The Stanley Parable

Platforms

• PC

  Oct 17, 2013

  ---

  8.8

  playscore

  8.9

  26 Critics

  9.1

  36.5K Players

26 critic reviews · 21 community reviews across all platforms

Critic Reviews

• 

  Game Trailers

  9.2

  Depending on whether you spend a minute or three hours with The Stanley Parable, your impression of it will change. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, the game will throw you as far off course as possible. 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.

  Reviewed on PC
• 

  PC Gamer

  9.0

  There are pacing issues, but they're inherent to the illusory freedom. The more subtle endings can fall flat if experienced directly after the most shocking and bizarre. More ironically, this game about game endings doesn't have one of its own. Having run through my internal checklist of possible paths, I'm now left poking around for possible secrets. And so The Stanley Parable ends on a whimper, but to have it any other way would spoil the frequent bangs along the way.

  Reviewed on PC

  Read full review
• 

  Game Informer

  8.5

  The Stanley Parable is built upon a single, simple premise, and only offers a few hours of entertainment. That said, those few hours were unlike any I've experienced playing games before. If you're a fan of experimental indie projects or just in the mood for a fun detour from your typical gaming adventure, look no further.

  Reviewed on PC
• 

  Now Gamer

  8.5

  Truth be told The Stanley Parable won’t be appealing to everyone. You’ll need to be willing for the game to work, to accept that you won’t be doing anything more than moving forward and looking at things. The Stanley Parable might not prove that videogames are art, but it is an intriguing - and original - game that plays around with the tried-and-tested tropes of player choice in gaming.

  Reviewed on PC
• 

  Attack of the Fanboy

  8.0

  There is no combat in the game, and your journey is not about fighting, exploring, overcoming or even surviving; At one stage I died and literally had to restart the game to play again, after looking at a black screen for half an hour...wondering what I was supposed to do. And that's the key.

  Reviewed on PC

  Read full review
• 

  Giant Bomb

  8.0

  It's a small, very charming release. You could blow it up into something bigger, if you like, and talk about how it serves as commentary on how meaningless player choice in most games actually is, and certainly there's some amount of discussion you could have about the larger context in play. But you don't need to have that conversation to enjoy The Stanley Parable.

  Reviewed on PC

  Read full review
• 

  Game Revolution

  10

  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.

  Reviewed on PC

  Read full review
• 

  Joystiq

  10

  The conclusion of my own personal experiment was that I discovered I don't like doubt; I don't like having unanswered questions, especially when I have the faculties to clear away uncertainty and find resolution. Your own conclusion is bound to be very different from mine – and that's something we should all celebrate.

  Reviewed on PC
• 

  USGamer

  10

  Many of the environments are bland, but deliberately so; delightful hidden details show their faces everywhere if you're willing to look, however. 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.

  Reviewed on PC
• 

  IGN

  8.8

  Sometimes The Stanley Parable feels like an exploration of the peculiar madness of boredom. Other times it’s something else entirely: a joke at the player’s expense, a commentary on choice and consequence, a parody, a bureaucratic nightmare. All its different plotlines and personalities overlap and combine to create something that’s intriguingly opaque, but always entertaining, and genuinely funny. Whatever it is, it’s worth playing.

  Reviewed on PC

  Read full review

Community Reviews

About the game