Stray is a beautiful but unfortunately boring experience.

It's good for what it is, don't get me wrong. The graphics are phenominal and the world is just superb. The characters all feel alive and everything in those aspects of the game are perfect. However, in the aspect of gameplay, there is not much.

Being a cat in a video game definitely sounds interesting on paper. Stray did it well, but somehow also not very well. There's unfortunately not much to it towards the end of the game, other than fetch quests around these amazing environments. The beginning of the game proposes some fun and interesting gameplay, but it doesn't go aware and doesn't really feel all that rewarding. It's too bad, because this game really is amazing-looking.

I think the first episode of the game is honestly the best part.

"The House Abandon" (the first episode) is what Stories Untold should have been. It's wonderfully creepy, has a great unsettling atmosphere, and concluded in a way that I enjoyed and didn't feel too anticlimactic. It had small twists and slight changes of detail between actions that I really loved, and there was a sense of horror throughout. The one issue I had with the chapter is the fact that the game's text inputs required very specific verbiage, and I often ended up stuck, looking to a walkthrough to see that I just needed to change one word in my input to progress.

The 2nd and 3rd episodes were not nearly as compelling. They each had a good mechanic that setup the episode, but they both threw that mechanic away about 3/4ths through the episode, whereas the first chapter reintroduced the same initial mechanic in a new way. These two chapters weren't as creepy as the first, and ended in unsatisfying ways, which sucks because they could have been so much better. Overall they weren't terrible, but they felt almost incomplete.

The final chapter does well in recycling gameplay and presenting new scenarios and I really enjoyed this one. It does in fact have a creepy atmosphere and a decently satisfying ending, so this episode was pretty good as well.

Overall it was a decent game that unfortunately leaves more to be desired from its horror and gameplay in certain places.

Signalis does horror very well. I don't play too many horror games, but I can say that I really enjoyed this one...mostly.

Signalis excels in it's art direction and it's sound design. Frequently the sound was the primary reason for my fear during many sections of the game. Many parts relied on rapidly switching images and loud sounds, using anticipation to a great benefit. This was easily the best part of Signalis.

The gameplay of Signalis is pretty decent, but is rather lacking in some areas. For one, the AI of the enemies is super easy to avoid, and I found myself dodging them later in the game rather than fighting them. The puzzles are for the most part pretty excellent. Never anything too hard, but nothing too simple either. This breaks down a bit towards the end of the game where it's less puzzles more items.

If I had one thing I didn't like about Signalis, it would be it's length. This may be a bit spoilery, but when I reached the "ending" of the game, I was a bit relieved and worn out. When I found out that there was more, I gave up and decided I was fine without witnessing the "true ending" of Signalis. The game dragged on a little too long, and I think the extra ending area of the game was overdone and I didn't actually complete it.

Signalis was very good, easily one of the best horror games of the year, but I can't help but wish it was a little bit shorter or at least didn't fake me out with an ending. I highly recommend this to any fan of horror games.