Stanley Parable

SeantheMan

A thread was created for this 'mod' at the time 2 years ago, but I thought I'd make a new thread rather than resurrect the old one
Found here : http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=73695342

I'm suprised there's no thread considering how popular this game is atm (see review scores below)

It appears to have come a long way, you've probably seen it on the front page of the Steam Store.
I tried the demo, but wasn't sure what to make of it...apparently it's just satire and not like the end product.

It's getting really good reviews, and I was just wondering has anyone played or experienced it ?

Eurogamer 90/100
Familiar but consistently surprising, this new Parable even fits beautifully into the existing game - a game that took its power not from a single narrative but the interaction of all its possible narratives, super-positioned and entangled.

IGN 88/100
All its different plotlines and personalities overlap and combine to create something that’s intriguingly opaque, but always entertaining, and genuinely funny. Whatever it is, it’s worth playing.

Destructoid 100

Where so many games that aspire to be more than games end up less than any form of art, Stanley Parable strives, and then succeeds, to be every game ever created. Even so, holding the game to the standards of any other title is simply not going to be correct.

Gamespot 90/100
The Stanley Parable is both a richly stimulating commentary on the nature of choice in games (and in other systems, too, like our workplaces and our families) and a game that offers some of the most enjoyable, surprising, and rewarding choices I've ever been confronted with in a game

aN.Droid

I got it last night. don't know if I was playing the game or if the game was playing me.

I think the game itself and the narrative are taking the proverbial píss out of us. You sit at a computer all day everyday pressing a button doing what you are told until one day the instructions stop coming. What happens next is up to you... Or is it?

One of the better games I have played lately. I would put it on par with dear esther though as in it's not really a game but more of a narrative.

I have only gotten a few of the endings but the ones I have gotten are very different from each other and I have not even scratched the surface of it.

Genghiz Cohen

Played the demo and had no idea what to make of it. A friend then gifted it to me so I played for like 30 mins last night and pretty much ".....huh?"

Sarky

I tried the demo on the recommendation of a friend, and ended up thoroughly confused, but in a really entertaining way. If I hadn't dropped money on Batman I'd have gone for this. Ah well, payday soon, I can rectify that mistake...

ShadowHearth

Interesting.... Steam sale way interesting...

jumbobreakfast

I got a good few hours out of it which is good for me as I don't play many single player games these days. I can't say i really understood what I was doing but I stuck to a general rule of actively refusing to do what I was expected to do until I had no choice. I thought I had discovered loads of difficult to find places and endings but then looked at the achievements and realised I hadnt unlocked any. Good for a laugh if you have the cash to spare and you enjoyed the feel of the demo (which doesnt spoil the game)

Genghiz Cohen

jumbobreakfast wrote: »

I got a good few hours out of it which is good for me as I don't play many single player games these days. I can't say i really understood what I was doing but I stuck to a general rule of actively refusing to do what I was expected to do until I had no choice. I thought I had discovered loads of difficult to find places and endings but then looked at the achievements and realised I hadnt unlocked any. Good for a laugh if you have the cash to spare and you enjoyed the feel of the demo (which doesnt spoil the game)

Did you have the Achievement for turning on Achievements in the options?

Player 2

A great game (imho!) and one of my favourites of the past few months. Very "Hitchhiker's Guide-ish" at times.

It's quite possible to play the entire thing, from start to finish in about 15 minutes; but in doing so you'd be missing the point.

I'm only hazarding a guess, but I'd say there's 10 or so different paths / endings in the game; some of which I'd love to spoil right now, but won't!

Definitely try the demo first; it's standalone and worth the completely free download.

pixelburp

A surreal delight; like some bizarre mixture of Hitchhiker's, Monty Python and a little dash of Portal. It had me genuinely laughing out loud and like the aforementioned Portal is one of the funniest comedies in any medium over the last few years. It's all very meta and I'm sure there's complex subtexts beneath the narrative, but simply as something to entertain it's a laugh riot (if you're a fan of dry British wit that is)

Definitely a game you shouldn't 'play' conventionally, racing through the corridors, and instead should just listen to the narration and see what mischief you can create in the office. On that, I wonder if Galactic Cafe are doing any stat collection on the game: I'd be genuinely curious to know just how many players

went through the door on the right

during their first playthrough.

Oh and did anyone else get the simply fantastic

Minecraft / Portal ending? The sketch with the game testing was hilarious to begin with; when I dropped into Minecraft, I did giggle a fair bit

jumbobreakfast

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

Did you have the Achievement for turning on Achievements in the options?

lol I did actually, that one made me laugh.

johnny_ultimate

Finally got around to playing this, and it's something damn near a masterpiece. A killer satire of video game design generally, realised through an inspired, hilarious and consistently surprising narrative. It's actually a far superior example of predetermined but interactive storytelling than pretty much anything else I've played, with the branches actually leading in radically different directions. After the first couple of rooms (which themselves are also variable, incidentally) you're almost always discovering entirely new content, not just minor remixes of the other ones. It's all very wink wink and meta, but I'd love to see the designers take the ideas they've realised here and craft them on a grander, less explicitly satirical scale.

As the game reminds us, our input is fairly meaningless, but meaninglessness has rarely been so adventurous. It's like the themes and critiques made in Bioshock actually applied rather than just articulated.

Sarky

Yup, I've been buying it as a present for friends who have a thing for storytelling and narrative, it's a textbook example on how to do it right, while at the same time showing you just how every single choice you can make in any game is just a cheap illusion.

pablomakaveli

The style of humour reminded very much of the humour in Portal (which is a good thing).

I really enjoyed this game and thats mainly down to the excellent narrator. Doing the click on the door 5 times achievement had me in stitches.

Been playing through it now - it's one of my favourite games of this year. Perhaps one of my favourite moments so far is standing in the Broom closet and, well, not doing anything. It is one of those games that the more you play, the less you do as you're told, then the more you get out of it. It is as heart breaking as it is humourous,

with the Narrator realizing you'd much rather kill yourself by falling off a high ledge than play the game and he starts pleading and pleading

. For a game where nothing really happens, you get drawn into it much more than other games, with an urge to just keep walking and making choices.

SherlockWatson

It really is a brilliant little game, the

confusion ending room was brilliant, the camera room was cool, and it was nice to able to walk around the games "workshop".

Definitely worth it IMO.

pixelburp

pablomakaveli wrote: »

The style of humour reminded very much of the humour in Portal (which is a good thing).

Funny that you mention that,

there is an ending where the Narrator decides to create a new game for you, frustrated that you're not enjoying the current one. At first he makes you test a hilarious 'save the baby from a fire' simulator, before giving up and dropping you into a Minecraft world, and then the first level of Portal.

But yes, I'd agree with these recent sentiments, it's definitely a contender for game of the year. In fact, I'd go one further: I think it's one of the comedies of the year. Ok, that covers a variety of media sure, but in terms of happy discoveries across 2013, from TV to film through to gaming I can't think of much that hasn't been as smart, witty and hilarious as Stanley Parable

pixelburp

pixelburp wrote: »

Funny that you mention that,

there is an ending where the Narrator decides to create a new game for you, frustrated that you're not enjoying the current one. At first he makes you test a hilarious 'save the baby from a fire' simulator, before giving up and dropping you into a Minecraft world, and then the first level of Portal.

But yes, I'd agree with these recent sentiments, it's definitely a contender for game of the year. In fact, I'd go one further: I think it's one of the comedies of the year. Ok, that covers a variety of media sure, but in terms of happy discoveries across 2013, from TV to film through to gaming I can't think of much that hasn't been as smart, witty and hilarious as Stanley Parable

I absolutely loved that whole sequence.

The scoreboard was also equally funny, when you stand by and read it. It goes on to say that a dead rat is better at the game than you are.

raze

Deleted User wrote: »

I absolutely loved that whole sequence.

Mostly agree, and I can see the point they're making - but the alternate ending to that sequence is something I'm always going to YouTube rather than spend 4 hours on. Fair play for putting it in though. Like the achievement for not playing the game for a few years, which requires what it says on the tin, or some playing around with the PC's system clock.

I totally loved the game, and that gripe doesn't tarnish it. There's a result which happens downstairs and the writing freaked me out - I was second guessing what was being said as I listened to the writing second guess my thoughts. Damnit monologue, get out of my mind!