Introspection and Investigation in The Beginner’s Guide and Her Story
The Beginner’s Guide proved to be one of the most memorable gaming experiences I have ever come across. The snarky meta-humor of its predecessor The Stanley Parable has been essentially eliminated to favor a more disconnected experience: the game features the creator himself, Davey Wreden, narrating a series of half-finished video games by a fellow game developer named Coda. Coda’s works, initially presented as abstract musings and free-form experiments, become significantly more dark, fragmented, and introspective as the Beginner’s Guide progresses.
The “house game”” resonated with me immediately. Wreden accurately describes it as Coda’s interpretation of a human connection other than himself. Through menial, cyclical tasks Coda finds a sense of solace and comfort; knowing that there is another person even willing to share a single moment, no matter how mundane it seems, is the one thing he desperately yearns for. An analogous scenario is seen before in the “phone booth game”, where Coda attempts to imitate a phone conversation when instead he is actually portraying an internal dialogue with himself. Dialogue options like “all you have to do is be sincere”, “you need to tell me how you feel right now”, and “just talk with me for a bit” convey a man longing for an escape, an escape from the entrapment of his conflicted, doubt-ridden world. The gut-wrenching ending of The Beginner’s Guide contributes heavily to its emotional impact. A broken, soulless Coda essentially rejects Wreden’s efforts to publicize and share his games. Though Wreden is torn and apologetic throughout the game’s finale, I actually found it difficult to have full sympathy for him due to what seemed to be a narcissistic objective: making himself feel better and “whole”by sharing Coda’s fragmented work. The game’s willingness to explore fundamentally human concepts of introspection, alienation, and personal human connection make The Beginner’s Guide one of my all time favorites.
Her Story on the other hand seemed to be a promising concept on paper, but fell flat in its execution as an engaging video game. Being restricted as an investigator working on a computer scouring databases to obtain video files with clunky software reminiscent of Windows 95/98 isn’t exactly enticing. The game possesses an uncanny realism however, from the glare on the monitor to the clacking of keys when editing video tags to the humming drone of the background. I personally was not able to finish the game due to time constraints and a sheer lack of interest, but I definitely plan on revisiting it in the future.
Both The Beginner’s Guide and Her Story establish mood and convey narrative in newfound yet contrasting ways; their audacity to tread new ground will be remembered as video games are growing to become a serious, viable medium. The Beginner’s Guide however felt significantly more compelling and profound, combining gameplay elements of a traditional FPS with a complex, introspective, and emotional narrative unlike any other in the medium.
