The Stanley Parable

I get that the game is supposed to be meta, but I didn't truly get an ending. I always expected there to be something else. Even when the credits started to roll, I still didn't get closure; just an unsatisfying game.

game was relatively fun to play, enjoyed the narrator and the games general direction paired with the comedy made the game very pleasing

Okay, so, hot take: I hate this game.

Stanley Parable is an exploration game where you venture down various possibilities and alternate endings, presenting itself as a choice-driven narrative where the story directly unfolds from your actions. But what I find to be extremely jarring is that after you make a choice or two, the narrative takes over and you're stuck going down a path you may not want to go down, and there is no way out and no way to turn back. Nearly all of the choices are found at the opening scenes, then the rest of the game plays itself until you're forced to reset.

Compare this to games like the Witcher, Fallout, Mass Effect, or Baldur's Gate, where in every encounter there are a list of possible choices and interactions that have lasting effects on your character and the world itself, where every step you take feels like your own, and the game leads itself in the direction you created. Stanley Parable is nothing like that, every choice feels like an irrevocable trolley ride that must be played out before you can try something else. The dialogue in Stanley Parable is witty, yes, the voice acting is top notch and the writers did fabulously, but as a video game, having all choices stripped from me no matter what I do or where I go feels bad. If I wanted to watch something that is out of my control, I'd turn on the TV. Don't get me wrong, experiencing a story through the eyes of a character is my favorite kind of gaming experience, even if those experiences are only on a single path like in a Naughty Dog game; choice itself is not the end-all for what I enjoy. But at least those games offer challenges that must be overcome, they're still a game that requires thought and effort to be played. In Stanley Parable, you're playing a walking simulator as you listen to dialogue.

A short but impactful game. As a fan of Severance, I was curious to try The Stanley Parable out. What a delightful little box to spend some time in. I have determined that I really don't like to follow rules or orders lol.

Yeah this was easily one of the more aggressively mediocre games I've played. Every ending is designed to waste your time all because I assume the creators of the game want to give some smug, smarmy artistic interpretation of the futility of thinking you're in control when you're not or whatever mid-wit, average IQ reddit-brained slop they mustered up. It's tediously boring and the endless rambling from the atrocious sounding narrator doesn't help matters either. It's aggressively "meta," yet the actual fun is nowhere to be found. This is a $2 game at best, so it definitely wasn't worth the $16.19 I paid for it. I'd get a refund if I could.

This is an experience that should be blindly played by anybody who enjoys finding all the voice lines of characters, or digging into every corner to find whats hidden. I went through this game only knowing the line "This is the story of a man named Stanley" from a meme, and boy am I glad I only went with that. That's all I'll say. PLAY IT.
(Then play Stanley Parable ULTRA DELUXE)

The Stanley Parable is absurd and recursive — much like life itself. But if there’s a true ending, it begins the moment you step away from the screen and wonder: Am I Stanley? The real ending is waking up — and deciding how to live from here.

I get that it's supposed to be a parable of something but listening to that patronizing voice droning on and on just isn't fun. You constantly have to stop doing anything so the narrator can catch up with his long-winded explanations of what's happening. I wish there was a skip button.

The Stanley Parable is a Truman Show-esque nightmare that masquerades as a commentary on video game storytelling. The only flaw is that Jim Carrey is not the narrator. Long live the Broom Closet!

Unique and cherished experience in gaming

Cons:
The game crashes reliably after running for a number of hours

Ah yes, the Stanley Parable. A game so brilliant, so cunning, so diabolically self-aware that I must insist that you dive in blindfolded, metaphorically speaking. Please don't actually blindfold yourself. That would be disadvantageous, and frankly, not very Stanley of you.

I may or may not have experienced everything this game has to offer. I got all the achievements, including the one that required me to go outside. Touch grass, they said. So I did. I'm not saying the game changed my life, but I now can't help but hum whenever I enter elevators.

If you're the kind of person who doesn't like games that break the fourth wall, the other walls, then rebuild the fourth wall just to break it again with a smug British narrator monologuing over your every move — well, then you're not ready for the Stanley Parable.

But if you are... oh, he knows. The narrator always knows. Especially when you're doing something idiotic for the fifteenth time just to see if he'll say something new. And he will. Because he's always watching. I think.

Come, sit with me in the broom closet. I promise the Narrator will love it.

This is a very unique game originally a half life mod where choices matter with lots of humour.

The Stanley Parable is one of the greatest games ever made, both in terms of enjoyment and in terms of social commentary. It's the perfect combination of comedy, story telling and satire on the nature of story telling.

I thought I was questioning existence from the main game, but I just got gaslit by the demo and now I know for sure I don't exist.

some mindless entertainment. no real meaning or deeper story even though it's set up to look like it would. not my preference

The Stanley Parable feels like it was the champion of small game studios doing something different for a while. The game itself didn't blow me away, but it did have a bit of charm. There are a lot of meta parts. The game doesn't really have an ending, just a bunch of short routes. I'm left feeling like it was mildly entertaining, but also like I didn't really do anything for the last 2-3hrs. I'll give a thumbs up for the game's ingenuity. On a personal enjoyment level it was much more of a wavy middle thumb.

Great game with lots of branches. I'm thinking of picking up the new edition that came out a bit ago!

really wacky story and overall fun experience but the beginner's guide was a better game

The HORRENDOUS things I'll do to the Narrator is something man, I'm going to cry. Also someone puh-lease needs to make a Freeman's Mind=esque like series for this game considering both games are made in the Source Engine (specifically this one). Otherwise the broom closet ending was my fav

Honestly if you enjoyed the game, if you haven't played the demo, you should also play the demo. They are separate experiences with the same idea and feel behind it.

"This is the story, of a player called Leonard."

"Leonard was a lonely swedish autistic gamer who despite now owning a powerful PC, didn't forget that the Source engine games had always been there for him during his low spec childhood. "

"Then one day, everything would (mildly) change as Leonard noticed one source game on the steam store yet to be in his collection: The Stanley Parable.
The main feature was a third person narrator that would comment on any action the player could care to perform.
Being desperate for validation & judgement, this made Leonard buy the game instantly so he could be invested in the deep lore, and invested he was.
So invested that his sloppy speedrun exceeded the refund period. Oh what a fool he was!
Leonard was so invested in the narration, that he decided to grind the "go outside" achiviement."

"That tured out to be the best desicion he ever made. As a token of grattitude he felt obligated to recommend the game to everyone else no matter how bloddy pointless he found it."

Overrated. Really, don't buy into those reviews, saying things like "brilliant".

Sure, I enjoyed a few moments in the game but bugs and having to google things to see that I needed to restart the game to fix them, while accidentally seeing the spoilers and replay those irritating choices while listening to the repetitive narrator. While playing, you get non-repetitive narrations but the repetitive ones are more.

The game is very sadistic and instead of a refund, I'd prefer writing this comment. Also, I really repeated a lot of choices with small differences to see where those will take me but they took me absolutely nowhere new.

There is a flowchart of the game on the internet. It is very spoilery but if you look at it, you would see how simple it is actually. The flowchart is just forcing you to start again and again.

If the makers of the game were so 'brilliant', how come they couldn't see that I would write this comment after wasting a good amount of time in the counter room with so many colorful buttons that basically, well, absolutely no function, 12 years after the game's release?

A really good example of a game where you had to be there at the time and now is not that time anymore.

Maybe i just don't get it. The point is to explore the number of ways you can find alternate endings or trigger different dialogue. Sure, the voiceactors are great but i just don't really care about that when i have nothing to do. Most often you find yourself standing still, be it because of the paths that are very very slowly creating themselves while you have absolutely nothing to do or be it the endings that require you just standing still.
This game is less than a walking simulator, a standing simulator even. On top of that, exploring the endings is incredibly repetitive due to you having to walk the same way a lot just to make one different decision at the end and get a few insults by the narrator in return, than you repeat. I just wish there was something to do, anything.
Even the achievements are terrible, one is impossible, some are tedious, annoying or impossible to know without a guide and one is literally not playing the game (i am seeing a pattern here). The one with door 430 is neat though, i liked that one.
And finally a huge problem i have, everything feels very expected. The whole game seems to rely on you being surprised by the reactions to stuff, but it seems incredibly obvioious to make dialogue options for everything you do, standing in a closet or running in and out of rooms. It is expected because there is nothing else the game has to offer, that makes the reactions bland and boring and also makes the times there is no reactions even worse since you did nothing for nothing, a pure lose-lose situation.
I should stop trying walking simulators, i only dissappoint myself, hoping for something that just isn't there.

Waited five freaking years, happily reinstalled the game today just to grab that ‘Go Outside’ achievement… Only to find out I was off by one day. Amazing, guess I’ll wait another five years :-)

Simply a brilliant game. Go into it blind, I beg of you. I probably haven't seen everything this game has to offer, but what I have seen in the few hours I've played is all I need to see to know this game is great. That should already tell you this game is good. It's an emotional roller coaster. There's many moments in this game where I felt baffled, shocked, or amused at it's antics. Granted, if you aren't the kind of person who enjoys very 'meta', 4th Wall breaking, story focused games, then this probably isn't for you. What I love most about The Stanley Parable is how the narrator reacts to almost everything you do, and often when you're doing something stupid, he knows that you're trying to get a rise out of him to find out the intricacies of the game, as if he can read the player's mind. I haven't played the ULTRA DELUXE version of The Stanley Parable yet, but from what I've seen, you should definitely play this game first if you plan to.

At first, I thought it was a pretty serious game... but I was wrong (or almost). It's a pretty silly game, that you can do whatever you want, and also do not hear the narrator, what it a pretty cool mechanic, the secrets are also pretty interesting. I didn't made all endings, but I got a lot of fun playing the game, and I think is a good game to pass the time for someone who doesn't want play a very busy game

The game is a gem. A gem of absurdity, but kind of a good one. The Narrator is hilarious with his lines and jokes, the gameplay is smooth and fun. I enjoyed it a lot when playing for the first time and even coming back 7 years later. This is the kind of games that are legendary and which you will never forget.

It's a very fun game with some meta-commentary on the average gamer. Amazing narrator. Getting the achievements is a nice and fun challenge, especially if you try to get them legitimately, as legit as it can be (I'm looking at you Unachievable).

I really wish I could transfer the narrator of this game to my GPS system. It would make missing a turn a lot more enjoyable.

Honestly, almost reviewed this one negative because there are no buckets in it. I sure hope they fix that issue in the remaster

When I got the Demo for this game it seemed great. When I watched a trailer it seemed great. What I heard about it (Including Tik Tok clips, or reviews) It seemed great. Plot twist ... it was not great. The demo was actually better than the game, and the trailer intrigued you to buy it. The trailer made it seem good, it was not good. I would not recommend. Or it's just not the game for me.

SPOLIERS...










They put PORTAL & MINECRAFT in this game. I died laughing.

Goated game, fun narrator and different endings, see you in 5 years.

When you're tired of the endless stream of games and endless tedium of work this is the Reset-Button you need.
It's an experience and it's absolutely worth every second.

It's all a joke! Everything anybody ever valued or struggled for... it's all a monstrous, demented gag! So why can't you see the funny side? Why aren't you laughing?

I don't know if I've played many games that are as experimental with their design as this one is. It's definitely worth it if you like games that think outside of the box.

A fun parody of video games and free choice that changes every time you restart, which you will be sometimes be forced on you. I'm still not sure what "winning" this game really means or why almost 3% of games have unlocked the impossible achievement. Definitely an original game.

The game is interesting and has a lot of content,but the achievments are a PAIN(especially the tuesday one)
I would advise to ignore the achievments and enjoy the story

This game is absouletly amazing i would recommened it to anybody. Thank you and goodbye

This game is such a gem. It's so wonderfully on-the-nose with its frustrated narrator and humor. What could be considered a simple premise for a game proves to be more than meets the eye (ha) when you delve into it. The Stanley Parable has such Source vibes, leading to a cozy-yet-uneasy feeling being instilled in me. Can't recommend this game enough. I also can't wait to get back into it once I hit 5 years of not playing this game in November. Cheers!

I love this game. It's a true work of art in my mind and greatly encourages me to get into game design. It has everything. It's every game ever created.

Best game that was ever made, also the best game that will ever be made. Is what I would say if I could jump.

Didn't realize that there was a newer version :DEAD: but still fun and very interesting :)'

A classic for a reason, Stanley Parable is a fucking masterpiece.

I just- Don't enjoy it. Honestly I don't get it. The point is to explore the number of ways you can find alternate endings, but after a few hours you've tried everything you can think of and it's just boring. I've seen people say the point is the experience, but I don't even find the experience enjoyable. Novel at first, but that's it. It gives me a slight headache playing- essentially nothing.

Maybe I just don't get it, but it feels like it's just- not really a game? It's kind of interact-able? Kind of a story? But not really because there is no "ending"- Honestly I don't even know how to categorize this because it's not really a game. You can't win or lose, there's no objective, there's not really anything to do other than walk around, how can it be categorized as a game? Is it even a story without an ending? It's just- a thing. An experience entirely about the concept of not being a normal story. I guess some people like it, but I don't.

Very fun and funny game with lots of endings to experience!

This game doesn't work. It crashes at the play button. It's resolution is old as well. There's a newer version of it as a separate game.

I bought it to try it and because I buy games and play them later time, I couldn't refund it because of time limit (stupid thing to not get a refund for a product it doesn't work)

I give up after trying some things to make it work and buy the newer version and play it there. This game is broken and doesn't work. I'm not sure maybe some computers you can play but I have 3 different windows computer and all of them are the same.

Don't buy it.

It's a game like no other. With features that people can only imagine of happening. Different rooms that act the same? Awesome! Achievements that take real commitment and effort to get? Awesome! And most important of all, a stupid narrator that gets annoyed easily and annoys easily too! Those are the core components of a game with really short gameplay, but the side missions being 5 times as long as the game itself!

4/10

The Stanley Parable is an interesting game made within the Source Engine, but I seriously recommend get The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe over this since that version has everything in this but with better graphics and more stuff as well. Overall The Stanley Parable is a game where you play as Stanley, there is a narrator, and you can follow his instructions, or you don't and see where you end up. I can't say to much though since I don't want to spoil any of the things that happen in the game, but all-in-all this is a game that you can really manipulate the plot of, so I would recommend this, but Ultra Deluxe exists so get that instead (TSPUD also includes a few bug fixes as well). Another final complaint I have about this game, and can be said the same with TSPUD is that, although you can play the different story options over and over, they eventually get repetitive and the charm that was in playing the game for the first few times starts to disappear and hence the game becomes obsolete, whilst this could be said about any game this effect does kick in quicker than most games, so I would recommend waiting for a sale.