The Stanley Parable

Hmm, let’s see here. How would I write about something like The Stanley Parable…

The Stanley Parable is… well, at first glance, it’s easy to compare it to a ‘walking simulator’ such as Gone Home or Dear Esther and to an extent, that’s somewhat correct, I mean, you do just walk around. You can’t jump or sprint, just walk and press E to open doors.

That sounds really boring and it’s easy to write it off as some sort of pretentious arthouse ‘thing’ but really, it’s not in that same category in my opinion.

Perhaps the best way to explain it would to compare it to a choose your own adventure book where you list all the branching paths you come across and slowly retrace your steps to explore the other outcomes. It’s sort of like that for videogames, poking fun at game design in a very meta way.

That said, it isn’t a game in the traditional sense. I mean, there’s no skill progression or obstacles to overcome and you can’t exactly win but whether it is or not, it’s very entertaining!

Beyond that, I can’t say a lot more without spoiling it! It’s not super long, well, it’s as long as it takes you to follow every ending which can vary since some are obvious and some are hidden!

I’d say, check out the demo on https://store.steampowered.com/app/221910 and if it appeals to you, I would highly recommend checking it out!

Oh, also, do keep in mind that the demo isn’t so much a segment of the actual title so much as it is a demo of what sort of experience that the title is.

Developer/Publisher: Galactic Cafe
Released in 2013
Platform: PC