Video Games Suck - The Stanley Parable

This is a pretty good indie-HD-remake from Steam you can get for 9 euro currently (in my country). And holy shit, I have never seen such a thought-provoking game in my entire life! Click the Read More button to find out about the messy-thought and complex game that is The Stanley Parable.

This is a pretty good indie-HD-remake from Steam you can get for 9 euro currently (in my country). And holy shit, I have never seen such a thought-provoking game in my entire life! Click the Read More button to find out about the messy-thought and complex game that is The Stanley Parable.

So, basically, let's start right off the bat that this is not REALLY a game, but it's an interactive fiction. This is in regards to the HD remake, not the Source mode. So, let's start, shall we?

GRAPHICS

Since this is an HD re-make, I expected good fucking graphics, and I got them! Okay, so it does use some of Source's low-res textures, but everything else, ranging from the environments on some endings and the scattered papers, documents and coffee cups and shit around the floors make it truly look like an abandoned complex. They have a nice detail attached to them. The TV monitors room now doesn't look like it is some small-box-sized with boxy computer monitors. It now has a tube-like shape and it's FILLED with these huge-ass enormous screens that really set up the scenery with their displays. I truly felt like I was there with the scenery. Overall, it's pretty fucking good, and with very smooth animations.

SOUND

Holy fuck, this is some top-notch voice acting. The narrator, who is the only source of voice in this game, is a British guy. He portrays the narrator EXTREMLEY well, given he re-enacts every single one of his goddamn emotions. Every.Single.One. In one of the endings, he literally makes himself look depressed to crush your feelings. The sound effects and music are also some nicely polished custom-made shit too. The tense, and sometimes HILARIOUS music will literally keep you on the edge of your seat. The Countdown one is probably my favourite.

GAMEPLAY

Okay, now here is the best part of the fiction. This really isn't Dear Esther anymore, listening and following what the dumbass narrator says. NO. Here, you can disobey him and follow another route, which is pretty nice and also branches off into different scenarios and situations, and also gets the narrator literally bewildered and annoyed. There is no real stereotypical gameplay here, you just move around and open doors/press buttons. That's the only thing Stanley, your character, can do. It's all about the narrative. As you disobey the narrator more and more, the game literally makes you think it writes it's own script, because EVERY decision you make has it's own ending. There are literally more than 6 endings in here, each with it's own story to tell. But it also doesn't "truly" end, because you can still re-play it, and giving it a touch of exploritation, you continue to do other decisions to find out that next un-found ending you couldn't do on the last playthrough. The best part of the game is how open it is to player thinking. It is a VERY thought-provoking game after all, because the retard who buys it will completely rage at how non-sensical it is, while the intellectual will start thinking about it and more and more will he continue doing various conclusions.

STORY

The premise of this game is that of Stanley, your stereotypical man-with-a-job-and-wife character. His job is somewhat extraordinary, as he pushes buttons on a computer all day lazily by the directions of a monitor. One day, the screen shows absolutley nothing (is blank), and Stanley realizes that his co-workers are gone and there is no soul left. O NOES! This is the starting point for you choices. Whether Stanley goes insane and dies, stays in his room forever, or follows the narrator's instructions and is freed and so much more, is completely up to your decision. It's simply a huge paradox, formed from smaller paradoxes. YOU deduce them.

Overall, The Stanley Parable is an awesome-remade-project that deserves it's experience for such a low price. It truly makes you think.

9.5/10