The Stanley Parable: Huh...

Uh, yeah, so this exists.  Define "Game" because I'm not entirely convinced this is one.  The Stanley Parable exists as a lot of things.  It's a thought experiment, a parody of gaming tropes, a story telling platform, a philosophical look at life and one mindfuck of an experience.  I'll try as hard as I can not to "spoil" anything, but if I just dumped all my screenshots out at once there'd be so little context and sense to them that I'm not sure it would spoil anything, the experience here is the important part.

Home

The game has a narrator and you play as Stanley.  End of sense making.  I'm finding it difficult to write anything meaningful about the game because it's just so different from anything else I've played.  It has a very self-aware sense to it, like it knows exactly what you're going to do.  The game has choices in it to some extent as your choice is only tangentially related to your experience.  One of the more odd things about the game is "failing" is exactly as or more interesting than "succeeding".  Make a choice you're not supposed to and the game changes as does the "story".   To give a sense of how this game exists is to look at one particular achievement and that is to complete the game in less than 4 minutes and 22 seconds.  My play time is 98 minutes and yet I felt that it would probably be entirely possible to do such an achievement.  The game exists within itself and is cyclical.  If you understand the movie "Primer" then you may be able to sort it all out.  I saw a lot of content and even beat the game before I beat the game but if you asked me to replicate my actions that brought me to that particular place in the world, I would have a very difficult time. 

I spent at least 5 minutes in here

Any attempt to be clever or do something that would normally be game breaking is actually still just a part of it.  The writing is fantastic as is the narrator.  It's equally funny and creepy and has layers nested upon layers nest upon even further layers and the second you think you have it sorted is when something new pops up that throws that all out the window.  The challenge exists in ignoring everything games have ever taught you while being mindful that you're actively ignoring them.  I don't understand why The Stanley Parable is good, I just know that it is.  It's nothing you haven't seen and it's nothing you have seen, but it's a ride very much worth taking.