The Stanley Parable

brucebruce
edited August 2011 in Games
The Stanley Parable is a free mod for Half Life 2. It is wonderful, but I'm saving my comments on it for the next post so as to not spoil it. Please play the game before reading about it. Go in uninformed for the most enjoyment.

Download here

Comments

  • brucebruce
    edited August 2011
    DO NOT READ THIS POST UNTIL YOU HAVE PLAYED THE GAME. SERIOUSLY, DON'T














    I play very few games where, upon clicking quit, I feel like my mind has been blown and or messed with. This is one of those games.

    First time I played it, I followed the "canonical" route and even as the narrator told me that Stanley was now free, I couldn't get the feeling that he wasn't. His freedom was nothing more than the result of perfectly following a set of instructions by an unreliable narrator.

    Some of the endings really messed with my mind, especially the one that is the result of your going into the pod to get crushed and the one that occurs in Red Letter day maps.

    Although a lot of it could be construed as pseudo-philosophical bunk, it was bunk that was fascinating to play, especially as a fan of literature with bizarre narratives.

    What are your views?
  • mariomario
    edited August 2011
    I played full disobedience on the first run-through, mostly because I wanted to see how far it would go. They actually built the deviating branches a lot further than I expected, and there's some good narration. The biggest mind-messing for me was probably from the second narrator. Part of me wants to play through her path again to see if anything happens post-crushing (it's the only ending I found that doesn't end the game properly, and I wonder if it means there's something to be seen for the patient).

    This is the first game I've played in a long time where I feel like there are more options than I'm seeing. I'm fairly certain I've played all the possible pathways, but I keep inventing novel approaches in my head. When I come back to it fresh, I'm gonna try inaction from the start to see if anything different occurs (I should probably note that I followed your advice as well as the developer's and haven't read any ancillary material before or during my gameplay sessions, and yes, it's totes fulfilling to do so).

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