- Publisher: Davey Wreden , Everything Unlimited Ltd.
- Release Date: Oct 1, 2015
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Oct 8, 2015Few game developers have ever ventured such an open-hearted project about human frailty – and knocked it out of orbit.
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Oct 2, 2015There’s more to this game than it’s 90 minute runtime. The fact I’m still thinking about it, deeply, hours after I played it is all part of the value too...The fact it prompted me to write much of what I wrote here is something… special.
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Feb 10, 2016The Beginner's Guide is an incredible art piece of a game that gets you thinking your relationship with the games you play.
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Oct 7, 2015Do not look the score. There is no way to qualify or quantify The Beginner 's Guide. From a scale of 1 to 10, all you can measure is how much it has connected with you.
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Oct 1, 2015I cant recommend this game enough simply for the experience of a totally unique game unrivalled in the games from the past, present and future. A must buy for those wanting an emotional connection to the developers themselves.
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Oct 1, 2015On the surface, The Beginner's Guide is a game about game design and critical analysis. Digging deeper, it provides a window into the mind of a man I might not have fully understood otherwise. It does all of this in a way only a video game could. More than anything else, it has caused me a lot of introspection, a feat few games ever achieve.
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Power UnlimitedDec 10, 2015The Beginner’s Guide is as fascinating as The Stanley Parable is hilarious. One of the most intriguing ‘games’ that we’ve played in recent history and an easy recommendation for everyone who likes weird game experiments. [dec. 2015 / page 062]
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Oct 2, 2015If you really love video games, play The Beginner's Guide.
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Oct 12, 2015The true challenge of The Beginner’s Guide is understanding it in its entirety.
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Oct 27, 2015A not-game, that is also a game, since it talks about games without letting us really... play. Oh well, it's exactly what we expected from the creator of The Stanley Parable, an amazing dive in the life of a developer, full of metaphors and symbolism, and able to capture the player from the beginning to the end. Welcome back Mr. Wreden.
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Oct 13, 2015It's one of those "different" games, more an experience than a gameplay session. Still, it's unique in its own way, and it will leave something behind.
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Oct 6, 2015Whatever The Beginner's Guide is supposed to be: it's well done and everything we could say about it would be a spoiler.
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Oct 7, 2015Yes, The Beginner’s Guide occasionally fumbles its narrative, Wreden sometimes overacts, and the writing can be a little ham-fisted—but the game also provokes incisive, critical thought about the way we read and evaluate games, and does so not by laying out a definitive “message” to be delivered to players, but by prompting us, through play, with open-ended questions.
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Nov 2, 2015The Beginner's Guide is a surprising and clever follow-up to The Stanley Parable.
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Oct 19, 2015I don’t think I’ve ever played a game like The Beginner’s Guide and I’m not sure any game will ever need to duplicate what it accomplished.
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Oct 15, 2015This special game succeeds in having players look at games in a different light. Even though this game will only speak to a small audience, this is a unique project that will probably be just as often discussed as The Stanley Parable.
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Oct 15, 2015The Beginner's Guide is a specific, unusual and intriguing independent production. Certainly Impressive, but not for everyone.
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Oct 11, 2015It’s easy to have mixed thoughts about The Beginner’s Guide, but as a game that aims to make you think, it does accomplish this goal.
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Oct 7, 2015It’s one of the most thought-provoking and ultimately disarming interactive experiences I’ve had all year, and one I won’t easily shake off.
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Oct 6, 2015The Beginner’s Guide is not lightning in a bottle like The Stanley Parable, nor is it a checklist of graphics and sounds that players should run through. For people that want a taste of the hardships that indie developers endure, however, you can do no better.
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Oct 2, 2015The Beginner’s Guide is a poignant and thought-provoking journey into the minds of game developers who are at their core, people with struggles and insecurities of their own. $10 might seem a steep price tag for an hour and a half of playtime without traditional mechanics, goals, or objectives, but if you take a chance you might find yourself moved (and even changed) by the time the credits roll.
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Oct 1, 2015The Beginner's Guide addresses a lot of heavy issues in its 90-minute journey: Depression, loneliness, self-doubt, and the need for validation are but a few of the topics touched upon. Despite the inherent veil of fiction, Wreden's narration is well-written and feels honest.
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Oct 1, 2015The Beginner’s Guide is an absorbing journey into the thoughts and processes involved during the creation of a video game. It succeeds in helping you understand and sympathize with game developers as artists and people. It equips you with important tools to perceive and think about both video games and other mediums in intelligent ways. It’s a game that lives up to its namesake--it’s the beginner’s guide to the meaning of video games.
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Oct 1, 2015The Beginner’s Guide offers a personal and sometimes eerie perspective on amateur game development.
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Oct 29, 2015As a philosophical rumination on the ownership of art, The Beginner's Guide is what Boswell might call an "ingenious sophistry", but not a compelling argument. As an exploration of an obsessive relationship that failed painfully, it's a sneakily effective success. Is the latter so bound up in the former that it loses impact? I thought not, but that's just me.
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Oct 26, 2015This is a nice way to tell an interactive story, and even though not everyone will grow fond of it, it's worth a try.
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Oct 8, 2015As such, if you’re a fan of Davey Wreden’s work or simply wish to see these themes tackled in a video game, then I’d recommend giving it a shot. At the very least, The Beginner’s Guide will provide you with an experience unlike anything else in the medium.
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Oct 6, 2015A peculiar experience that’s personal, sincere, and full of questions to unpack, though it asks them far too bluntly.
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Games Master UKDec 1, 2015It's a smart idea with fascinating concepts, executed in a way that never lets them breathe. [Dec 2015, p.82]
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Oct 8, 2015One of those experience that requires a connection with the player. It's not so in our case, as it is just another pedantic game that's not even a game.
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Oct 14, 2015Quotation forthcoming.
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Oct 5, 2015With The Beginner's Guide, creator Davey Wreden starts with a brilliant premise, only to waste it with his insistence on telling rather than showing within his barely interactive worlds. Games don't necessarily need to be fun to work, but they should at least be engaging—something The Beginner's Guide can't maintain during its 90-minute running time.
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CD-ActionFeb 4, 2016Instead of engaging interactions, great animations or wonderfully crafted characters The Beginner’s Guide offers empty, amateurish, uninteresting environments and a story about two immature game developers. [01/2016, p.54]
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Oct 2, 2015Charging an admission fee for what is essentially an explainer reel with jumbled tidbits of mundane unfinished game ideas is ludicrous, even in the name of thinking outside the box in terms of game design. Play The Stanley Parable instead.
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Oct 4, 2015It sensationalizes the concepts of the misunderstood creator and the misguided audience and begs pity from the latter.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Dec 9, 2015Potential meta-joking aside, The Beginner's Guide plays out like a diary, wholly and shamelessly. While there's an argument to be had over whether or not a straight-up diary counts as art worth celebrating, a video game trying to do the same thing, without meaningful interactive options or epiphanies, and without giving us as players the space to come to our own conclusions, doesn't respect the viewer or create interesting opportunities for either empathy or outrage.
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Dec 8, 2015The feeling of connection might be an illusion, though, and that tension is what gives The Beginner’s Guide its strongest moments.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 225 out of 335
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Mixed: 55 out of 335
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Negative: 55 out of 335
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Oct 2, 2015
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Oct 1, 2015
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Oct 3, 2015