The Stanley Parable is... is... wow...

[FieryTrainwreck]

This game makes most of the Gone Home hype look really, really stupid.

 

[T_ConX]

OK, I'm reading the reviews of this thing, and I'm still hesitant. I'm worried because the vibe I'm getting is that this is one of those games that gets GREAT SCORES from every review site. However, once I actually get around to playing it, I quickly discover that the game is terrible, but everyone just seems to pretend they like it. Why? Because if anyone who says they don't like it gets accused of being too dumb to understand it. Emperor's New Clothes.

Basically, I'm still hurt over the fact that I paid actual currency for Gone Home.

Carolyn Petit gave it a 9/10.

Well now I know it's shit.

OH! The game is SO DEEP because there's this one point where the narration says one thing, but you can totally do THE OTHER THING. I get it! After years of chasing objective markers in games like Call of Duty and Halo, all it takes is a simple binary choice to get you excited.

Screw it. Not losing $12 to this. I'll wait for a Steam Sale or Humble Bundle.

 

[Quadocky]

I wouldn't call it a game. Yet it is a game.

Also I don't like it. At the same time I really do like it.

It invokes a deep melancholy in me, but it also makes me smile.

But to be absolutely serious, I've seen this done better in an old TFC map that had a hidden 'level' in it with branching paths and challenges. It turned the whole game upside down and basically pulled off the same thing the Stanley Parable does in a way, but without a narrator.

I also agree that the Demo is probably better in terms of writing and humor.

Lastly the Stanley Parable mystifies me, thinking upon it invokes a sort of... instantaneous nostalgia. Its spooky as hell, even though I only played it for 3 hours... it feels like i've played it forever, and its the only gave I have ever played.

 

[Somebloke]

WARNING: Some might consider the stuff below somewhat spoiler-ish (nothing specific - it may just give you preconceived expectations, going into the game, which in turn could take away from your own experience of discovery).

...
OH! The game is SO DEEP because there's this one point where the narration says one thing, but you can totally do THE OTHER THING. I get it! After years of chasing objective markers in games like Call of Duty and Halo, all it takes is a simple binary choice to get you excited.
...

Well, the thing is that it is a meta design; It gives you the choice to disobey the immediate narrative, yes, but in doing so, highlights how no matter what you do, no matter how much the narrator chastise you for your actions, with much the very same snark that you just provided; the options are there because the makers of the game built them and authored and recorded the scathing words - you are still moving down a prebuilt corridor.
How much is your free will at play, here? The main theme of the "immediate" narrative and the completing of it, prove paradoxical in nature, which is worth a chuckle, at the very least.

The game is a humorous experience that lets you reflect on story structure and player agency in the game medium, specifically, along with the mechanics that are commonly used to facilitate this, and you really need to have played a few other story/player_choice games, to get the most out of it. Recognition and all that...

Different things have different value to different people -- I hope you'll enjoy The Stanley Parable, once it comes around at a pricepoint that is suitable to you.
In the meantime; Consider trying the original mod - there is a point of recognition or two, in the remake, for returning players.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

OH! The game is SO DEEP because there's this one point where the narration says one thing, but you can totally do THE OTHER THING. I get it! After years of chasing objective markers in games like Call of Duty and Halo, all it takes is a simple binary choice to get you excited.

Ummm, but it's not one point. It's every point: There are so many branching paths to this game because there are so many different choices in the game. There's also a lot of secrets (For example, entire maps are hidden from you if you try to see them in the games folder).

But whatever, it's your choice to not buy this game...

 

[Exterminas]

That game is probably the most concise summary of all the philosophical issues associated with the concept of Free Will. And the good News is: It won't take as long to read as anything Tomas Aquinas wrote and it will be cheaper than any of his books!

 

[Weaver]

That game is probably the most concise summary of all the philosophical issues associated with the concept of Free Will. And the good News is: It won't take as long to read as anything Tomas Aquinas wrote and it will be cheaper than any of his books!

All of Aquinis' works are public domain and available online. Specific translations will not be public domain, but you can read it all for free.

That said, he had an incredibly boring writing style in my opinion. At least it was pretty straightforward in that it wasn't hard to discern what he meant (a complaint I frequently levy at Kant).

 

[T_ConX]

I hope you'll enjoy The Stanley Parable, once it comes around at a pricepoint that is suitable to you.

After watching this...


... I think $0 is a fair price point for this bad joke of a game, assuming I'd ever want to play it.

 

[JediMB]

I played the mod a good while back. I'm pretty sure Extra Credits had recommended it.

It was very amusing and rather interesting, for sure. Can't afford the new version at this moment, though.

 

[[REDACTED]]

I hope you'll enjoy The Stanley Parable, once it comes around at a pricepoint that is suitable to you.

After watching this...


... I think $0 is a fair price point for this bad joke of a game, assuming I'd ever want to play it.

So... because it contains a silly easter egg that no one in their right mind would find, it's worthless. Noted.

 

[Exterminas]

That game is probably the most concise summary of all the philosophical issues associated with the concept of Free Will. And the good News is: It won't take as long to read as anything Tomas Aquinas wrote and it will be cheaper than any of his books!

All of Aquinis' works are public domain and available online. Specific translations will not be public domain, but you can read it all for free.

That is perfectly true. I was using "book" in the sense of "actual physical book", which still cost quite a lot in my corner of the world, despite the fact that the text itself is free.

 

[Amaror]

I really love the arguments people bring to not buy an awesome 10 dollar game.

- It was free back when it contained less contend and looked worse. UNACCEPTABLE!
- One of the thousand jokes isn't funny. UNACCEPTABLE!
- The boring story, that nobody cares about, only takes about 2 minutes. UNACCEPTABLE!

 

[smokingplane]

Well i bought it, I 'played' it for a bit more than half an hour and my opinion is that if you like gameplay this thing is not for you. If you like a good story it's also not really for you because the basic plot is under 5 min if you don't stop and just follow the clues you are given, and just following orders is not the way to go here, but the 3 other endings I got where only a bit longer to walk through and just added confusion.

I do not consider this a game, or a good story.
I do not agree that if you like the hitchhikers gttg you like this, the humour isn't nearly as good in this.
I do consider it an interesting 30 minutes, and since 12$ is not really that much I consider it not a waste of money.

But it's not a game, do not buy it unless you want an interactive story.

 

[bluepotatosack]

But it's not a game, do not buy it unless you want an interactive story.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on what makes a game a game. Interactive stories are games in my opinion. What are your thoughts on say, visual novels?

 

[smokingplane]

But it's not a game, do not buy it unless you want an interactive story.

I'm going to have to disagree with you on what makes a game a game. Interactive stories are games in my opinion. What are your thoughts on say, visual novels?

I wouldn't call those games eighter. They're visual novels.
It needs a lot more player interaction before I call it a game.

Would you consider a dvd with a lot of extra's and several available soundtracks a game just because you can contole the speed of playback , play some gimicy games and choose the available audiotrack? Because thats almost the same level of interaction that most visual novels offer.

This is offcourse just my personal opinion, but a game needs to offer more gameplay before I call it a game.
The Stanley parable needs a lot more input to progress the story, but it's not gameplay, it's more like a bad dvdplayer where you need to keep the play button pressed down to make it go forward and you have to give it a wack now and then when it's stuck, depending where you hit it it jumps some tracks so you might get the normal or the extended edition or the blooperreel ending.

It's very well done, and entertaining but it's not a 'game'.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Would you consider a dvd with a lot of extra's and several available soundtracks a game just because you can contole the speed of playback , play some gimicy games and choose the available audiotrack? Because thats almost the same level of interaction that most visual novels offer.

The DVD as a whole? No, of course not. The games included on that DVD I would call games, though.

So let's look at RPG's now. Particularly western ones. Oftentimes they will offer you branching pathways in a very straightforward manner. In say, a dialogue choice. Is making that decision not a part of gameplay?

 

[mike1921]

I'm going to be 100% honest here: My problem with the game is everyone refuses to actually describe what it is and the replies whenever anyone asks are all meme spouting fuckheads who then flood the thread with "8" and "Tuesday" and things like "It's 30 seconds and it's 10 days".

Give me a fucking break; the fanbase has killed my interest in this game already.
If the game is like the demo, then it's not "indescribable" by any stretch of the imagination.

Dude, chill. The problem is it's a game of many short routes and a ton of endings. There is literally an ending you can get without leaving the first room in the game. It's not about gameplay, you either find an ending or you don't. So:A choose your own adventure book that manages to hide some paths. So if the story is incredibly simple and the story paths are short enough where you probably can't write a paragraph about them without saying the whole ending it's difficult to describe it cohesively without spoiling shit.

Like if I was forced to describe it without spoiling it:I would just say it's a comedy game that you probably won't laugh at directly but you'll probably be grinning ear to ear or really thinking the whole time, and it's 90% carried by the narrator.

 

[TheDoctor455]

Yeah I heard some hype around it. I watched a LP of an earlier version, is this one any different?

This isn't going to be like Gone Home is it? I played that game and phewww...was that a disappointment.

Uh... no. Its not like Gone Home. Though I think Gone Home was pretty good. It just deliberately tricked people into thinking it was a horror game when it was really a love story. Which I didn't really mind, but I can see why that would annoy some people.

As for The Stanley Parable... the new version is very different from the original. There are more endings, many of which you have to be very alert and explore every possible point of interaction in the game in order to find them...

and even in the endings that return from the original, none of them are complete complete copy-pastes of the original. They have some new content as well...

and there are a lot more easter eggs. There's even a next-to-impossible achievement (aptly titled "Unachievable") that... some people have gotten already... and STILL no one really knows how to get it.

Also, the narration is genuinely funny and creepy when it needs to be. Plus, there are plenty of ways to screw with the narrator... hell, that's half the fun, finding all of the little ways you can irritate the voice in your head.