The Stanley Parable Review (Jadarma)
Overview
The Stanley Parable is a one of a kind game. You play as Stanley, an employee that has to press buttons. When suddenly, you stop and head out your office. A narrator describes your adventure and it's up to you to listen to him or not. Explore the office building and make different choices every playthrough and unlock all of the many endings possible!
The Pros:
Beautiful - The graphics are decent, the lightning glorious, and walking through the building is pleasant to the eye.
Choices - The best thing a game can do for you is let you be in control. The Stanley Parable makes you make your own story, every step of the way, and unlocking a different ending every time. Such decisions include taking the left or right door, going to the meeting or not, or turning off the evil machine... or not. Every action has a thing to say for the ending.
Comical - The narrator says things that are sometimes very funny, the way he reacts when you disobey him and the scenes you encounter have some very rich monologue.
Deep - It might not look like this the first time you play, but as you uncover different endings you will see the hidden meaning behind Stanley's story. The writing is very cleverly done, the existance of the narrator poses further questions, and the very nature of reality bends amongst different endings.
The Cons:
Repetitive up to a point - As the story forks at different intersections, you are bound to repeat parts of it until you reach the branching point. Some of the paths require waiting for long narrations to play, so you might become a little impatient along the process.
Unconventional Achievements - Most achievements require a degree of witt to figure out what they want (or read a guide) but there are some that are really unnecessary, such as playing the game for the entire duration of a Tuesday, implying either BIOS Time Changing or leaving the PC idle for 24 hours, the Unachiveable, which requires configuration file tweaks and the Go Outside which makes you not play for... 5 years. Of course, circumventable with a little sly techniques, but they are not achievements related to the game. They don't track progress or skill, they're just there to mess with you and waste your time.
Conclusion:
The Stanley Parable stand out amongst the rest of pshycological narratives and really puts the player in a position of power over his destiny, or at least gives him a very powerful delusion about it. Buy with confidence, it is an enjoyable experience.
If you enjoyed this review and want to see more of my work, consider joining my group and follow my curator page! Link to the right!Jad's List - Curator Group