A new game where you play a cat – yes, a cat – has become the highest rated game of the year so far after being released last week. Watch the trailer here:
You may have heard about Stray, the debut adventure game from indie developer BlueTwelve Studio and publisher Annapurna Interactive.
Billed as a ‘third-person cat adventure game’, it follows the story of a street cat who is on a mission to return to its family, set amidst the ‘detailed neon-lit alleys of a decaying cybercity and the murky environments of its seedy underbelly’... in a world inhabited by robots, no less.
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And it seems to be a formula that works, having become the current highest-rated game by its Steam users.
According to Steam250, which assigns Steam games a score based on negative or positive player reviews and combines them to show their overall review, Stray is currently sitting at a score of 8.61 based on 42,655 votes – 98 percent of which are positive.
This means it has now beaten previous top dog God of War, which sits at number two with a score of 8.56, based on 53,101 votes and 97 percent positive reviews.
PowerWash Simulator is in the third spot with 8.56 percent, based on 23,539 votes and 98 percent positive reviews, followed by Teardown, Dorfromantik, Neon White, The Looker, Wobbledogs, The Planet Crafter and Raft.
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From the moment the first footage of the game appeared online, social media users were instantly obsessed by the premise – a huge reaction that the team at BlueTwelve weren’t quite anticipating.
Speaking to LADbible’s sister site GAMINGbible last month, BlueTwelve producer Swann Martin-Raget said: “We were not prepared and we still are not!
“We really are always surprised and always humbled, but because the game isn’t out yet it does add quite a lot of pressure to what we do. We want to do it right.
“I don't think [the reception] changed anything in our approach because the idea of the game was quite far along, but it definitely added a desire to really have this experience be as polished as possible. And especially for cat owners who are going to play the game.
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“They’re as expert as we are, so they're going to get all the details! We are absolutely thrilled by the reception so far. But yeah, it's intimidating.”
Martin-Raget also said it was ‘always very important’ to allow users to feel as annoying as felinely possible while playing, adding: “A huge portion of the team are cat owners - or owned by cats, depending on how you see it.
"We all have this loving relationship with our animals, but we also know very clearly how cats can have a bit of a… temper.
“We also have cats in our office that work with us every day. Sometimes they turn off the computer when you're about to save your work, or start ‘singing’ during an important call.
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"So it's a very nice reminder that even though they're absolutely cute and adorable, they also have their own personalities. Having that in the game was really important from the start.”
Play Stray on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam now.
Topics: Gaming
Jess Hardiman