The Stanley Parable (Half Life 2 Mod)

by admin 31 July 2011

Review

The Stanley Parable
(Half Life 2 Mod)

	Cakebread
Distributor:	ModDB
Genre:	Interactive Fiction / Independent Developer
	July 31, 2011
Platform:	PC (Reviewed)

Review by Robert Washburne
October 5, 2011

This may well be the most difficult review I have ever written.

Not because there is any question about the quality of the game – it is brilliant.
Not because there is any question about the voice acting – Keven Brighting is simply brilliant http://kevanbrighting.com/
Not because I didn’t enjoy the game – It is one of the few games which has made me laugh out loud.
Not because the average player would not enjoy it – feedback on his blog gives the game a 9.4 rating.

No, this is difficult because I CAN’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT! At least not without totally ruining the game for you.

No clever analogies. No penetrating insights. No dry witticisms. Not even a screen shot.

I will, however, go so far as to quote the author’s web site:

“The Stanley Parable is an experimental narrative-driven first person game. It is an exploration of choice, freedom, storytelling and reality, all examined through the lens of what it means to play a video game.

You will make a choice that does not matter
You will follow a story that has no end
You will play a game you cannot win
…it’s actually best if you don’t know anything about it before you play it :D”

See what I mean?

But then I really don’t have to say much to affect your decision to buy, because The Stanley Parable is a free download. So just get it. I already had Half-Life 2, so I just stuck it in the same folder as Dear Esther and played. The web site says that it can be played independently of Half-Life 2*, but I couldn’t figure it out just glancing at it. If someone can figure that out, let me know and I will have that info posted here.

Is it any good? Yes. It is innovative and flawless in its intent. It is also the work of one independent burned-out person. I give it an “A.” (Find out more about our grading system)

*Editor’s Notes: According to http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-stanley-parable: TSP does not actually require Half Life 2 on PC, only the Source SDK which should download automatically when you start the game. On Mac, HL2 is required.

Bob Washburne has furnished the following additional info, according to two Steam experts: “The Stanley Parable will not run ‘stand-alone’ in the classic sense, but you can run it without owning Half-Life.

“The trick is to get a Steam account (free) and then install the SDK from Steam (Software Developer’s Kit, also free). You can then play TSP for free through the SDK.”

It appears that the above pertains to the PC version only.

And Bob himself has added the following:

After downloading the mod, unzip it and place the resulting folder in C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\SourceMods (or where ever you installed Steam)

Once there, run Steam and The Stanley Parable should show up in your play list. Just play it and the SDK should install itself automatically.

Please let us know if this works or if there is a problem so we can update these instructions.