This is a story of a man named Stanley. Stanley worked for a company …
Warning: This video contains the full walkthrough of The Stanley Parable
The Stanley Parable is a rather brilliant narrative crafted into a mod for Half Life 2. To play it you won’t need to have a copy of Half Life 2, just Source SDK ’07 tools. And yes it works on a Mac. The Stanley Parable is a narrative that you “can’t win” nor will you be able to fully control what takes place within the narration. If you’re trying to understand, don’t. Cakebread has designed the game so that you’re only equipped with nothing but vague references that set the tone of the game.
The Stanley Parable’s strongest element is the actual narrative. In the tradition of Valve (yeah we know this is a 3rd party MOD) that brings forth amazing voice narratives such as G-Man and GLADOS, Stanley’s narrative tone is set with that lovely British flair.
The Stanley Parable is set in the confines of a big company where our protagonist Stanley seems to be rather content with his daily routine of pushing buttons. One day, something goes wrong — he stops receiving job orders and thus feels some form of emptiness brew as there are no more reasons to push the buttons in front of his console. Stanley ventures out of his room and thus begins the amazing narrative.
The game does have some form of replay value but truth be told it should be treated more like a narrative piece of art than anything else, as you may be disappointed with the level of complexity the game has. “Stanley saw two doors in front of him and he entered the one on the left.” — Yep it’s that kind of narrative.
The game itself will give you a quick fix of about 30 minutes if you want to discover multiple endings. So yes dear friends, this is perhaps the shortest mod ever made. Even shorter than Half Life 2: The Lost Coast which was nothing more than a HDR settings test.
Oh. The Stanley Parable is classified under Horror.
Meh.
Because this game deserves more than the idiotic rambling “Meh” of a self-described “dope” I am commenting here to say what I just said.
Great mod, worth your time if you have a brain that forms full sentences rather than just random sounds like “Meh.”
lol @ Matt, very very true. This is a worthy mod.
lol @ dopey-joe, kill yourself in real life.
[...] Industry-wise, spoken word narratives seem to be the new thing when it comes to adventure games. The mechanic is rather similar to The Stanley Parable, a half life mod which we featured some time ago. [...]
I agree with Matt and Stanley Parable. This was a great thought provoking mod, that was short enough. It had several endings, all which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I don’t get why it’s classified under horror. Didn’t scare me one bit.
Absolutely one of the best mods to come out in a long time. It’s a brilliant game, but you must play it through several times with every possible ending to get the full brilliance of it. Awesome though.