WORDS: Eoin Moore
The Stanley Parable’s title screen presents an image of an office with an old desktop monitor. Displayed on this monitor is another identical title screen. Displayed on the monitor within that title screen is yet another identical title screen. This is how the player begins The Stanley Parable: staring over their own shoulder. The rest of this philosophical, confusing, and hilarious game takes place from this same perspective. While abandoning the literal screen-within-a-screen frame, the game constantly draws the player’s attention to the actions they are taking and the illusory freedom they associate with it.
The game is an adaptation of a 2011 mod of the same name. This updated, extended version (originally known as The Stanley Parable HD Remix) contains all of the content of the original game in some form or another, reorganised along with hours of additional material presented in a completely revamped aesthetic.
The premise remains exactly the same as the original mod. It begins with a narrator describing the life of Stanley, a man stuck in a boring, meaningless job. One day, however, he looks up from his desk to find that everyone in his office has disappeared. After roaming empty hallways for a bit, with The Narrator commenting on his every action, Stanley arrives at a room with two open doors. The Narrator then states, “He entered the door on his left.”
This is where The Stanley Parable – which questions in turn freedom, determinism, narrative, interactivity, game design, player choice, rebellion, and the relationship between artist and audience – truly begins. Though it only takes fifteen or so minutes to reach one of The Stanley Parable’s many “endings”, to play it only once would be to miss the point. There are over 3 hours of content in the game, hosted within the various branching paths that the player can take through its maze-like narrative structure.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the game is its toy box atmosphere. The game invites you to test it and to experiment within the confines it has offered you. In this way, a conversation develops between the player and the game. Likewise, a conversation takes place in a literal sense between the silent Stanley and The Narrator, who is impeccably voiced by Kevan Brighting. By obeying or rebelling against the near-omnipresent and near-omnipotent Narrator, the player leads this conversation between a directly intervening creative voice and the actions of an apparently free agent. The reams of contextual monologuing recorded by Brighting facilitate this ongoing conversation. At various intervals his interjections, be they detached, annoyed, malevolent, spiteful, or insecure, give the player the sense that their every action has been noted and has upset the balance of The Narrator’s all-important “story”. Of course, this concept of player involvement on a meaningful level is a complete illusion – The Stanley Parable is the first to point this out – but testing just how well Galactic Cafe have composed this illusion is engaging enough in and of itself.
The game has at least eleven conventional endings and perhaps dozens more depending on how you choose to define an “ending.” These differ greatly in tone and complexity. Some of them are distinctly meta-narratives, abandoning the initial set-up entirely and descending into deeper and deeper levels of self-reflection. Others exist more as narratives in the traditional sense, incorporating the player’s rebellions into the narrative rather than breaking apart at the first sign of player deviation. Some follow massive tangents, during which the relationship between The Narrator and the player changes multiple times. Others end quickly and abruptly, occasionally even mid-sentence.
The one thing all of these endings have in common is that they comment on and experiment with the limitations of the video game as an artistic form. In some cases, through this medium, they make greater philosophical statements about life itself. Amidst its moments of absurd wackiness and nudging, winking references to typical video game tropes, The Stanley Parable has some genuinely profound things to say. In some of its extensively developed scenarios it strays outside of the comfortable territory of video game commentary and begins to ask questions of much deeper significance.
The Stanley Parable is an introspective, interactive feat of storytelling which bewilders, intrigues, amuses, and elicits a host of other reactions from its audience. Ultimately, it is a work defined by its need to be experienced in order to be properly conveyed. Only so much can be elucidated through explanation of the game’s features and ideas, as mere words are no substitute for the unique nature of this experience which is irremovably attached to its genre. It can only be truly understood and appreciated through the act of playing, which you are heartily advised to partake in.
A demo of The Stanley Parable is available at http://store.steampowered.com/app/221910/?snr=1_7_15__13
