The User Reviews are articles from Destructoid and GameSpot as well as reviews from the Steam store page of the 2013 release of The Stanley Parable featured in the Memory Zone. Despite the game having largely positive reviews in reality, the Narrator focuses on the negative reviews, ultimately causing him to create the Skip Button.
Article Reviews[]
The article reviews are a pair of positive reviews written about The Stanley Parable that the Narrator keeps framed within the main area of the Memory Zone and which he holds to high regard.
Destructoid[]
Don’t read any reviews … except this one!
James Stephanie Sterling on October 17, 2013 at 7:45 PM CEST
- How do you review a game like The Stanley Parable? To describe any one part of it is to risk its ruination. To detail what it has to say about game design, the illusion of choice, and the psychology of the gamer is to tell you too much.
- Comparisons, too, are going to be woefully inadequate. Perhaps its closest cousin would be Dear Esther, but where Dear Esther wastes the form of interactive entertainment, Stanley Parable uses and then subverts it. Where so many games that aspire to be more than games end up less than any form of art, Stanley Parable strives, and then succeeds, to be every game ever created. Even so, holding the game to the standards of any other title is simply not going to be correct.
- So, how do you review what has become known as The Stanley Parable HD, the full-scale reimagining of one of the most intriguing mods available online? How do you discuss it, analyze it, and recommend it?
- That’s quite simple.
- You don’t.[1]
GameSpot[]
You can't break away.
Carolyn Petit on October 17, 2013 at 10:51 AM PDT
- I have always been someone who wants to go the "wrong" way first in games. When I sense that a game is trying to usher me down a particular path, to get me to run from left to right or maybe to charge straight ahead, I need to satisfy my instinct to go against the grain, to explore, to see what the designers have put back the other way. Sometimes I find a 1-up or a collectible stashed away to reward me for my intrepid behavior. At other times, my explorations are rewarded only by the crushing disappointment of running up against an invisible wall. Whatever I find or don't find, my action is a manifestation of my desire to exert some independence, to make my own choices within a system that severely limits my options and encourages certain, specific behaviors.
- The Stanley Parable feels alive in its responsiveness to your choices and its desire to subvert your expectations and keep you on your toes.
- I think of The Stanley Parable as a sort of video game analogue for Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze's brilliant film Adaptation, which gently mocked the ways in which so many films manipulate audiences with formulaic plot twists and situations in which characters learn huge life lessons, while simultaneously moving me with its formulaic plot twists and situations in which characters learned huge life lessons. The Stanley Parable is both a richly stimulating commentary on the nature of choice in games (and in other systems, too, like our workplaces and our families) and a game that offers some of the most enjoyable, surprising, and rewarding choices I've ever been confronted with in a game. Going the wrong way has never felt so right.[2]
Steam Reviews[]
The Steam reviews, known as Pressurized Gas reviews on other consoles, are three negative reviews written about The Stanley Parable that the player encounters after stepping into the maintenance area of the Memory Zone, the Narrator remarks not recalling that section being there before.
buglivia[]
Not Recommended
2.9 hrs on record | Posted: 28 Jun, 2018 @ 1:21pm
- Honestly, I could not be bothered to play this game to full completion. The narrator is obnoxious and unfunny, with his humor and dialog proving to be more irritating than entertaining. The individual paths themselves are also not very fun, not offering much to do throughout each path, and requiring some rather tedious nonsense to get certain endings. I cannot reccomend this game to anyone, even as a "so bad it's good" game, as you'll more than likely wind up bored by your third or fourth play through.
nudelschaf[]
Not Recommended
3.1 hrs on record | Posted: 5 Jun, 2016 @ 11:08am
- While the idea for the game is good, it becomes very repetitive and boring fast despite all the "alternative endings" and game cameo appearances. This game is titled "thought-provoking" but you will get the idea it tries to communicate pretty fast and then it is just repeating the whole "no choice in games" thing over and over again. For somebody who prefers non-linear games, this preachiness gets annoying fast, as it is neither a revelation nor very interesting. It is thought-provoking only in the first minutes.
Cookie9[]
Not Recommended
9.8 hrs on record | Posted: 9 Mar, 2014 @ 4:30pm
- I get that it's supposed to be a parable of something but listening to that patronizing voice droning on and on just isn't fun. You constantly have to stop doing anything so the narrator can catch up with his long-winded explanations of what's happening. I wish there was a skip button.
Hidden Steam Reviews[]
Steam reviews that have no impact on the direction of the story and is not brought up by the Narrator. Placed carelessly around the Steam Reviews area in blurred form or facing away from the player, thus making them difficult to spot. These reviews are most likely fabricated and do not have a real life counterpart.
SpunkyMunky2697[]
Not Recommended
45.1 hrs on record | Posted: 5 Jun, 2013 @ 11:08am
- I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS ANGRY IN MY WHOLE LIFE.
F**K STANLEY.
Upon reaching the second/nudelschaf's review, the player can step into one of the corners of the walled area and spot the "MY WHOLE LIFE" section as seen from SpunkyMunky2697's review on multiple (two, possibly three) canvases that are facing away from the player and hidden by shadow.
MotoringGuy76[]
Not Recommended
22 hrs on record | Posted: 16 Jun, 2015 @ 9:53am
- Is it quirky? Sure. Is it unique? Yup. But so is a Ford Pinto with additional external fuel tanks.
Blurry positive/negative review[]
Recommended / Not Recommended
3.1 hrs on record | Posted: 5 Jun, 2016 @ 11:08am
- This is the thing that troubles me, for I cannot forget Carcosa, where black stars hang in the heavens, where the shadows of men's thoughts lengthen in the afternoon when the twin suns sink into the Lake of Hali; and my mind will bear for ever the memory of the Pallid Mask.[3]
The review itself is a piece of dialogue taken directly from The King in Yellow. The play time and post date is notably taken from nudelschaf's review, with the profile picture also being the same image merely shifted in hue. This review can be encountered all throughout the Steam reviews area, usually obscured in some way and not intended to be paid mind to.
Epilogue Reviews[]
Found inside of the Epilogue, these reviews are directed towards a version of The Stanley Parable 2 that differs from the one the player experiences within The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, seemingly meaning that within the game's world - The Stanley Parable 2 was released to the public instead of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe with a note of the Mostly Infinite Hole actually being infinite and there being no new endings. The latter point is debatable on if Cookie9 didn't consider the The Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket versions as new endings or if there truly wasn't any new ones.
Another theory is that since the epilogue takes place in the Memory Zone, it's all a figment of the Narrator's imagination and the reviews in this section aren't real.
Cookie9's Review[]
Cookie9's Blog! Uncompromising Gaming Content
Cookie9
- Review: The Stanley Parable 2
POSTED ON APRIL 27 BY COOKIE9
- Like so many, I enjoyed my time with the original Stanley Parable, which underscores how truly disappointed I am with its sequel. Where the first game teemed with originality, The Stanley Parable 2 is dull, uninspired, and often insulting to its fan base.
Rather than expand on what made the first game enjoyable, the sequel veers off into territory nobody asked for. An infinitely deep hole? Who cares? Where are the new endings? What about enjoyable bits from The Stanley Parable 1, like the Adventure Line? Instead, we get an uninspired sidequest collecting figurines. Even this diversion feels incomplete: collecting all the figurines gives you nothing!
I must say though, I found the bucket to be quite comforting, a welcome reprieve from
[The rest of the review is cut off here.]
Blog Sidebar[]
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Archives
REALWEB Article[]
- Stanley Parable developers: No more spinoffs, no more sequels.
By Snip Sweemey, Jul 9, 12:51 PM EST
- When The Stanley Parable launched to massive success in 2013, its creators made plans to build the property into an entire franchise. But a disastrous critical and commercial reception to The Stanley Parable 2 has prompted the developers to rethink their ambitions, as outlined in a press release they published today.
“It’s clear that more Stanley Parable is just not what the fans want,” reads the press release, “We thought that we had a vision for the series that players would be excited about, yet it turns out this could not have been farther from the truth.”
The press release goes on to promise to “preserve the artistic integrity of the original game” and to “stop assaulting fans with our reckless and insulting creative visions.” The word “sorry” appears more than twenty-five times in the press release.
The Stanley Parable 2 received nearly the lowest aggregate review scores in video game history, second only to Ernesto’s Tiny File Size Adv
[The rest of the review is cut off here.]
Trivia[]
- The textures for the Steam reviews contain hidden text that says, "To those who find this texture in the distant future.... Please... I'm begging you. Leave a positive review"
- According to Cookie9's blog in the Epilogue, it is safe to assume The Stanley Parable 2 was released in early 2027.
- Cookie9's hiatus from blogging lasted for at least 13 years.
- nudelschaf and Spunkymunky2697’s reviews are posted exactly 3 years apart.
- nudelschaf posted on 11:08 AM of June 5th, 2016,
- Spunkymunky2697 posted on 11:08 AM of June 5th, 2013.
- Regarding profile pictures:
- Buglivia's displays a popular rendition of Gregor Samsa from Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis".
- Nudelschaf's displays a lamb in a field behind a wire fence.
- Cookie9's displays a gentoo penguin.
- SpunkyMunky2697's displays a rhesus macaque.
- MotoringGuy76's displays a ford pinto.
- Out of all the (non-hidden) Steam Reviews, Cookie9 is the only one with a username that contains a capital letter and a number.
- The REALWEB review displays an ad for Shpleebly GREEN, a fictional product that Crows Crows Crows worked with in the past.
- Amongst the Steam reviews, Cookie9’s profile picture is raised 55 pixels higher than everyone else’s.
- As posted on Reddit by _Spicee, there is an early version of Cookie9’s blog review,[4] in which they are an IGN employee instead of a blogger. This is confirmed in the game’s I2Languages.asset file,[5] where the text of this review can be found.
- Cookie9’s blog shows that they posted at least once per month up until their hiatus. Once they returned, they began posting less frequently and more irregularly. This could explain their “Sorry I haven’t been blogging too much” post seen on their “Recent Posts” section.
- Cookie9 is the only Steam reviewer with an icon that does not correlate with their username.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Sterling, James Stephanie (October 17, 2013). "Review: The Stanley Parable". Destructoid. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
- ↑ Petit, Carolyn (October 17, 2013). "The Stanley Parable Review". Gamespot. Retrieved January 13, 2025.
- ↑ Deciphered by Aeromore and McT421 on January 5th, 2025.
- ↑ _Spicee’s reddit post showing the early version of Cookie9’s review.
- ↑ A screenshot of the text in Cookie9’s early review that can be found in the I2Languages.asset file.
