Rappoport Reviews: The Stanley Parable

Glory.

Glory. That is what we aspire to, isn’t it? Status, achievement, the need to be needed. Isn’t that largely why we get up to these large screens day after day assisting endlessly despairing protagonists in their journey. Hell, I carried a lawn gnome across an entire set of stages while fleeing a zombie horde for that little box to show up telling me that I’m special. Were it not for us, Chell would still be locked in stasis, Gordon Freeman would still just be a physicist at a questionable company, and Stanley… well, I’m not honestly sure. Stanley might have had an entire life before we interfered with him, an exciting life of pushing firm, brightly colored buttons to engaging orders… Wait, this all sound familiar? What am you doing right now? What was I doing while playing The Stanley Parable ?

There was an office, certainly. And a large number of buttons. And a stirring narration by Kevan Brighting. Apart from that however, I am at a loss. I’m being serious here I don’t really know what’s going on. Galactic Café’s reboot of their award winning mod is just a strange beast of a game. I don’t hesitate to call it a game because it is certainly something that you play. However, I could question the definition of a game as something that you… win. As a game, The Stanley Parable is a fairly basic package in line with titles like Gone Home and Dear Esther . You can press the usual buttons, you can crouch, however jumping seems to be off the table here. There is no violence to speak of, save existential and psychological. The Stanley Parable is a game about choices, or not making choices. It is about Stanley, and it isn’t. I don’t really know Stanley, I don’t care to know him…he seems like a rather dull sort of guy. Maybe something behind some door will have an answer, although probably not. But then again…

The Stanley Parable examines the structure of narrative in a delightfully unnerving and witty fashion. Each moment you must make decisions, and each moment after those decisions echo throughout the gameplay. All the while, the game is pointing at you, laughing, mocking your failures and jeering at your successes. Most of the time. While The Stanley Parable is very, very much aware of its status in life as a video game, this awareness does not hinder it and it does not weaken the story. It is not a gag, although there are a lot of those in the game. The Stanley Parable takes the concept of a self-aware game and puts you directly into conflict with everything which that implies.

The game is short, but then again, the game is forever. This is a game that may have no real end, there are things to discover behind every corner. Even those walls have some secrets to hide, and I’m certain that I don’t trust the moral fortitude of that carpeting. In truth, the game takes what we expect from a game and turns it on its head, laughing at us all the while and expecting us to laugh at our own foolishness. Of course narrative must be decided by the player’s actions! This isn’t a game where you can just “go back and see what happens”, but then again it is. You can enable saves, although I wouldn’t recommend it. Each time the game is booted it keeps track of each time the game is played, things are different, things are said, things press buttons.

I know I’m asking an awful lot of you, making these choices. Meaningful choices. It isn’t asked of you much in games, but I urge you to at least try. Try, Stanley. Just try to make a choice, please? For me? There is a kaleidoscope of endings and secrets and disastrous consequences to discover. The game is speaking to you every step of the way, urging you to make another choice. And it’s okay. It is okay to make these choices because, after all, you’re safe behind your computer, pressing buttons and doing what you’re told. Right? I can’t promise you anything, all I know is that while playing this game, I laughed, I thought, and I pressed buttons. I cannot say anything else. You’ll have to take a leap of faith. A figurative one, of course, because as I mentioned, you cannot jump.

[review pros=”Buttons, unique and hilarious narrative, existential crisis, hallways” cons=”Brain might break as a result of play.” score=95]