After 248 Hours In Elden Ring, the Cute Cat Game Fixed My Brain

When I see it written out like that, I feel a bit sick about how many hours of my one, precious life I’ve spent playing Elden Ring. Some of those hours racked up when I left the game running and did other things, but most of them were spent in-game, grinding my way to the finish line. I loved Elden Ring (obviously), but I was glad when I finally finished it. It felt like I’d finished a huge, time-consuming project I’d been working on for months. I’ll never forget Elden Ring; but when I finished it and started Stray on the same day, I felt relieved.

Beyond a heartbreaking opening that sees you separated from the other cats in your colony and a few short chase sequences, Stray is a stress-free game. Enduring 248 hours of the most challenging, maddening and unforgiving game I’ve ever played left my brain as smooth and round as a rubber ball. Comparatively, the chill vibes of Stray made me feel relaxed and loved, like my grandma had just given me a little kiss on the forehead.

I’m not the only one who feels like this. All over the internet, people are sharing their wholesome reactions to Stray. Even real cats are enamoured by it, mine included.

GamesRader called Stray a “phenomenal, if compact, feline adventure.” The Guardian described it as “an excellent example of how a change of perspective can enliven a fictional setting to which we’ve become habituated.” Polygon praised the way “it does give me a profoundly sentimental window into my relationship with Oni — my first cat, with whom I am admittedly obsessed” and called it “a triumph.”

Stray has good puzzles, an immersive environment and interesting NPCs, but its biggest success is the way it lets us tap out of our human lives. One early puzzle is solved by knocking a paint tin off a ledge to smash a path through a window below. Human logic won’t get you far in Stray.

If you’ve ever had an intrusive thought about dropping your phone off a bridge or smashing a plate — for literally no reason other than your brain wondering “what if?” — then you’ll understand the appeal of playing Stray.

Granted, almost every game gives you a free pass to do things you wouldn’t normally do in real life, but knocking things off tables and scratching the walls feels very different to stealing a sports car in GTA.

Even jumping from the Radagon fight in Elden Ring — which involved a lengthy process of learning his move set, preparing the right spells and timing my attacks perfectly, among other torturous things (really, I loved this game…) — to the paint tin puzzle in Stray was like a little green flag. I felt my shoulders relax. No stress. No worries. Only the cute cat game.

Stray is a great game that deserves all the praise it’s getting. We would have loved it no matter when it was released. But dropping at a time when case numbers are rising in Australia, the cost of living is climbing rapidly and unprecedented weather has ravaged the country, it feels extra soothing. And for me, playing Stray after spending so long hitting my head against the wall that is Elden Ring felt particularly good. I think it might have even helped restored my love of games.

Stray is available now on PlayStation, PlayStation Plus and PC.

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