Video game achievements are sought after by the most diehard of fans who want to unlock the most hidden of secrets within some of the more obscure games out there. Some achievements can't be unlocked due to game glitches or mistakes, or because the content just wasn't there. In one particular case, there has been an achievement that gamers really wanted to unlock but haven't been able to until now. The Stanley Parable's Go Outside and Play achievement required you to not play the game for five years.
Creator of The Stanley Parable, Davey Wreden, took to his Twitter account to announce that only now can one very elusive achievement from the game be accomplished... which is to say that if you haven't played the game for five years you can now unlock that achievement.
This one has been a long time coming. This means that in order to achieve that specific goal, you would have had to put in some play time with the game and then have let it sit for five years. The thing is, if you wanted to unlock the achievement you wouldn't have been able to do so until today, because the game came out back on October 17th, 2013... five years ago to the day.
So if you played and beat The Stanley Parable (in any capacity) and then let the game sit, you could then boot it up right now and unlock the "Go Outside" achievement.
For those of you who put in more time with the game and let it sit thereafter, you'll have to wait until the date of when you last played it, and then boot it up to unlock the achievement.
Some people might see this as a nuisance but the reality is that the entirety of The Stanley Parable was about subverting the expectations of an interactive entertainment experience. It's unlike any other game out there. You're not trying to kill zombies like Call of Duty, or capture checkpoints in Battlefield; you're not trying to get the finish line like in Gran Turismo or unfold some grand political conspiracy like in Metal Gear Solid.
The Stanley Parable is a game about existentialism and choice. You get to choose how the story unfolds and the extent to which Stanley goes in order to fulfill what you believe is a meaningful story. The game turns the entirety of narration on its head in a fantastic way and it's one of the reasons why it's become a cult classic. It's like a less weird video game version of something you would expect from a David Lynch film.
Having an achievement tied to a real-life half-decade experience seems to fit very much in line with the blurred lines that the game took with dealing with life, choice, and the consequences of those choices. So, for those of you who chose not to play the game for five years, maybe you'll choose to play it one more time to unlock that very elusive achievement?
