Doing narration in a video game isn’t easy. In order for the narrator to describe what’s going on in the game we have to be able to predict the player’s behavior. This means either the game feels very linear with a great narrator or very open while the narrator explains things that aren’t as precise or accurate. Bastion is a good example of a game that tackled the challenge fairly well. The Stanley Parable takes things a step further by making narration the entire point of the game. Now what originally started as a Half-Life 2 mod, an experiment really, has snowballed into a full blown Steam release finally free of its Half-Life 2 required resources.
Today they’ve released a demo that you can pick up on Steam. It’s worth noting that the content in said demo isn’t actually found in the full game. So it’ll be worth playing the demo now and picking up the game itself later.
I played the mod a couple years ago and thought it was a really unique and interesting piece of entertainment, definitely something worth checking out in its new form.
Check out the Steam Page for the game where you can try the demo and get the full title on October 17th.
