The Beginner's Guide Critic Reviews

Few game developers have ever ventured such an open-hearted project about human frailty – and knocked it out of orbit.

There’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.

On 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.

I 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.

Do 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.

The Beginner's Guide is an incredible art piece of a game that gets you thinking your relationship with the games you play.

If you really love video games, play The Beginner's Guide.

The 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.

The true challenge of The Beginner’s Guide is understanding it in its entirety.

Whatever The Beginner's Guide is supposed to be: it's well done and everything we could say about it would be a spoiler.

It'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.

A 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.

Yes, 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.

The 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.

The 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.

The Beginner’s Guide offers a personal and sometimes eerie perspective on amateur game development.

The 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.

The 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.

It’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.

It’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.