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

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.

Familiar but consistently surprising, this new Parable even fits beautifully into the existing game - a game that took its power not from a single narrative but the interaction of all its possible narratives, super-positioned and entangled.

The Stanley Parable has this provocative and perpetual elusiveness that aches to break whatever system it’s applied to. Perhaps it's part of a weapons-grade disinformation campaign appointed to destroy all videogames, or maybe it was commissioned to wreck game criticism. Through any interpretation The Stanley Parable is equally hilarious and genuine, and if nothing else it’s going to merit inclusion in any serious discussion of its medium.

Step away from this review and play it now. Or don't. Whatever you do is already ordained. OR IS IT?! [Jan 2014, p.83]

It's like a hipster game. It manages to make you think about narrative in video games, and maybe something else. Sometimes fun, sometimes clever, but always unique. One of those games you either love or hate.

Basically a variation on the concept of a Russian doll, with some of the layers containing unexpected satirical diversions. Although if you had the chance to play the original mod, this overhaul has less new ideas than one would hope for. [Issue#236]