Truth be told, we’ve never seen anything remotely close to The Stanley Parable, to the point where it’s pretty hard to even accurately talk about it without spoiling everything that makes it fantastic. There is literally nothing we can say about the game that won’t ruin parts of what makes it magnificent, and we couldn’t even agree on which parts to talk about without running the risk of spoiling the moments which make it one of the standouts of the year. We’re imploring you to simply skip over this entry and instead buy the game and check it out on your own.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
The Stanley Parable is an absolute thing of beauty. The linear (but not really) first-person title finally understands that even in a video game where you’re simply supposed to follow the path, the player may have wildly different ideas than the developer on how to proceed. Here, you’re told what is expected of you, but the door has (literally) been opened for you to simply go the other way and watch as the game tries to adapt.
This is all brilliantly tied together by the quasi-omnipotent narrator, who is attempting to tell a story while we continually muck up his instructions. His jovial tone gradually turns to frustration, and then outright defeat. He’s really the star of this game, and may very well be the best NPC we’ve encountered since Portal‘s GlaDOS.
If you’re still reading this, we feel the need to point out that you’re absolutely horrid at following very simple directions, and that’s probably held you back in life. However, that same refusal to complete simple tasks when asked by someone you have no real accountability to means you are the perfect candidate to play The Stanley Parable. It may be a one trick pony, but when that one trick is performed perfectly, it demands to be seen.