The beauty of video games allows us to detach ourselves from reality and experience adventures t🌌hat are unlike any others. We can travel among the stars, fight against demons and gods, swing from skyscraper to s▨kyscraper, or explore a dark, cold world as a cat.
Playing as a feline is already more than enough reason to play Stray, but the game from BlueTwelve 🍷Studio is a heartwarming tale that even the smallest of creatures can make the biggest of differences. Despite telling a pretty open and closed story, there are still a few questions left unanswered as the credits rolled. Let’s take a look at the lingering questions we still have after finishing Stray.
The following list contains entries that have major spoilers regarding the game's story. Only continue reading this post if you've finished Stray.
10 🏅 How Did The Zurks Mutate? ܫ
Soon after the cat falls into the city below, you begin to see some no🌄t-so-friendly signage. Things like “No Escape” and pos💛ters of strange-looking monsters are plastered on every wall. Eventually, you encounter the little blobs of death called Zurks, one of the main enemies throughout Stray.
According to one of B-12's memories, Neco Corp, the company in charge of keeping up with all things sanitary in the city, created the Zurks. Well, the company didn't decide one day to create flesh-eating monsters. After many years in the Walled City, the amount of trash began to build to insurmountable levels, and the people who lived in Midtown began to dump their garbage down into the Slums. Neco Corp developed a type of bacteria to dissolve the garbage, but it mutated into what we now see in the Zurks. But how did they mutate? Was it something connected with the plague that wiped out humanity?
9 ꦏ How Do 𓆏Companions Stay Online?
As you explore the catacombs of the city with your new pal B-12, you’ll meet the inhabitants in the form of robots called Companions. Once the Companions see you aren’t a Zurk and not a threat, they’re all rathe🤡r friendly and do everything they can to help you on your journey. But how exactly do the Companions stay online?
One Companion mentions how the elevator hasn’t operated in at least 374 years, so it’s been nearly four centuries since humanity was eradicated. We can assume that the humans 💫who designed the city would’ve installed a power supply to keep it functioning for quite some time, but would they hav𓆉e accounted for this long? How do the Companions still have power for their homes, shops, and themselves?
8 🎀 How Does B-12 Communicate Wꦅith The Cat?
Shortly after falling into the dark depths of the city, the cat finds an abandoned lab where it activates a small drone. The drone goes by the name of B-12, and it's your partner in crime throughout the game. Luckily for you, B-12 has spent hundreds of years deciphering and translating the language of the Companions, so it acts as your translator through the game.
But how does Bꦿ-12 communicate with the cat? For all we know, cats aren’t understand English or this Companion language, and B-12 isn’t flying around speaking in meows. Of course, whenever we play video games, we need to allow some room for unexplainable things, but this is something we won’t let slide.
7 How 🐼Did Cats A🧔nd Other Animals Survive?
Stray opens up with you traversing with three other cats through a factory that’s become overgrown with foliage. Unfortunately, after you fall into the city below, you don’t see your cat pals again. After you open the city and emergꦆe back to the Outside, you’ll see a bird fly away. So, how did these animals survive while humanity died off?
If cats and birds survived the plague, we can assume other animals survived too. But how were they able to survive the disease? And why didn't humans bring any pets with them when they sealed themselves in the Walled Cities? Not to mention, how exactly did animals survive in the wilderness, especially those that were domesticated like cats?
6 ♑Was There No Other Way To Dispose Of Garbage? 🐼
In an effort to escape the plague,🀅 humanity built massive cities that would be sealed off from the outside world. Without a way to stop the plague from spreading or a proper cure, human💙s decided it was best to live in sealed off cities. But humanity encountered new problems in the Walled Cities in the form of Zurks.
The Walled City was divided into two main sections: The Slums and Midtown. The Slums was the area the lower class lived, while the upper class resided in Midtown. Midtown residents would dispose their garbage down into the Slums and Neco Corp developed a bacteria that would dissolve the garbage, which mutated into Zurks. Humanity didn't think of other ways to dispose garbage when designing the cities? And if Neco Corp had the technological capabilities to create this bacteria that consumed garbage, why weren't humans able to create a cure against the plague?
5 What Was The Plague That 🐟Killed Humanity? ﷽
The purpose of the Walled Cities was for humanity to escape a plague that ravaged the outsid﷽e world. A Companion mentions a plague that might’ve b💎een responsible for killing everyone hundreds of years ago, but there aren’t many details of what this plague really was.
Without proper sunlight and possible food or water contamination, it’s quite feasible to think of additional sicknesses that might've developed inside the city that killed all the survivors, including the emergence of the Zurks. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that any humans left behind data files recounting their days in the city, so any information about what they went through is lost in the past.
4 Why Are There Police In Midtown? 🦂
In your journey to open the city, you’ll need to find Clementine in an area called Midtown. When humanity first built the Walled City, Midtown was supposedly the level for the upper class, but naturally, that kind of separation caused turmoil among the c🃏itizens. Now inhabited by Companions, the area is still somewhat cut off from the lower levels, but because of the Zurks infestation.
Right away, you’ll notice a police officer Companion running after another robot. Known as Peacekeepers, these Companions, along with Sentinels, enforce the law in Midtown. In one of B-12's memories, it's revealed that Midtown citizens created Sentinels to enforce the law when groups of people began forming to fight back against oppression and mistreatment in the city. Eventually, the Sentinels transformed the city into a police state, showing no mercy to anyone. So, why are the Sentinels still online? And why can't the Companions deactivate them? What sort of crimes are Companions committing now that warrant torture and deletion in jail?
3 How Can Companions Have Children? ꦦ ꦬ
After you’ve met Momo in Th♒e Slums, you’ll haveꦦ to locate the remaining members of his group to reach the Outside. One of the members is named Doc and he has a son named Seamus, who spends much of his time drinking away his sorrows at the local bar. The cat and B-12 are able to convince Seamus to help them escape The Slums and eventually find his father.
Now, if these Companions simply✱ mimic humans but they’re still just programs, how do they have children? Do they have various hard drives that♋ are labeled “parent” or “child” that is assigned to the Companions? It’s a nice sentiment that these robots were able to formulate the concept of family, but hey, it doesn’t seem like it’s being formed by way of the birds and the bees.
2 ﷺ Why Did The Sentinels Stop Working In The Sunlight?
With B-12&rsquo🍰;s final spark, they manage to override the final locking system and open t💜he city. We see all sorts o꧙f Companions react to the first rays of sunlight they’ve experienced in nearly 400 years. We also Sentinels depower in the sun, which is a bit strange.
It was revealed the Sentinels were used to help enforce laws during humanity's last days and it seemed like there wasn't a way to deactivate them. So, why did did the Sentinel stop working when exposed to sunlight? The Sentinels might've not experienced sunlight if they were first created in the Walled City, but that wouldn't explain why they short-circuited after being exposed to the sunlight.
1 How Many Walled Cit🍸ies Are In The World?
Once you reach the Control Room, you’ll find a few Companions but a bit different than the others you’ve met throughout the city. These Companions are s🦩till operating on factory settings, simply known as Helper with a number, and tend to keep th෴e area clean. All around the room, there are giant stickers on the wall that says "Walled City 99."
Does that m♋ean there are 99 of these sealed-off cities in total scattered across the world? And if there are, why wouldn’t there be a way to communicate with each other? There’s a small possibility that humanity might’ve survived in other cities, and the Companions of Walled City 99 think they’re all dead, but it’s only in their city.