The Stanley Parable: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

The Stanley Parable is a modification of [[Valve Software]]'s Source engine. It follows the story of a man named Stanley, who spends his days pushing buttons as commanded by his boss, who issues orders to his workers via a system of monitors. However, one day Stanley notices that he hasn't been given any orders in hours. What follows are events that change his life forever.

* [[Empty Room Psych]]: The whole damn game.

* [[Failure Is the Only Option]]: To quote Cakebread, the designer:

* [[From Beyond the Fourth Wall]]: The only way that Stanley (the player) will know the code to the keypad is for the third-person omniscient Narrator to relate the anecdote of how his boss picked that number. [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] when the Narrator suggests Stanley was just pressing random buttons to get the correct number.

* [[Game Breaking Bug]]: It's possible to press a button on the elevator, then run out of it before it starts moving, leaving you stranded.

* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]: The game as a whole, but especially the normally bustling Half Life 2 map you can get dumped in.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Some of the voiceovers can be startling, the [[Dissonant Serenity|measured tones]] only making things worse.

* [[Passive-Aggressive Kombat]]: The narrator is the most passive aggressive observer since [[G La DOS]] and backs it up with absolute power over the world.

* [[Post Modernism]]: So very much.

* [[Railroading]]: The Narrator makes sure to nudge Stanley in the proper direction if he dawdles in a room a bit too long. Aggressively so.

** [[Off the Rails]]: Electing to do the precise opposite of what the Narrator says you will do causes him to get more and more upset.

** Going [[Off the Rails]] too much makes him [[Killer Game Master|snap]], and he may quit or pull a [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies]].

* [[Reality Warper]]: The narrator is kind of a dick when he invokes this.