Stanley Parable Review

Stanley Parable
Information
Developers: Galactic Cafe
Publishers: Galactic Cafe
Platforms: PC (Windows, MAC OS, Linux)
Type: Stand - Alone
Modes: Single - Player
Genres/Perspective/Flow: First Person, Walking Simulator, Interactive Fiction.
Rating: N/A
Release Dates:
NA: 17th October 2013
Series: None
Average Completion Time: 2 - 3 Hours
Trophies/Achievements: 10 Steam Achievements
Other Editions: Mod for Half Life 2, The Stanley Parable Demo. 
Additional: Review based on Windows Version. 

Alternate Recommendations: "Heavy Rain" & "Papers Please".

Synopsis:
The Stanley Parable is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end. Contradiction follows contradiction, the rules of how games should work are broken, then broken again. This world was not made for you to understand.But as you explore, slowly, meaning begins to arise, the paradoxes might start to make sense, perhaps you are powerful after all. The game is not here to fight you; it is inviting you to dance.

Review: 

The Stanley Parable is one of the most iconic in video game history (in my opinion), having a true grasp on how one player’s simplest choices can affect the course of the game and the consequences that come along with it.

Stanley Parable is a curious looking game from the start all the way to one of the games many ending, even right from the get go the menu has a strange back ground that feels like a mind fuck right before you even play, having multiple screens on screens that go into each but you move the mouse on all of them, it’s weird but fun to play around. As for other things in the menu there the usual stuff as well as quite a few options if you like to customise how the game feels.

The gameplay is similar to the ever so walking simulator gameplay of today, so like moving around in first person and interacting with environment, which is pretty much all you’ll be doing in this game. However it’s in these interactions that the game begins to take shape as each different one shapes the way the game will end as well as the path you’ll take to that ending. These interactions can also vary in terms of how they are done like some are done by clicking on objects or going through doors that the game tells you not to or by simple standing still doing nothing, many other ways of doing things.

This works incredible well with the amazing level design that literally feels like the ”butterfly effect” type thing, where if you choose one option you’ll enter a part of the level but if you were to choose another you would end up in another part completely different, from the first that you couldn’t get to before, well it’s that or previously visited rooms change or sometimes you get to get out the level breaking the fourth wall.  All of this adds to experience, making each play-through unique as well as fun to play as you step into the unknown.

But what makes this whole butterfly effect gameplay more fun, is defiantly the “Narrator” who guides you the player character “Stanley” throughout the game, or at least tries to direct them but based on the player’s actions the way he considers the player can change, such as if you go against his orders he’ll try to steer you back (but it doesn’t force you back) or eventually become confused, aggressive or annoyed at the player’s action, acting as though they have gone against his script. This I found adds to the gameplay, giving you an objective or rather an enemy to overcome as you progress through the branching plot-lines.

 On a smaller note the graphics, aren’t the most astonishing things in the world but they get the job done and don’t look terrible plus the style fits well with game itself, having various colour palettes based upon the location in the game as well as the players actions, though I did notice some texture popping which took me of of the game every now and then, plus the long load times that broke my immersion at time. On a similar note the soundtrack for game is decent nothing with too amazing but also not terrible.  

In conclusion I would recommend this for anyone wanting a good narrative driven story as well as fun gameplay that seriously changes depending on your actions. Plus it’s fun to play. Go on make your CHOICE, will you play or will avoid?

Final Scores:

Story/Setting/Characters: 8.7
Gameplay: 9.1

Visuals: 7.3

Sound: 7.8

Final Verdict: 8.4/10 (Very Good)