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The Stanley Parable creator Davey Wreden is a PR person's nightmare. "In a way, the whole point of The Stanley Parable was to create something that was intrinsically difficult to describe," he tells me, upon revealing the completely bonkers PAX demo he created specifically for the occasion. The whole "you just have to play it" mantra is too vague to function as a selling point and god help the poor soul who's tasked with writing a press release for this highly experimental satirical curio that not so much breaks the fourth wall as completely demolishes it and digs a chasm in its place just for good measure.So what is The Stanley Parable, you ask? At it's core, it began as a Half-Life 2 mod in which the player assumes the role of an office worker named Stanley who's having a rather unusual day. A delightful British narrator explains Stanley's peculiar set of circumstances just before the player is asked to enact them. When facing two doors, the narrator will explain that Stanley took the left one to the cafeteria, when in reality the player can subvert the narration by taking the door on the right, at which point the narrator will comment on Stanley being rubbish at following directions. Saying any more would ruin astoundingly labyrinthine onion-like layers of narrative tangents the player can embark on in what feels like the unholy interactive offspring of Inception, Being John Malkovich and Portal.
It's hard to say more without dryly ruining the jokes as much of the fun comes from the narrator constantly reacting to your input in increasingly unpredictable ways. Most games put the player in the role of a listener, sitting cross-legged on the rug while the developer spins them a yarn, while other titles are more akin to Choose Your Own Adventure books with plenty of branching narrative paths that are usually tied to moral or strategic choices. The Stanley Parable, however, is more like playing improv theater with a robot comedian who was programmed to be much, much funnier than you. Only the Stanley Parable's puppeteer isn't a robot, and like the funniest comedians, his humour comes from a dark place.
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