The Beginner’s Guide
How do you recommend a game without revealing almost a thing about it?
Reviewers often struggle with how to write about a game as spoiler-free as possible. With most games, you can describe gameplay, graphics, music, and other aspects of the content in vague, generalized fashion. I am kind of at a loss to how to that with The Beginner's Guide.Professional reviewers have an established level of trust and a track record that allows the gamer to at least gauge whether a recommendation on a game probably means they will also like it. I'm a nobody, so I am not afforded that. But I would still be doing anyone reading this a disservice by spoiling a single aspect of The Beginner's Guide.
In its simplest form, this is another walking simulator by Davey Wreden, the man who made The Stanley Parable, one of the most highly regarded walking simulators of all time. Walking simulators carry a stigma about them. One of the earliest popular walking simulators I ever played was Myst, a game that came out in 1993. Criticisms of Myst at the time almost perfectly mirror the criticisms some express towards them today. The debate of "is this even a game" is nothing new. It is not some new question players are suddenly arriving at since Dear Esther, Gone Home, and the rest brought the genre back in vogue.
The player at the end of a walking simulator can, at least in my opinion, identify if the game was successful based on a simple question: could the content be conveyed as well through another medium such as a book or a movie, or was the interactive aspect of a video game vital to the content? To that end, the video game format is even more necessary to The Beginner's Guide than The Stanley Parable. Like The Stanley Parable, there is narration over the course of the game. This time it is provided by the author. However, the narration and the content are at odds with each other, increasingly so throughout the game. What the player draws from that is ultimately up to them, as you will reach the end of the game the same way no matter what.
To be blunt, this game may resonate with you in some important way, and it may not. That is not to suggest that this is meant to be a complex narrative. Rather, the game is about delivering some very direct, personal messages through abstract means. It is as much about the messages it is trying to convey as the difficulty in the means of conveying them. It is both an existential crisis in electronic form and a simple statement of "do with this what you will." And what you draw from it depends on the player. Whether you're an artist, game creator, or just a fan of video games, there are different aspects of the content that will be more relevant to you.
My greatest recommendation for The Beginner's Guide is to read as little as you need to before playing it. That is not so much about avoiding story spoilers, but because this is an experience every gamer should have for themselves. Take the opportunity to develop your own thoughts on it before reading the interpertations of others. Once finishing the game, whether you like it or not, your time will have not been wasted. One would be hard pressed to come away from the game without at least a few thoughts on it. My Steam play time was 80 minutes, and at $9.99 (currently discounted at $7.99), that is a valuable use of your equivalent lunch money.
I guess I'd score this between four and five stars, but that feels arbitrary, as pretentious as that may seem.
