Rating
The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is an experimental narrative-driven first person game. It is an exploration of choice, freedom, storytelling and reality, all examined through the lens of what it means to play a video game.
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The Stanley Parable Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
Home is where the mind is.My goal for this review is to make you want to play The Stanley Parable without giving away [...]
Sometimes The Stanley Parable feels like an exploration of the peculiar madness of boredom. Other times it’s something else entirely: a joke at the player’s expense, a commentary on choice and consequence, a parody, a bureaucratic nightmare. All its different plotlines and personalities overlap and combine to create something that’s intriguingly opaque, but always entertaining, and genuinely funny. Whatever it is, it’s worth playing.
There is no combat in the game, and your journey is not about fighting, exploring, overcoming or even surviving; At one stage I died and literally had to restart the game to play again, after looking at a black screen for half an hour...wondering what I was supposed to do. And that's the key.
The Stanley Parable is game you are going to play through multiple times over the course of several hours. As a result players will often encounter repeat situations. The Stanley Parable was designed for this type of play through, so the story reacts accordingly. However when playing through portions at a fast pace, the narration will interrupt itself when the next trigger point is reached. It’s harsh and unnatural but not something encountered unless players have already experienced the content and are comfortable pushing ahead.