I don’t generally play video game demos unless at a gaming convention where I am pretty much left with little to do BUT play them. Usually you will get some small snippet of a gameplay with a storyline that makes little sense with no backstory, mechanics that are detailed in a single image corresponding to a bazillion different button combinations and/or you are left to make sense of it all while saying “Oooh! Those graphics are sure nice!”. But I broke the trend with the recently released demo for The Stanley Parable.
For those who have not played the original Stanley Parable game, it follows a mute character by the name of Stanley who leaves his desk to find his office floor devoid of employees. As this would be a pretty boring game without any talking characters, the player is guided by an unnamed narrator with one of the best voices and personalities of any game I have ever played. As the player you are given the opportunity to go along with the story laid out infront of you or (as many people do), ignore the advice of the omnipresent narrator and forge your own path through the rough halls of the office environment.
The Stanley Parable was originally built on the Source Game Engine and was no frills in areas other than storyline and the narration. The developers have however chosen to do a HD release which is set to hit Steam on the 17th October. This is the demo of that game… and boy does it do everything right.
I won’t go so far as spoiling the demo experience for you too much, instead I recommend you head to Steam and download it right now. However I would just like to commend the development team in delivering a demo experience which I would most probably pay a small sum of money to play on its own and didn’t feel like it was just a small section of the game made as a separate download (But who knows, it may very well be).
In this demo you are welcomed to the top secret “The Stanley Parable: Demo Construction Facility”, where you are to be taken to the demo of the game. However instead you are drawn into the world where fourth-wall-breaking and often quirky dialogue runs rampant. What initially begins as simply a stroll through the office and a bit of promotional propaganda about the development process, it ends up as its own journey – and comes with a few opportunities to piss off the guide.
As they have already filled the one criteria I had for this demo, I look forward to playing through and reviewing The Stanley Parable (HD) when it hits the Steam store in the next couple of days.
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Criteria List
✓ Awesome Narrator Returns
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