4Players: Games of the year 2022: 13th place: Stray

The creators of the cyberpunk-inspired cat adventure Stray did almost everything right: they delivered a cozy feel-good game with a lovable animal protagonist, and incidentally they created what is probably the best 3D graphics of an indie game in 2022 – and proved it their July release also has a sense of timing. Stray was suddenly on everyone’s lips, and that was a good thing.

You can accuse the action-adventure of a lack of gameplay and scoff at some very simple stealth passages, and there was still plenty of room for improvement when it came to replay value. For this, the makers poured a lot of cat essence and lovable quirks of the popular pets into a virtual entertainment product, which also passes as a very elaborate representative of the modern category of “cozy games”.

Thanks to creatively built game worlds, charming androids and a few clever puzzles, Stray sneaks, hops and purrs elegantly into our top 20 of the year. Who can blame this stray?

14th place: Signalis
15th place: Bayonetta 3
16th place: A Plague Tale: Requiem
17th place: Gran Turismo 7
18th place: Return to Monkey Island