The Stanley Parable

Recently, I came across a game called “The Stanley Parable”. It’s a mod game created by Galatic Café. Currently it is available in steam. I always had mixed feelings about this game as it depends on how you play this game.

The Stanley Parable is an interactive story based game. The story telling is a little different from the games that I have played before. Usually in story based games, you are given the freedom to make decisions and it will lead to another pathway.

It is very similar to The Stanley Parable too. Different decisions leads to different pathway unless you listen to the narrator. If you listen to the narrator, you get to finish the game in the simplest way.

If you don’t listen to the Narrator, that’s way your life starts to get tough. If you listen to the narrator, he does not laugh at you.  However, if you do, he mocks at you, teases you or even get angry at you for not listening

Sometimes, when you take a different pathway, the narrator tries to take a different route in the narration and attempts to bring back the story by bringing the player to the next planned pathway.

Once I decided not to listen and the narrator got angry at me. He mocked at me by closing the entire pathway and made me run around the square parameters. I felt trapped and I struggled to find a pathway. While not able to find a pathway, he mocks at my stupid decisions.

It’s quite surprising that there are more than 10 ending for a small built game. The gameplay is actually very simple. All the player has to do is to use the keyboard to move and mouse to select items. Most importantly, listen to the narrator too.

I felt that this game was unique as it directly forces you to play along with the story. If you don’t then you have to face the consequences. To me, the game came up with a different

approach of telling a story and indirectly daring the players to try out a different pathway.

It actually stirs the curiosity of a player where they ponder on what will happen if they took a different pathway. Some might even take it as a challenge as they attempt to defeat the narrator.

I did enjoy playing this game and I am glad that I discovered this game. However, to me this game is more to fill up the space during your bored period. It’s a game that you will play when you are feeling bored from your other games.