Only a week ago, the second season of «Severance» ended, and we’ll have to wait for the new one for who knows how long. For those who miss the atmosphere of the game —, there is one that was inspired by the series creator.
Writer Dan Erickson admitted that he was inspired by the game to create an absurd workplace. So, if you feel nostalgic for the atmosphere of office isolation and absurdity, there is a game you might like — The Stanley Parable.
The game was released back in 2013, but still remains a cult favorite. It tells the story of Stanley, an office worker who performs routine work — presses buttons on the keyboard as instructed, and is followed by a camera. One day, the instructions stop coming, and Stanley decides to leave the office. He is met not by his colleagues, but by an empty office with a strange atmosphere.
Very quickly, Stanley finds himself in a real experiment, where a voice leads the character through a story. The player can either follow his words or go against them, which creates the effect of a fractured reality where there seems to be a choice, but does it matter?
In this sense, The Stanley Parable, like «Severance», plays with the theme of free will in the context of office life. Stanley seems to be able to act independently, but every time he deviates from the «correct» path, the game reacts: either the narrator changes the narrative or everything simply restarts.
Such a system is very similar to Lumon — a company where employees seem to have a separate life inside the office, but cannot influence its rules. Or they think they can, but every time they are constrained by something that prevents them. The question of choice, the illusion of control, and the absurdity of corporate culture are the key themes of both the game and the series.
The basic version of The Stanley Parable had 19 endings, and the Ultra Deluxe (2022 update) has as many as 46. Each scenario is absurd in its own way. For example, one of the endings just locks Stanley in a room forever. In the other, he wanders around the office until he comes to the terrible truth. And, as in the «Severance», at some point the player begins to wonder: what does «the correct path» mean?
Although The Stanley Parable is already old, fans of «Severance» or just ordinary players may be interested in the project that gave life to the popular series about philosophical reflections, office dystopias, and stories where people became an experiment. Meanwhile, the second season of «Severance» can be confidently called very successful — has a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes and became the most popular series in the history of Apple TV+.
Source: Collider
