The Stanley Parable

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2315 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,756 out of 2315
  2. Mixed: 323 out of 2315
  3. Negative: 236 out of 2315

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  1. 4ya5h1
    Nov 9, 2022
    4
    idea of this game is really interesting, but the realisation, imo is bad. there is a tv show "Severance", and its awesome, really awesome, but this game is just... iunno its really boring just to walk and do nothing, also its too short
  2. Yaav13
    May 9, 2022
    3
    My truthful honorable incorruptible conclusive rating of this considered game: 3.
  3. TheLinkgirl
    Apr 24, 2022
    1
    It's difficult to rate a game so poorly when you love what it tries to achieve. There's this sense that you should just go back and play it one more time to see if you're in the wrong, or you played it at a bad time, or should try another play through. Sadly after 6 attempts, I'm pretty sure that The Stanley Parable just doesn't work for me.
  4. super_absorber
    Jan 7, 2021
    0
    One of the worst games I have played.....0 gameplay at all and very boring story..
  5. BeeSting1
    Jan 1, 2021
    3
    Decent for an interactive short. Bad for a game.

    Good - Having the narrator converse directly to the protagonist (Stanley) is an interesting perspective. It breaks the fourth wall in a way that you don't see in any other game. - The narrator had some clever, interesting, and funny things to say about game design, and choices. - Spurs some deep thoughts about the relationship    Decent for an interactive short. Bad for a game.

    Good

    - Having the narrator converse directly to the protagonist (Stanley) is an interesting perspective. It breaks the fourth wall in a way that you don't see in any other game.

    - The narrator had some clever, interesting, and funny things to say about game design, and choices.

    - Spurs some deep thoughts about the relationship and thought process between how the developer and player both experience a game.

    - Narrator's voice sounded good.

    Bad

    - The game is too short. Even after completing and restarting to experience every path, it gave me less than 3 hours of play time.

    - The game is way too shallow. I couldn't interact with many objects, and ones that I could interact with didn't do anything.

    - The premise was too simple. The office is empty because the narrator removed them. Disobey Narrator, and he'll do some stuff to you, then restarts the game. This basically summarizes what happens on every path. There is very little depth to be found after the game has made its point.    … Expand
  6. Broyax
    Apr 5, 2020
    1
    L'indé du dimanche pourrait avoir été démoulé durant un mercredi, puis avoir été invité pour en parler au dîner en compagnie d'une brochette de champions du monde, car après tout il peut se faire demander en effet : qu'est-ce que la création ?...

    Non, non, cette question est vraiment trop grandiloquente... on n'est certainement pa à ce niveau-là mais plutôt à des niveaux et des niveaux    L'indé du dimanche pourrait avoir été démoulé durant un mercredi, puis avoir été invité pour en parler au dîner en compagnie d'une brochette de champions du monde, car après tout il peut se faire demander en effet : qu'est-ce que la création ?...

    Non, non, cette question est vraiment trop grandiloquente... on n'est certainement pa à ce niveau-là mais plutôt à des niveaux et des niveaux plus bas, ceux du simple remplissage de quelques stagiaires à court d'idées et qui ne savent donc... plus quoi faire. Et qui font n'importe quoi.

    Et nous, on tente de jouer à ce "n'importe quoi"... pour s'y ennuyer plus ou moins rapidement mais inéluctablement. Cela peut faire sourire éventuellement en tout cas... avant de tomber dans la répétition, l'ennui et le simple ridicule.

    Pour un étron indé à l'insu de son plein gré, il est assez joli néanmoins ! et il peut se jouer à la manette, y compris sur PC. Un point pour l'effort.    … Expand
  7. hootis
    Feb 7, 2018
    0
    To explain this game, I'm going to compare it to other popular and good games, I hope you've played them.

    This game is like Half-life 1 if it stopped at the end of the tram ride. This game is like half-life 2 if it was only playing around with the gravity gun inbetween the first two acts. This game is like rocket league, but single player and no ball. This game is like Pubg but    To explain this game, I'm going to compare it to other popular and good games, I hope you've played them.

    This game is like Half-life 1 if it stopped at the end of the tram ride.
    This game is like half-life 2 if it was only playing around with the gravity gun inbetween the first two acts.
    This game is like rocket league, but single player and no ball.
    This game is like Pubg but everyone starts with the same weapons on an even map.
    This game is like tf2, if there was only one class.
    This game is like counter-strike but with horrible lag.
    This game is like starcraft, but you can only play against the AI & no storyline.

    This game is the shell of a game, is the idea of a game. It's a mod. IT IS A MOD. Don't pay 20$.    … Expand
  8. fcon
    Apr 30, 2017
    0
    An evil game that uses subliminal messages in the demo to convince you to buy the game. AVOID THE GAME. THIS ALONE SHOULD CONVINCE YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM THESE MANIPULATIVE PEOPLE'S HORRID GAME.
  9. voltaguy
    Apr 4, 2017
    2
    "I just told you a joke, now I will tell a hundred variations for it".

    At the beginning of the game, you are given a choice. The choice is, two doors. The narrator tells you to take the door on left, but the obvious choice is taking the door on right. Because you know that you are playing a game, and whatever happens, it won't have major consequences because it is just at the beginning    "I just told you a joke, now I will tell a hundred variations for it".

    At the beginning of the game, you are given a choice. The choice is, two doors. The narrator tells you to take the door on left, but the obvious choice is taking the door on right. Because you know that you are playing a game, and whatever happens, it won't have major consequences because it is just at the beginning and you can just restart the game. I'm just guessing, 95% of you took the door on right, yeah? Whatever, I went right, then the game started to feel obnoxious. Throwing me the same sarcastic jokes over and over again. OK dude, I get it, it is because I "broke" the rule how this is meant to be played, and I'm getting punished by dumb restarts and jokes. I tried some variations but they were all pretty disappointing. Then I said, **** it, then I did everything the narrator wanted. The game finished in like a minute. Nothing was explained, bad ending. Then I said to myself, "this doesn't feel right, there must be something in this game". I went to the console at the end, pressed ON. I did that probably about 10 times. If you haven't played the game, the facility enters a self detonation state after you press the button. Then in a nearby room, everything gets intractable, and you have 2 minutes before everything explodes and then you die and restart the game. I thought this was a puzzle, but narrator clearly said there was nothing I could do, but he is full of **** so I tried and tried again until I "solved" the puzzle. But just like narrator said in that segment, "you will die, again and again, happily ever aft-", so I did ****ing die, every ****ing time. I got super frustrated and did some online research. After learning there was nothing I could do, I learnt that there were around 20 endings. I did some of them, not really enjoying my time, then I quieted the game entirely.

    I mean, who would've thought attempting suicide had the best ending? "Are you sick of this game?", **** yeah I'm sick of this **** Then there is this, when I was pressing F5 to quicksave the game, the game was freezing a bit like it was saving. The game has no save, I was like, "what?". Then I looked at the controls, guess what, F5 stands for screenshot. OK, that was a pretty good 9gag le trolled xd moment. Then there is that broom closet which is funny. Other than those, nothing really stands out.

    You may argue that this game is not about jokes or fun, that it is breaking the 4th wall and it is a masterpiece. You mister, are ****ing retarded and probably should kill yourself. See what I did there? That was the game, and not the game. I just broke that 4th wall, now choke on my dick you nerd. No, I'm not serious, at all.

    If you haven't played this game yet, you don't have to play it because I just spoiled the best parts of it, and the game itself just makes as sense as my last paragraph. If you like to play tech demos or you're a sucker of bland English humor, go ahead and torrent it. No, I'm not checking the spoiler box, the game itself gives you spoilers if you go right. Yeah, that was a spoiler too. **** this game.    … Expand
  10. rabbit368
    Oct 31, 2016
    0
    Like an artsy movie the game tries to make a statement about other games and their lack of choice. In the end it succeeds quite well at this, but spending 3 hours wandering around an office to have pointed out to me all the ways games are flawed is not really my idea of fun. I got the joke, such that it was, after the first 30 mins.
  11. Nightveil
    May 31, 2016
    0
    The thing about The Stanley Parable is that it is, after all, a parable. It's preaching about a thing in the form of a story designed to illustrate its point.

    And that's fine as far as it goes. The problem lies in the fact that the thing the game preaches about is how bad games are for people and wouldn't it be better if we all went outside. There is a wry humor to the game,    The thing about The Stanley Parable is that it is, after all, a parable. It's preaching about a thing in the form of a story designed to illustrate its point.

    And that's fine as far as it goes. The problem lies in the fact that the thing the game preaches about is how bad games are for people and wouldn't it be better if we all went outside.

    There is a wry humor to the game, certainly and the weird feeling you get as you try to find out how the game works is certainly effective, but it becomes obvious to anyone who's been gaming for decades that the story is all about the idea that gaming on the whole is bad and somehow stifles human creativity.

    And that's all there is.

    Don't waste your money or your time with this. There are better pieces of interactive fiction available.    … Expand
  12. Cioby
    Apr 1, 2016
    0
    Buying this game is like buying Flappy Bird or any other **** game. Spoilers? Nothing to spoil, the game is crap. Basically all you do is walk around and you see crazy **** crap as you do or don't listen to the voice narrating where you go. I guess people have no real will in real life and think that "hay, if I can go against my story, my will, my repetitive life, in this game, I won atBuying this game is like buying Flappy Bird or any other **** game. Spoilers? Nothing to spoil, the game is crap. Basically all you do is walk around and you see crazy **** crap as you do or don't listen to the voice narrating where you go. I guess people have no real will in real life and think that "hay, if I can go against my story, my will, my repetitive life, in this game, I won at life! Yay!".
    No. The game is **** and unworthy of purchase at above 1$    … Expand
  13. Pelu
    Jan 23, 2016
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Indie trash without a real game. It's wannabe philosophical, lasts as long as a movie, but is an order of magnitude less interesting than most movies. There were a couple of good jokes that made me smile but it lacks content. The choices you had could have been made so much more interesting than just "go left, go right", replicated 8 times.… Expand
  14. RealLeather
    Dec 23, 2015
    3
    A game about how/why we play games but without any engaging gameplay and plenty of meandering one-sided dialogue to sit through instead. I read a while back before I ever played The Stanley Parable that it breaks the fourth wall continuously but it unfortunately doesn't... It would be more accurate to say that it BREACHES the fourth wall and it does so with all the subtlety of a CoD spA game about how/why we play games but without any engaging gameplay and plenty of meandering one-sided dialogue to sit through instead. I read a while back before I ever played The Stanley Parable that it breaks the fourth wall continuously but it unfortunately doesn't... It would be more accurate to say that it BREACHES the fourth wall and it does so with all the subtlety of a CoD sp campaign setpiece.

    The writing is so on the nose and lacks any nuance, this is the kind of dialogue you would expect to hear at a children's pantomime show though I doubt musings on the perils of a virtual reality existentialist crisis would make for great entertainment in practice, especially for them chilluns. I respect the fact that the team tried to do something different but Christ alive this is some weapons-grade pretentiousness. I love games and gaming and you probably do too but if you want to discuss these facets of gaming then make a goddamned documentary not a mod with a bizarre voiceover harping on at you.    … Expand
  15. k9wazere
    Dec 13, 2015
    2
    Firstly, you need to understand the "gameplay" available in TSP. You walk down branching corridors, and you choose whether to go left or right, through door A or door B. This leads to another corridor, etc. Imagine a tree, with numerous branches. The "game" lets you walk to the end of each branch, then locks you in a room, and gives you 10 mins of "funny" (not really) narrative. Then itFirstly, you need to understand the "gameplay" available in TSP. You walk down branching corridors, and you choose whether to go left or right, through door A or door B. This leads to another corridor, etc. Imagine a tree, with numerous branches. The "game" lets you walk to the end of each branch, then locks you in a room, and gives you 10 mins of "funny" (not really) narrative. Then it restarts you at the beginning. *This is the game*. If, as was the case for me, you don't find the narrative amusing, then this game has *nothing* for you. Not even a single puzzle. It's the "game" equivalent of those "make your own adventure" books, that I hated as a kid. I was too busy reading real novels to be interested in that gimmicky rubbish. Same deal here. Get yourself a good book, or play a real game. This is a waste of time.… Expand
  16. Metalmaster91
    Jul 2, 2015
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I understood the meaning of the game and almost the 80% of the secrets and clues on the museum. I am a gamer, and I like to play videogames, not a paranoid reasoning about videogames or the development of them. This game it’s simply boring, not intractable (you can transmit the same idea, letting the player interact more with the context), or even making a book to transmit your thinking. It’s made for people that needs to get unique experience to get realized. And what means the museum? It’s like: “Oh, see!! What a huge d*** I got!! I have made this for this reason, u see?” It’s really not a good game…… Expand
  17. toxicmoron
    Jan 14, 2015
    0
    This is my first review on metacritic and will probably be my one and only one, but I really felt I had to share this. I have a deep hunch that this game is all about how FAKE RATINGS can make a person like myself buy a totally crap game. I cannot believe how ridiculous this "game" is: totally linear, no empathic connection whatsoever to the character or the environment, and no directionThis is my first review on metacritic and will probably be my one and only one, but I really felt I had to share this. I have a deep hunch that this game is all about how FAKE RATINGS can make a person like myself buy a totally crap game. I cannot believe how ridiculous this "game" is: totally linear, no empathic connection whatsoever to the character or the environment, and no direction at all. This game is a proof of how low the gaming industry can go. I'm "glad" I bought this game for about 3 euros, but knowing what I know now, I would want to be paid a LOT of money to spend even five more minutes on it. A total market scam (check all those 10/10 marks and read the text, they're quite implausible. Stay miles away and don't even spend one cent on this one.… Expand
  18. diehard-gamer
    Dec 30, 2014
    2
    Disappointing. Just purchased this for £3 on steam. Completed it in two attempts and under 15 minutes. By 'completed' I mean I reached the end/credits zone. Not impressed. It's a mildly interesting diversion - but £3 for less than 15 minutes makes it very expensive (not to mention linier and simplistic) entertainment compared to say £40 for 100+ hours on Dragon Age 3. I'm sure there areDisappointing. Just purchased this for £3 on steam. Completed it in two attempts and under 15 minutes. By 'completed' I mean I reached the end/credits zone. Not impressed. It's a mildly interesting diversion - but £3 for less than 15 minutes makes it very expensive (not to mention linier and simplistic) entertainment compared to say £40 for 100+ hours on Dragon Age 3. I'm sure there are alternate looping paths through the game, but knowing the ending I'm really not that interested.… Expand
  19. Wuji
    Dec 29, 2014
    0
    I can see that this game is a clever piece of art however, it is not a game at all. It is more of a statement of someone who thinks they are more clever and witty than everyone else. I tried hard to like this but, instead I just felt really bad for anyone who actually paid money to play it for an hour.
  20. skulltulainahat
    Dec 20, 2014
    3
    Even though The Stanley Parable is a game priced at $14.99, it still is not worth it. There really isn't much going for it except the charm, which wears off quickly. Sure, some of the jokes are mildly amusing, but most of the narration is bland. I forced myself to play an hour of it, and I will not be returning. This game lacks gameplay, which is not an issue with certain games, but in TheEven though The Stanley Parable is a game priced at $14.99, it still is not worth it. There really isn't much going for it except the charm, which wears off quickly. Sure, some of the jokes are mildly amusing, but most of the narration is bland. I forced myself to play an hour of it, and I will not be returning. This game lacks gameplay, which is not an issue with certain games, but in The Stanley Parable it is. When all I am doing in a game is walking through bland environments and listening to a bland narrator, I will surely want my fourteen dollars and ninety nine cents back. I don't understand the praise for this game. It is simply dull.… Expand
  21. deepskydiver
    Sep 18, 2014
    1
    Warning: it's not a game. It's not even a story.
    You wander around what is intended to be a humorously narrated but bland world with occasional decision points which at best result in .. more wandering around with no payoff.
    No game mechanic, no skill, no test, no interest and ultimately no satisfaction. I was ultimately left feeling cheated out of a game as I waited for something which    Warning: it's not a game. It's not even a story.
    You wander around what is intended to be a humorously narrated but bland world with occasional decision points which at best result in .. more wandering around with no payoff.
    No game mechanic, no skill, no test, no interest and ultimately no satisfaction. I was ultimately left feeling cheated out of a game as I waited for something which never happened.
    Very disappointed.    … Expand
  22. Ergenus
    Sep 3, 2014
    4
    Idea is original, game is interesting, but paying 15 bucks for a "1 Hour to Complete" game is bad. Moreover, that 1 hour was actually boring. Most of that 1 hour passes by listening the narrator. Even 5 $ seems a lot for this game.
  23. Scerion
    Aug 31, 2014
    1
    I'm not sure why this game ever got such good reviews really. It's mostly a passive experience, listening to some guy droning on and on forever as you just walk about. It has very simplistic graphics, built on the old Half Life source engine. It's been cut down though, so you can't jump, open doors, or do anything much, apart from interact with about 1 item in every 10 rooms. I was boredI'm not sure why this game ever got such good reviews really. It's mostly a passive experience, listening to some guy droning on and on forever as you just walk about. It has very simplistic graphics, built on the old Half Life source engine. It's been cut down though, so you can't jump, open doors, or do anything much, apart from interact with about 1 item in every 10 rooms. I was bored of wandering around the same office after about 20 minutes - there's really only a handful of rooms, and most are totally non-interactive. I don't think the author should be encouraged to make anything else like this, it's just terrible.

    I don't recommend it to anyone, unless they have trouble sleeping, and want to nod off with this droning in their ears!    … Expand
  24. mtRoom
    Aug 22, 2014
    4
    Not a terrible game, just quite frankly... boring. If you want a game that gives you a good feeling each time you accomplish a task, defeat a difficult enemy, or solve a challenging puzzle, look elsewhere. This is more of an interactive comedy movie, albeit a comedy movie where the the comedy is thin and where the movie has no plot.

    The entertainment value of the game relies solely on    Not a terrible game, just quite frankly... boring. If you want a game that gives you a good feeling each time you accomplish a task, defeat a difficult enemy, or solve a challenging puzzle, look elsewhere. This is more of an interactive comedy movie, albeit a comedy movie where the the comedy is thin and where the movie has no plot.

    The entertainment value of the game relies solely on its ability to generate humour through a cheery-voiced Brit making observations about Stanley's directions and though I had a few chuckles at the beginning, it got tedious fairly quickly. In fact, I imagine the people who were mostly amused were the developer's themselves.

    The overriding feeling of pointlessness becomes evident the moment you realise there's no actual story; just a series of introductions and endings. If the humour was clever and witty, I could appreciate it. More often though, I'm sitting waiting for the narrator to hurry up and finish his next rant or remark so we can move on, despite knowing full well the game isn't go to go anywhere.

    In the end, I came to realise that the game had never really left where it started, only it's the player sitting there pushing the buttons as the computer spits out orders. It's just a pity I coudn't find the 'refund' button anywhere..    … Expand
  25. rsrocha
    Jul 22, 2014
    3
    A walking simulator to the core, this game utterly lacks ANY player interaction whatsoever, being an on-rails experience where you just move from point A to point B as soon as the game's narrator allows you to after a random rant. The scenery is incredibly bland and really shows the game's roots as a mod. While it's an interesting experience for the way it mocks videogames as a medium,A walking simulator to the core, this game utterly lacks ANY player interaction whatsoever, being an on-rails experience where you just move from point A to point B as soon as the game's narrator allows you to after a random rant. The scenery is incredibly bland and really shows the game's roots as a mod. While it's an interesting experience for the way it mocks videogames as a medium, it's not something that deserved the money i spent on it. Its theme is not even original, having been tackled years prior by MGS2.… Expand
  26. thiagoFerreiraL
    Jun 29, 2014
    3
    I bought this game on a sale and I thank god for that, for if I didn't, I would feel ripped off badly.
    Some people call "Artsy Games" games that have little to no gameplay and focuses on story alone. The Stanley Parable doesn't have a gameplay nor a story. So what is it? Just a walking simulation about breaking the 4th wall. It's not a game, it's basically a lecture.
    I played for about 1    I bought this game on a sale and I thank god for that, for if I didn't, I would feel ripped off badly.
    Some people call "Artsy Games" games that have little to no gameplay and focuses on story alone. The Stanley Parable doesn't have a gameplay nor a story. So what is it? Just a walking simulation about breaking the 4th wall. It's not a game, it's basically a lecture.
    I played for about 1 hour and I had laughs here and there but that's it. There's no nothing more to the game, which boggles my mind seeing so much good reviews, I don't even know if I played the same game as those.
    And don't get me wrong, I love "Artsy games", like To The Moon, but I wouldn't call The Stanley Parable "Art" whatsoever.    … Expand
  27. tazhda24
    Jun 25, 2014
    3
    Bought game on sale for ~$8. Thought I was getting a bargain. Was expecting hours of gameplay, dozens of endings and a well thought out ending to tie the game together.....if you have similar expectations, I want to warn you in advance.
    The game can be played through most endings (without being too pedantic) in an hour or so. There are no puzzles to solve here. The game is very linear in    Bought game on sale for ~$8. Thought I was getting a bargain. Was expecting hours of gameplay, dozens of endings and a well thought out ending to tie the game together.....if you have similar expectations, I want to warn you in advance.
    The game can be played through most endings (without being too pedantic) in an hour or so. There are no puzzles to solve here. The game is very linear in that there aren't really that many endings and 99% of objects aren't interactable.
    Only time I smiled was when I wondered if it was possible to fall onto something and found out I could, and the narrator reacted to my action. But that one moment was pretty much the only good moment in the game. I thought the game would be clever and make me think. I think what the game tries to do is criticise the linearity of certain games. But I am a GTA / Just Cause fan, where the worlds are 100x more open world than the Stanley Parable, so from my point of view it didnt really make me think.
    This game is marketed as a mystery. What is the Stanley Parable you might ask? It is a mystery people are buying into..thats pretty much it    … Expand
  28. Avidean
    May 20, 2014
    0
    Clearly we have all been coned by the developer in of The Stanley Parable and as usual by the so called expert reviewers and of course the 1000+ fake positive reviews. This game is joke! It is mind numbingly repetitive and utterly pointless. And if the point is that they are trying to make some artsy fartsy philosophical revelation they utterly fail. This game ruined my weekend! I haven'tClearly we have all been coned by the developer in of The Stanley Parable and as usual by the so called expert reviewers and of course the 1000+ fake positive reviews. This game is joke! It is mind numbingly repetitive and utterly pointless. And if the point is that they are trying to make some artsy fartsy philosophical revelation they utterly fail. This game ruined my weekend! I haven't bought a Computer game in a couple of years and after this I doubt if I will again for a long time. Don't get sucked in by the demo either. You feel like the demo is leading you somewhere! Challenging you to solve some subtle and challenging puzzle but there is nothing; And you feel drawn in, you need to get the full game to go on to solve the mystery but the game ends in nothing too! That's what this game is nothing. Dull and boring beyond belief. Zero out of 10 Don't buy it!… Expand
  29. MigRib
    Apr 16, 2014
    0
    First of all this is not a game, so I shouldn't even be trying to review it in this section. What is it? It's a kind of a pedantic, arrogant, self-inflated bag of air done by would-be artists. It's provokes the same revulsion in my stomach that modern art which consists in a stroke of black paint on white canvas. It shouldn't be sold. As a free product I would review it negatively becauseFirst of all this is not a game, so I shouldn't even be trying to review it in this section. What is it? It's a kind of a pedantic, arrogant, self-inflated bag of air done by would-be artists. It's provokes the same revulsion in my stomach that modern art which consists in a stroke of black paint on white canvas. It shouldn't be sold. As a free product I would review it negatively because I know that ignorant hipsters love to highlight the marvelous qualities that this vacuum does not contain. But, as it does not contain anything (quite the same as the modern art painting) you can put there whatever a tortuous mind of a pseudo-intellectual wants to.… Expand
  30. iseeall
    Mar 30, 2014
    4
    This is of course not a game, yet it's fun for a while (maybe 1-2 hours, until you've seen a dozen of the endings). The narrator is good but the text he reads is not always really funny. Somehow, such humor (about office workers) works better in Dilbert comics - there I laugh quite frequently. There the complex, intellectual-style language feels somehow appropriate, but here - not really.This is of course not a game, yet it's fun for a while (maybe 1-2 hours, until you've seen a dozen of the endings). The narrator is good but the text he reads is not always really funny. Somehow, such humor (about office workers) works better in Dilbert comics - there I laugh quite frequently. There the complex, intellectual-style language feels somehow appropriate, but here - not really. I still have to say that this game surely has many small great details. E.g. the whole Power Point slides sequence in the meeting room is just amazing. And the whiteboards. And the rooms where they tell which pieces of the game looked how before the release. But certainly this game isn't worth its price or any price at all, or maybe something like $1. Since it isn't a game at all, it shouldn't have been created or sold as a game - instead it could be a cartoon or maybe a movie.
    I still give it a rather high score (4) and not 1 or 0 because it does give some fun, even if it's not a lasting one. This product still offers a bit of gameplay - and strangely this kind of gameplay reminds me a typical RPG where you would explore every branch of dialogs with NPCs. Here you explore corridors and doors instead.
    The closest game to this one that comes to mind is Antichamber. However, Antichamber is way way better, there you have diverse puzzles, each with an unexpected solution. Here it's just talking and talking, like in a book/radio/TV show. This game doesn't really feel as if it were made for players and to entertain players but instead to entertain the developers - much like 2010's "Rubber" movie was fun to the director but boring to the audience.
    This app certainly is a fresh innovative attempt, but it's not really a successful attempt. Frankly, I'm not sure that the whole idea for such a game could have resulted into anything playable. Strange that they actually decided to spend effort into developing this stuff.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

8
#8 Best PC Game of 2013
17
#17 Most Discussed PC Game of 2013
49
#49 Most Shared PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 47 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 46 out of 47
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 47
  3. Negative: 0 out of 47
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    Mar 11, 2014
    84
    The Stanley Parable is many things. It's an interactive comedy, an existential riddle and an experiment in storytelling. Most importantly, it's pretty good. [Nov 2013]
  2. GameOver.gr
    Jan 23, 2014
    100
    It's one of those games that tries and succeeds in making a bold statement. Be prepared for something really special.
    Read full review
  3. Games Master UK
    Dec 25, 2013
    90
    Step away from this review and play it now. Or don't. Whatever you do is already ordained. OR IS IT?! [Jan 2014, p.83]
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