In July 2022, the adventure game Stray was released for PS4, PS5, and PC. Critics were delighted by the unusual indie game in which you control a cat through a cyberpunk world: Stray received ratings that summed up to 82% on Metacritic. The game has now even been nominated in 6 categories for ‘The Game Awards’ in December. But not everyone is pleased with that.
For which categories is Stray nominated? Stray is indeed nominated for the most important award at the Game Awards, for ‘Game of the Year.’ This puts it in line with titles like A Plague Tale: Requiem, God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, or Elden Ring, which everyone expects to win.
Stray is also nominated for Best Action Adventure and would have to get past God of War Ragnarök or Horizon Forbidden West.
In Art Design and ‘Best Game Direction,’ Stray again faces off against the giants in gaming, such as Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West, and God of War.
The greatest chances for an award for Stray are probably in ‘Best Indie Debut,’ where it competes with games like Vampire Survivors or Neon White. It is also nominated for ‘Best Indie Game,’ where it would have to get past Sifu and ‘Cult of the Lamb.’
Overall, Stray is nominated for 6 awards, which will be presented on December 9th at 1:30 AM German time.
“If Stray wins, I’ll lose all hope”
Who has something against it? Although Stray is liked by many, there were also individual voices on the web criticizing Stray being nominated for the Game Awards. One Twitter user wrote: ‘If Stray wins, I’ll completely lose all my hopes for the industry.’
The developers of Stray, Annapurna Interactive, reacted with an unbeatable GIF.
A cat licking its own behind is apparently meant to imply how little they care about this criticism.
Under the tweet, there are some voices saying: Of course, they would have voted for Stray; they loved the game and its uniqueness.
But even among Stray fans, many agree that while Stray was good, it wasn’t ‘Game of the Year’ good, as even cat lovers tend to prefer Elden Ring.
For a Game of the Year, Stray lacks replayability, but that’s probably the least of the cat’s concerns. Because it has enough to deal with itself and its self-care:
