The Stanley Parable

If you want: less conventional gameplay, more comedy and meta shenanigans
Playable on: the recent, updated version is available on all modern gaming platforms

Where to even begin with this mind-bender of a game? While High on Life plays with meta concepts that risk going off the rails of a standard game experience, it mostly stays in its lane. The Stanley Parable tosses that out the window and doesn’t just replace the fourth wall, but instead rarely pretends it exists in the first place. As John Walker described the recent remaster/semi-sequel that landed just last year:

What I’ve found perhaps most interesting about The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, is that, while certainly updated and more contemporary in its references, it’s almost defiantly anachronistic. It hasn’t taken the opportunity to make its graphics stunningly modern, nor gone to town on jokes about games-as-service or whatever 2022 gaming is about. TSPUD is a game about sequels, about both being and not being a sequel, a perennial topic that it explores with extraordinary self-loathing and scorn. As it ever was, The Stanley Parable is a game about itself.

Read More: The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe Is The Smartest, Silliest Game Of The Year 

You can hang out in a closet and get yelled at by the narrator, who’ll increasingly take you to various subterranean circles of video game hell should you continue to veer off script. What you do, why you do it, and all the many, many ways the game constantly keeps you guessing and surprised make The Stanley Parable a reflexive recommendation if you’re looking for something slightly less conventional than High on Life, but just as absurd.