Now Playing: The Stanley Parable

I’m not sure where to start. How can I talk about The Stanley Parable without spoiling the experience? And that’s really what it is - an interactive experience. It takes the common narrative and design frameworks we’ve become so accustomed to in our wonderful video games, de-constructs them, pokes them full of holes, turns them upside down and inside out and then creates something entirely unique.

Is it a game? Does it matter? It rather defies description. It’s not a puzzle game as such, but there are plenty of hidden secrets to uncover. It’s not an adventure game, but you do go on an adventure of sorts. There’s no real ending, and no real challenge. It’s first person and you walk about a bit, occasionally pressing (or not!) a button. In terms of gameplay it’s basic to the point of non-existent. In terms of replay value you’ll have seen mostly everything within a few hours, so at the current price of 7.99, it’s not exactly great value in that regard.

And yet, I can’t deny that The Stanley Parable was one of the most amusing, entertaining and clever ‘games’ I’ve played in a long while. So how can I score this ‘game’? Should I? And should it relate only to the quality of the content? Or should I take the price and the quantity of content into consideration too?
 

But that said, much of the content and the meaning behind it will be lost on those who are unfamiliar with common video game design tropes, so not everyone will ‘get’ The Stanley Parable. I’m sure many will simply be baffled by it and not see what the fuss is all about. That’s not to say that if you don’t like it, it’s because you don’t ‘get’ it. Perhaps you feel the presentation of this deconstruction simply doesn’t work.

Honestly though, I’m not sure I can score this, uh, ‘game’ accurately. To do so almost seems like it would miss the point of the experience too. So I’ll simply say I think you should play it. Oh, and make sure you play the demo too.