9. Stray
If there’s a recreation that has taken 2022 by storm, it’s Stray.
Because the identify suggests, you hop into the footwear (or ought to that be paws?) of an unnamed stray cat in a post-human world. After stumbling and falling into the sewers of a walled-garden metropolis inhabited by robots, it’s the cat-agonist’s job to discover a approach out – and discover out what actually occurred within the run-down metropolis.
The kitty character is as charming as you’d think about, with signature feline traits like on-demand meowing, scratching surfaces to stretch and even knocking glasses/plates/no matter else off surfaces as you discover. Although there’s little or no spoken dialogue outdoors of the primary cutscenes, the sport does an excellent job of conveying the tales and feelings of town’s AI-powered residents, and thru non-obligatory recollections you uncover, you’ll achieve a greater understanding of the post-human world you end up in.
The open-world atmosphere is a pleasure to discover as a feline, with areas and paths often out of attain of human protagonists. Full of areas the place you may trigger a little bit of mischief (and loads of facet quests and collectables) it’s a recreation that you just gained’t need to rush by means of – particularly in order for you all of the trophies accessible. That’s much more true as, as soon as you permit an space, you may’t return on the identical run, so that you’ll need to be 100% certain you’ve explored each nook and cranny earlier than you progress on.
It really works properly, although with the caveat that it’s not all the time clear once you’re progressing onto the following space, and that would depart 100 percenters just a little annoyed.
Nonetheless, in case you’re a fan of cats, robots and post-apocalyptic worlds, Stray provides one thing intriguing and just a little bit totally different to most video games in 2022.