“When every path you walk has been created for you in advance, death becomes meaningless, making life the same. Do you see now? Do you see that Stanley was already dead from the moment you hit start?” – Female narrator of The Stanley Parable

Main Menu of The Stanley Parable Source: A Hipster’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Stanley Parable is a first-person game created by an indie company called Galactic Café. It will completely blow your mind with its unique set of rules and hilarious metafictional elements. Here is the creators’ somewhat boggling description of the game:

“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.” – The Stanley Parable Official Website

The whole ‘story’ is told and described by the initially calm and composed omniscient—but not truly omnipotent—Narrator (yes, he deserves the capital ‘N’). Stanley, the character you play, is employee number 427 working in room, you guessed it, 427. This is where the game starts at every reset.

Stanley sits in front of the computer all day, waiting for instructions and pushing buttons as needed. “And Stanley was happy,” the Narrator will tell you. Then, one day, after an hour into work, he is staring into a blank computer screen because not one instruction has been sent to him. Then, he realized that he has not even seen one coworker that morning. They are all missing! Stanley had to explore the office and find out what’s going on, with the Narrator “guiding” him to the “right” ending.

The thing is, Stanley doesn’t have to follow the Narrator’s instructions. His disobedience leads him on different paths and different endings.

There are several features in this game that deserve all the awards and praises in this world:

The graphics of the game are truly astounding. Although there aren’t any humans or humanoid characters around, the 3D objects you see as you play, upon closer inspection, have minute details that give them a realistic look. Its quality can be compared to that of a Disney animated film. Most of the posters you see around the office even have some witty commentary or something similar that will make you laugh. The overall color scheme and design is mild and modest but not bland; it contributes to the serious but somewhat humorous tone of the game. You could really see that a lot of effort had been put in making the graphics.

Screenshots of the map of the game
Taken by Elysia Jelena Villadarez

Aside from being pleasing to the eyes, the game definitely does not neglect the ears. The sound effects—doors closing and opening, footsteps on metal and carpeted ground, the whirring of machines, the occasional background music—all contribute in making the game suspenseful and fun at the appropriate times.

And the developers definitely picked the right voice for the Narrator. Kevan Brighting’s voice is smooth, cool, and heavily accented, and he gives off a powerful and controlling aura through his speech. What’s more, the emotions bleeding through the Narrator’s voice bring him to life, making him more than a nonchalant monotone all-seeing being.

Kevan Brighting, the voice of Stanley’s frenemy Source: Red Carpet News TV

The premise of the game is interesting in itself and the implementation of the idea is superb. Being a first-person game, you are putting yourself in the shoes of Stanley and therefore you become much more invested in what is going to happen. There is a clear cut story but as you progress, you will realize that the game is mainly about Stanley’s evolving relationship with the Narrator. Each choice you make invokes varying responses from the Narrator, which will decide whether he will be your friend or foe. And let me tell you, some endings are pretty heartbreaking.

One of my favorite things about this game is that it will constantly remind you that you are IN a game. It uses metafictional elements in hilarious ways. It literally has meta-layers upon meta-layers that would have Inception producers crying with shame.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

It is amusing and mind-blowing at the same time, because even with the presumably irrelevant actions, the Narrator has a remark or two ready.

Last, but not in any way the least; there’s the dialogue of the story. The game will not be as nearly as enjoyable as it is without the clever and ironic commentary of the Narrator. The dialogue is very entertaining and well-written. Sometimes, the Narrator suddenly veers off in philosophical and existential crises and just slams you with confusing ideas. Other times, he insults you in a very sarcastic and witty manner that makes you wish you could retort just to wipe that smug tone out of his voice. There are so many quotable things in this game that would make for a good debate or simply an awesome poster.

All in all, I recommend this game if want your brain to be bamboozled once in a while. It really gets the mind thinking and the heart thumping away with all sorts of positive and negative feelings. It has 19 endings and the time to get each one spans from five minutes to fifteen minutes of gameplay. It’s not a really big time-waster. The controls are easy and the rules just so: obey or disobey the Narrator—your choice.

Onward, gamer, to destiny!

The first real choice Taken by Elysia Jelena Villadarez

Buy the game on steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/221910/

Sources:
A Hipster’s Guide to the Galaxy and Everything in Between: (https://gromartingunnarsen.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/a-hipsters-guide-to-the-stanley-parable/) [4 August 2015]

The Stanley Parable: (http://www.stanleyparable.com/) [4 August 2015]

The Stanley Parable Interview BAFTA Games Award 2014: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BD22Jfitgs) [4 August 2015]