The Stanley Parable is a first-person exploration game made by the video game developer Galactic cafe. The game was released in 2011.
In the game, we get into the role of the character called Stanley. Stanley is a man that was working in a big organization with many other workers. The game mainly tells us about "his path to freedom".
Gameplay & Story
When we start playing for the first time, we get into the role of the character known as Stanley.
Stanley worked for an organization in an exceedingly huge building wherever he was employee 427.
His job was pretty easy - he sat at his desk in his cabinet and the only thing he did was just push buttons on a keyboard.
People were giving him orders through a monitor telling him what buttons to push, how long to push them, etc.
This is what Stanley did each day of his life.
He truly enjoyed each moment when the orders came in.
The job he was engaged in was precisely created for him.
He really admired his job, until some point, some odd things started happening.
He had been at his desk for nearly an hour without receiving any orders.
Nobody had shown up to give him orders or maybe notice him.
This was strange for him since nothing like that happened before in the company.
Something in him felt wrong...
Suddenly, he got up from his desk and stepped out of his workplace.
When he started walking around, Stanley didn't spot any of his co-workers.
Because of that, Stanley went to the meeting place to check if he didn't miss a memo.
While he was walking, he saw two open doors.
He had 2 choices:
To enter the left door or the right door.
This moment is a very important part of our gameplay because if we choose the wrong door, the story might extend too much...
I personally chose the left door.
When he entered the meeting room, it was empty.
Because of that, he decided to go to his boss's workplace.
By going into his boss's cabinet, it was empty too.
He was inquisitive about what was wrong...
He began wildly tearing through documents to find a way to get out of the case he was concerned in.
While he was searching, his attention was caught by an input device behind the boss's table.
This input device guarded the massive secret that the boss was hiding from all Stanley's co-workers.
The boss had assigned it with an additional code, that was 2-8-4-5.
By inserting the right code (which was 2-8-4-5), we could step into the newly opened passageway.
After stepping in the passageway, we are going to see an elevator that we can use.
After going down the elevator, we land on an extraordinary underground place.
Stanley walked straight ahead to a massive door - it was one of the only things that he could see in this place.
Above the door, there was written "Mind Control Facility"
He didn't know what was going on and he wasn't aware of the big secret that he was gonna expose.
The main question is:
"Did he have the strength to find out the truth?"
After walking into the "Mind Control Facility" door, we are going to see a button that can activate all the lights in the room.
Hence, I pressed it.
After some time, another door opened.
By entering the next door, we will see a button that we can use to activate all monitors.
These monitors helped the owner of the company to stalk all the employees in the building.
On the monitor, he could see the lives of his employees.
Stanley could feel that for his boss the word "freedom" meant NOTHING.
By pressing the button, another door opened.
When we enter the next door, we will be able to enter a mysterious elevator.
While he was going up with the elevator, Stanley started denying everything that happened to him... that's because he couldn't believe that his life was under somebody's else control.
He started asking himself many questions, and the main one was:
"Did I spend my entire life utterly blinded to the world?"
After arriving at the mysterious place, he started exploring the area, and he noticed that the place was the heart of the operation. The controls were labeled with emotions that were:
Happy;
Sad;
Content.
While the exploration of the place, he entered another door. Above the door, there was written"Facility Power"
When we enter the zone, we have two options - to power off the electricity or power it on.
Obviously, the electricity was powered on, so obviously I powered it off.
When I powered off the electricity, everything became so dark.
Stanley was questioning himself:
"Was it over?"
After one minute of waiting in the dark, he could see a bright light showing up...
And, yet, even as the immense door slowly opened, Stanley noticed how many questions were unanswered:
"Where had my co-workers gone? ";
"How had I been freed from the machine's grasp?";
"What other mysteries did this strange building hold?"
However, after tasting the freedom, he didn't care about anything anymore.
In the end, it turned out that he didn't seek power, but happiness.
Since he was free, nobody could tell him what to do.
When the moment of freedom came, he officially became the boss of his own life.
Summary
I rate the game with 6/10, here's why:The story is lovely, but it's not as exciting and spooky as I expected it to be.
If we choose the right door, the story will extend even more and we will be stuck in an infinite loop which will make us start the game from the beginning all over again... That's a huge downside for me.
The graphics and the sounds are OK.
I wish the story included the boss of the company... Stanley is the only character in the game, which makes the game slightly boring for me.
The biggest upside for me is that the game supports many languages, but unfortunately, there is full audio in English only... This doesn't include other languages.
I really liked the positive & negative vibes this game used to give me while my gameplay - the moment of exposal of the awful truth and the moment when Stanley followed his path to the freedom he deserved on.
-t4tsumihyaku
The graphics remind me of something like Garry's mod or Half Life 2. Which makes sence, since the game is made on source engine. I decided to play it, and i DEFINETLY don't regret installing it.
these screenshots really don't showcase the game very well. Did you just write down all the voiceover content?
this game is really good when you're new to it, but the more you play it it becomes boring. nice article btw
seems very successful in the long run when more developed and smoothed
great article! i couldn't play the game tho cause im a big friggin coward
i have never heard of this game, but because of this article, became interested. good article!
im close to mad this game destroy my brain cool game XD
i want to play this game but i dont have the money to get it
Nice article! i liked
I wanted to like this game, but I end up disliking this one. The narrator pissed me off in the middle of the game. But the actions to solve was indeed very creative some of them.