizes them with purple light. Only it’s not very exact in its aiming, and you’re likely to get eaten before you kill them. Later on there are drone sentinels that cast cones of light on the ground and if you are spotted, you are instakilled, which is frustrating in the extreme, especially when they start doubting and tripling up on the sentinels.
The story is very emotional at the end. I won’t spoil it, but I teared up. The game took me about thirteen hours to beat, which was pretty much the perfect length, as the mechanics are overall simple and there’s no crafting or any mini games.
Overall, I really recommend this game, despite the occasional frustrations. It is absolutely charming and has a wonderful atmosphere. Play it if you get a chance. It’s thirty bucks full price, though, which I think is high given how much game you get, but if you find it on a sale it’s absolutely worth it, and it does go on sale frequently.