The Stanley Parable

Depending on whether you spend a minute or three hours with The Stanley Parable, your impression of it will change. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, the game will throw you as far off course as possible. You’ll feel a bizarre motivation to uncover each of more than a dozen endings, even when the game is openly mocking you for doing so. The insults speak to a larger truth and may make you question what it means to play games at all. This introspection, however, will have you laughing the entire time.

The Stanley Parable is many things all at once, and all of them are clever and fun. It’s a story made of stories, an exploration of the limits of freedom in gaming, a battle between narrator and narrated, and a giant self-referential meta feedback loop. It encourages exploration by rewarding you with entirely new game paths leading to wildly differing ends, and Stanley even manages to survive a few of them.

The Stanley Parable is built upon a single, simple premise, and only offers a few hours of entertainment. That said, those few hours were unlike any I've experienced playing games before. If you're a fan of experimental indie projects or just in the mood for a fun detour from your typical gaming adventure, look no further.