Stray gameplay trailer reveals new early 2022 release window

Stray, the journey of a lost cat, will push its search for home back a bit, as its release window slips out of 2021.

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Annapurna Interactive sure loves its cats! Moments after showing players the feline-filled space vessel of Skin Deep, the Annapurna Interactive Showcase segued to a new gameplay reveal for the upcoming cat adventure Stray. After its initial reveal last year, developer BlueTwelve took players back into a futuristic dystopia and showed how a lost cat will act as a window into a dead world. The studio also revealed that hopes for a 2021 release appear to be lost, as well.

"In Stray, you play as a cat who has fallen inside the mysterious and forgotten city," Producer Swann Martin-Raget explains over the new trailer. "Separated from his family and injured, he will have to explore and survive in this unwelcoming environment. From the cat's unique point-of-view, players must navigate their way through the dangers of this unfriendly place and use the cat's skills to solve puzzles and uncover mysteries along the way."

The trailer shows off some of Stray's platforming and puzzles. Avoiding enemies like rats, the cat can be seen jumping across a flooded street and across rooftops to reach new areas. In terms of puzzles, one example sees the cat grab a bucket and drop it by an active fan in order to jam it and allow safe passage. While it looks like the cat will be all by its lonesome throughout this journey, the trailer does reveal a companion droid named B-12. B-12 will act as the cat's primary source of communication, as well as the main driver of the narrative.

Stray was originally revealed back at the PlayStation 5 livestream last summer. While the initial PlayStation.Blog post pointed to a 2021 release, this latest trailer pushes the window back a bit. The game is now expected to release in early 2022.

Stray

Stray is still slated to release on PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4. While it's unfortunate that it will no longer release in 2021, it will continue to hold our interest in 2022. We'll have more news on Stray as it pops up, so keep it on Shacknews for the latest updates.

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 29, 2021 12:29 PM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, Stray gameplay trailer reveals new early 2022 release window

    • reply
      July 30, 2021 12:50 AM

      Watched this trailer earlier today. Man it looks cool and the kitty is super cute.

    • reply
      July 30, 2021 2:10 AM

      That sucks, I wanted to be a cat this year! Game is looking sweet though.

    • reply
      July 30, 2021 3:57 AM

      Been daydreaming about this game today based on what the trailer showed.

      - I hope they can nail movement and traversal. It looks like a cursor flashes when you can jump on a surface. I’m wondering how flexible this will be. Like, the camera is semi-fixed. So when kitty approaches a ledge, they could jump down, or to another ledge in the near-background. Basically take a shortcut like a real cat.

      - environmental interactions: I saw pillow-sitting, leg-rubbing, and couch-scratching. I hope there’s lots of stuff to interact with that doesn’t just give an animation, and maybe contributes towards progression/completion/secrets. Also I hope that if you do interact with something that you can interrupt the animation and move on, just like a real cat might instantly switch its attention.

      - interesting to see more of the little robot buddy that you get to adventure with.

      For such a simple concept, the world building and environmental detail looks really cool. Fingers crossed they hit their mark. Super super super stoked to play this.

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