15 Video Games That REWARD YOU For Playing Badly

1. The Stanley Parable

Crash Bandicoot
Galactic Cafe

The Stanley Parable is the ultimate first-person narrative adventure, and the finest example of being rewarded for playing badly.

The best moments come from deliberately ignoring the instructions of the omnipresent narrator, Kevan Brighting, who is doing his best to recount the story of seemingly average office worker Stanley.

Actions such as jumping out of the window, heading through the wrong door or idly standing in a broom cupboard doing nothing for several minutes each have their own rewards, and the player is treated to some increasingly irate, rib-tickling voice lines the further off-piste Stanley goes.

Simply doing what you're told (and hence narratively what Stanley is supposed to) is easily the most boring way to play- you miss out on gems including limericks, parodies of other video games, and even total annihilation in an otherwise largely pacifistic experience.

Staring at duct tape is, unbelievably, a considerably more rewarding experience than doing what every gamer's instincts would tell them to do at a dead-end- turn around and try another path.

The Stanley Parable is at its finest when it's being played badly- the right way is really the wrong way.

Contributor
Contributor

I'm perfectly sane, or so the voices tell me. British, sarcastic, president of the European Slinky Association, have a tendency to lie when listing things about myself. 100% guilty of being a massive geek obsessed with Doctor Who, Harry Potter and video games. If you can't find me on the internet, I'm probably locked in a room playing Spyro the Dragon on my old PlayStation, or blowing everything to smithereens with a concrete donkey on Worms: Armageddon.