The Freedom of Playing a Very Un-Catlike Cat in Stray

In Stray, the postapocalyptic adventure game from BlueTwelve Studio, players are cast as an unnamed orange and brown-striped tabby cat. At various points in this cat's journey across a futuristic, neon-drenched city, button prompts will appear, floating over the arms of leather couches or hovering before the metal legs of bipedal humanoid robots. Press the corresponding controller inputs and the cat will rhythmically dig its claws into fabric or rub its head along the limbs of synthetic people. Sometimes it may even jump onto the lap of a reclining robot and curl into a tight ball to catch a quick snooze. This kind of behavior is immediately familiar to anyone who's spent time around cats, and it's believably animated enough that the game appears to perfectly capture the animal's essence.