The Stanley Parable Critic Reviews

Where so many games that aspire to be more than games end up less than any form of art, Stanley Parable strives, and then succeeds, to be every game ever created. Even so, holding the game to the standards of any other title is simply not going to be correct.

By turns hilarious, disturbing, witty and poignant, The Stanley Parable is a successful experiment in the video game medium's inherent interactivity and how this can affect an author's story -- for good and for ill.

It's this bouncing between serious tone and irreverence that makes The Stanley Parable so special. You never know what to expect and the thrill of discovering something new is reinforced by great narration and often capricious events. But more than anything, it's this choice at the center of it all that makes The Stanley Parable a game about self-discovery.

The Stanley Parable is a game which isn’t really applicable to the standard rating system. It’s a game that achieves what it has set out to achieve perfectly, and though it could be longer and have more endings, it doesn't need them. It’s a thought-provoking and intelligent game which should be experienced by everyone, and one which will be referenced for a long time to come.

It’s just a terrific experience, somehow managing to gratify with choices that seemingly mean nothing, achieving this feat with a phenomenal central performance, expert writing and ceaseless creativity.

There is a lot more to The Stanley Parable, but to reveal the many wonderful surprises and twists crammed into the three hours it takes to see just about everything would be foolhardy. So instead, you'll have to trust us. But you'll be hard-pressed to find a funnier and more delightful game than The Stanley Parable this year.

It's one of those games that tries and succeeds in making a bold statement. Be prepared for something really special.

The Stanley Parable is the “Being John Malkovich” of video games, a complex and shapeless digital creature, that we will play over and over again, sometimes staying with raised eyebrows and a sea of questions, with the only certainty of having experienced something as much surreal as poetic.

The Stanley Parable is a meta-videogame which reflects on the nature of the medium itself. It's a masterpiece.

You’ll feel a bizarre motivation to uncover each of more than a dozen endings, even when the game is openly mocking you for doing so. The insults speak to a larger truth and may make you question what it means to play games at all. This introspection, however, will have you laughing the entire time.

Effortlessly inventive, frequently surprising and consistently hilarious. The Stanley Parable shows how to make a story about game stories.

As with any piece of good art, it is as much a game as a mirror; the beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. But what is The Stanley Parable, and what does it want to say? Not even the narrator could tell you that.

We also enjoy The Stanley Parable, but this isn't just a game meant to be enjoyed. I refuse to believe something like this is just meant to be something we goof around with for a couple of evenings and dumped into our hundreds-strong Steam libraries, never to be thought of again.

Maybe I already told you too much about The Stanley Parable, maybe I should just tell you that you absolutely have to play this curious little gem of a game. Even though it really is playing you and not the other way around.

For gamers looking for something intellectual about their medium, in their medium, The Stanley Parable is the only choice available – and thankfully, it’s a good one.

Some may laugh, some may think, some others may yawn, but every gamer should try The Stanley Parable eventually. A bizarre, peculiar, extraordinary experiment about life, gaming, and the perpetual link between effect and cause. So, a tiny mod of Half Life 2 can explain all these important things in a such peculiar way? We say yes, and we not say yes...

The Stanley Parable is brave. It’s brave because it offers the freedom to define the parameters of your experience. It’s brave because it’s willing to explore the ways in which games manipulate players, and to extrapolate that point into a discussion of the way we are all manipulated by the structures of real life. It’s brave because it’s willing to make fun of itself.

A unique title making fun not only from the game production but above all from us, the gamers. And it succeeds in it fabulously. The Stanley Parable is an extremely intelligent, humorous, and fitting game for those, who are hard to please. A game you wanted so madly, without even knowing you really want it.

To me, it feels more like an existential horror story, a deliberate blurring of the lines between the creator and the consumer, in order to tell a really good story.

Step away from this review and play it now. Or don't. Whatever you do is already ordained. OR IS IT?!