StandaloneThe Stanley Parable DemonstrationOct 10, 2013Playable independently
Release
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Critic score
89/100
Platform families
3
Editorial overview
Inside The Stanley Parable
What it is
A first-person exploration game built around branching narrative choices and an omniscient narrator who reacts to the player's decisions. Players navigate an office environment, choosing whether to follow or defy the narrator's directions, with each choice leading to different story paths and endings. Originally released as a Half-Life 2 mod in 2011, it was remade as a standalone title in 2013 and later expanded with The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe in 2022, which added new routes, environments, and endings across additional platforms.
The premise
Stanley is employee number 427 at a large corporation, where his job consists entirely of monitoring data on a computer screen and pressing buttons as instructed. He has never questioned his work or his purpose. One day, the screen goes blank and Stanley realizes the entire office is empty. Every coworker has vanished without explanation.
Guided by the voice of a narrator who claims to know Stanley's story, Stanley begins exploring the abandoned building. But the narrator's version of events may not be the only one, and Stanley must decide whether to follow the path laid out for him or forge his own way through a world that seems determined to tell him who he is.
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