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Davey Wreden is a game reviewer’s worst nightmare. Game reviews are, by convention, lengthy and encyclopaedic, conveying the gaming experience with as much detail and accuracy as the written word will allow. With The Stanley Parable, and now with The Beginner’s Guide, Davey Wreden has created boundary-pushing, metafictional, impeccably crafted games, which rely on the player’s ignorance of their content to deliver the strongest possible impact. This forces the reviewer to bend and contort their words into vague statements and allusions, terrified that they’ll give away the magic trick that Wreden has now managed to pull off for the second time in a row.

And there is something undeniably magical about The Beginner’s Guide. Designed entirely on the blocky, corridor-laden Source Engine, the environments manage to be impressively atmospheric. The worlds of The Beginner’s Guide are steeped in shadow, ranging from vast chasms to suffocating crawlspaces, each building on the thematic weight of the other. The metafictional perspective of The Stanley Parable emerges again here, this time in the form of Wreden’s own voice, shattering the fourth wall in the opening seconds by addressing the player directly about the experience that they are about to undertake. What follows this immediate break is an hour-and-a-half long treatise on game design and artistic expression that poses a formidable question: What can the things we create tell us about who we are?

While it lacks is the scope and elaborate execution of The Stanley Parable, The Beginner’s Guide is a formidable follow-up effort from Wreden, who is fast becoming one of the most exciting figures on the independent scene.

The Beginner’s Guide is currently available on Steam.