The Stanley Parable

Genre: Adventure, Indie

Developer: Galactic Cafe

Publisher: Galactic Cafe

System: Windows

I find that most video games aren't particularly invested in their story lines or, if they are, they tend to be pretty basic plotlines: the rise of a hero, the journey to find oneself, etc. The Stanley Parable is not like this. The Stanley Parable is, in fact, entirely story. To be honest there is barely any game to be played. All you can do is walk around and, occasionally, interact with some objects. One has to ponder if this should qualify as a video game at all or some kind of interactive art piece to be displayed in a gallery with a tiny plaque that that reads, "The Stanley Parable, Interactive Media," followed by a brief description of what the work is meant to represent and the overzealous use of the word "juxtaposition."

In The Stanley Parable we play the character Stanley, a man who works in a cubicle performing a tedious job where he follows the instructions on his computer to type various keys at specific times. He likes this job. Then one day he wakes up to discover everyone in his office has disappeared. We know this because the narrator tells us. Also, everyone has disappeared. The narrator then proceeds to tell us what Stanley does in order to try to locate his vanished comrades. This is where the game gets interesting.

OK, well, at first we're just wandering around a bland office building filled with desks, computers, coffee mugs, and papers. There are many doors, but they are always closed and locked with the exception of one in every room that is open and beckoning us to enter. But then we come to a room where there are two open doors, DUH DUH DUUUUUUUH! This is where the game gets interesting.

The narrator tells us that Stanley walks through the door to the left, because he knows that's where the conference room is and that happens to be where he's heading. This is where the true game begins. What if we don't want to go through the door to the left? Well, then I guess we're going to take the door to the right, which will lead us somewhere else and make the narrator a liar. This is where the game gets interesting.

I think I had to restart the game about five times before the ten minutes were up. Eventually, no matter which path we take, the narrator gives up and demands we start over again. This is where the game gets interesting.

You see, now we start over, but the story is slightly different. This time when we come to the room with two open doors, there are several open doors. And next time there will be no open doors, and the time after that there will be two open doors, but they may lead us to different places! I have never in my life felt more intrigued to wander around an empty office building listening to a pleasant British narrator, except for that one weekend I spent wandering around my office building listening to Steven Fry read books on tape and that never even happened.

The Stanley Parable is undoubtedly strange, but it does something I have never before witnessed in a videogame. It gives you the illusion of choice, but it is, in fact, allowing you to truly change the outcome of the game with your choices. So when you choose that other path, you are actively choosing to allow the game to bring you to an alternate ending as opposed to following what the narrator says every time, which I assume brings you to the "boring" ending. And even if you try to follow the same steps every time you restart, the game may force you to do something else, which makes you have to ponder if you are playing the game or, wait for it, if the game is playing you... Huh? Interesting, right?

Happy Thoughts: The Stanley Parable is lighthearted and has a good sense of humor.

Sad Thoughts: The graphics are pretty low-quality (though this doesn't really take away from the game) and if you're like me and have problems with motion sickness you may need to step away occasionally.

The Bottom Line: I actually bought this game by accident while trying to purchase it for a friend to whom I owed money. That same friend told me that I had made a good accidental purchase and, to give me an idea of what I was in for, mentioned that there is an achievement for not playing the game for four years. I think I was hooked before I even booted the game up for the first time. Unfortunately, I find the game so interesting that it may be a lot longer than four years before I get that achievement. But I am willing to bet that the game goes through an interesting change if you actually manage to wait that long to play it. It's just that kind of game.