Aye, I didn't read it before buying but the 'Essential' award and my mostly positive opinion of The Stanley Parable made it seem worth a punt.
The more I think about The Beginners Guide the more I hate it. Redeemed only by a few nice touches, mostly visual, it was a [3] at best. Such a chore to play, really infuriating.
Absolutely none of the spark that made Parable interesting, it was like staring at somebody's mildly pretty belly button for an hour and a half. Actually, it wasn't, that could be a [10] with the right belly button.
I look forward to seeing what others think. The Eurogamer reviewer loved it for all the reasons I loathed it.
ah, it's kinda cool and affecting. A bit too on the nose with its themes and you can sort of see why the media have lapped it up, given the subject matter directly relates to people who publish work. Cool piece.
I can see why it would piss others off. There's no real game to speak of (something made explicit in its description on Steam), just a series of closed boxes to explore. It's pretty linear, there's no challenge, and the narrative is not subtle in the slightest.
And yet, I really enjoyed it. Visually there's some interesting stuff going on, and whilst the immediate broad narrative seems obvious and self indulgent, there is on reflection a bit more to it, and it gets nicely under the skin.
Spoiler:
In some ways I was less interested in the story of a man potentially wrestling with his own creative urges, integrity and self esteem, than I was with the exploration of the perils of assuming that your perspective on the world is the definitive one. Which of course renders any subsequent attempt by me to discuss "what it all means" intrinsically ironic. So I'll stop before I disappear up my own arse.
In any case, I certainly didn't feel it was a waste of the fiver it cost me.
the exploration of the perils of assuming that your perspective on the world is the definitive one.
Spoiler:
That's an interesting reading and an interesting topic for discussion. Sadly, I didn't really get that or anything of much interest from the game.
Most of my frustrations stemmed from the narrator. I really didn't enjoy the way the existential crisis was presented. It was like having a drunk friend unload on you, but he wasn't a friend so my sympathies were low, especially as he was wittering on about the difficulties of making Source levels, which I quite enjoy. The Stanley Parable had weaknesses in it's writing but some of it was great, I though that this was mostly drivel, despite having had such crises myself.
I also didn't find the 'games' interesting. There were a few nice visual touches but the only interesting mechanic was the walking backwards game. Which is fair enough, except the narrator holds them up as being symbolic and profound when they're pretty dull and take most of their interesting features from elsewhere. As you say, I was forwarned of this, and I bought it because I'm keen to encourage games that are on the edges. I loved Proteus, bought Paranomical recently, blah, blah, blah.
Ultimately it's a very personal game, so I'm glad it exists and that others are enjoying it and don't begrude him the money. Sadly though I found it to be an intensely irritating experience, not because of the lack of game but because of the disparity between the narrators opinion of what was unfolding and my own experience.
And that fucking song at the end. It feels like he was trying to say something profound but it really didn't resonate with me at all. Glad it's working for others though.
that the narrator is describing his own experiments and adding meaning to them which he is trying to imply but fact is theyre just little toys made by him with no additional meaning.
It's possibly meant to mirror the pursuit of meaning in Stanley parable by fans where one does not exist. The whole thing is a massive amount of layering upon layer about games and their criticism and the point of games done through the medium of those three things.
I think it was a great reflection on creative and how being as a self ascribed 'creative' can be a trap that defines you in a matter of analysing your own work and that of others and what a soul consuming process that can be
I related to much of it and enjoyed it even thougb it left me feeling quite down at the end. But you know, #thestruggle
Either I missed something or it was a little trite/contrived.
I was waiting for something to come at the end and change the focus of things, so it didn't seem so heavy-handed, but it just followed the initial trajectory which seemed pretty much spelled out by the half way point.
It felt a lot like expression looking for some art. A couple of nice moments to be had, the suggestions of interesting subject matters on mechanics construction, but no deeper discussion on them.
I'm glad I played it, and will likely play it again in the not-too-distant future, but doubt I'll be recommending it to anyone.