This review is intended to be informational. But since Steam forces me to take a side, I choose not recommended on the basis of being extremely short, and that there are better parody experiences for the same price.

To be clear, I don't dislike THE CORRIDOR. I just feel anything towards it, either. From start to finish, your job is to press a button, or at least attempt to do so, whilst the narrator derides and obstructs your efforts. The setting is fine, the concept is executed adequately, but by the time you get to the finish, you're liable to ask yourself, "That's it?"

If CORRIDOR wanted to convey to us the challenges of game design, it had a few good ideas. Displaying the game engine, design sequence, disassembling the building blocks piece by piece - all fine. The issues I have lie more with the delivery and the writing. From the outset, the player is greeted with hostility and commanded to "go away," the reasons for which are not really explained until the very end. Unlike Stanley, which had colorful banter throughout, the player's experience is largely adversarial. And once we do reach that climax, it's underwhelming, because we don't experience the narrator's growth. We're given a post-it note. Whoopie. The purpose of our journey was to help the narrator overcome his fear, and in so doing, we've learned... what, exactly?

As a silly walking sim, it fits the criteria, but CORRIDOR doesn't dare to do anything with its setting. Besides making the actual task more convoluted or impractical, it has a few funny genre switch ups with are short lived, and would have been excellent to explore more. Perhaps sprinkle sarcastic commentary about these and why the narrator decided that button pushing is the penultimate gaming experience? As a conduit to tell a short story, CORRIDOR misses the chance to convey just how painstaking it can be to craft art, rather than intentionally mocking the game experience as a means to an end.

You may be thinking that I'm being too harsh on a what's clearly a joke on a budget. And that's fair. It's cheap, it has achievements, and it may give you a chuckle. I just wish to see something different and exciting from a decades-old trope, a new iteration or perspective. Even if it is just a buck. Once you see all it has to offer, you're unlikely to open it ever again... which, ironically, is exactly what the narrator intended at the start.

Achievement Hunters: See guides for walkthrough. About half missable, but short enough that replay is no big deal. (If you do complete it and need to return, use the reset data option in settings). If you use a guide from the very start and don't need any replays, I estimate ~20 minute completion is possible.

[h3]THE CORRIDOR is a meta walking sim, borrowing heavily from the likes of Stanley Parable and Thomas was Alone. That is, 4th wall breaking commentary about performing a mundane game task, with the added influence of trolling (the game exits itself repeatedly). It's little more than 15 mins to complete, perhaps more if you hunt achievements, but ultimately fails to leave any memorable elements for players to muse on, unlike its predecessors.[/h3] [i]This review is intended to be informational. But since Steam forces me to take a side, I choose not recommended on the basis of being extremely short, and that there are better parody experiences for the same price.[/i] To be clear, I don't dislike [i]THE CORRIDOR[/i]. I just feel anything towards it, either. From start to finish, your job is to press a button, or at least attempt to do so, whilst the narrator derides and obstructs your efforts. The setting is fine, the concept is executed adequately, but by the time you get to the finish, you're liable to ask yourself, "That's it?" If [i]CORRIDOR[/i] wanted to convey to us the challenges of game design, it had a few good ideas. Displaying the game engine, design sequence, disassembling the building blocks piece by piece - all fine. The issues I have lie more with the delivery and the writing. From the outset, the player is greeted with hostility and commanded to "go away," the reasons for which are not really explained until the very end. Unlike Stanley, which had colorful banter throughout, the player's experience is largely adversarial. And once we do reach that climax, it's underwhelming, because we don't experience the narrator's growth. We're given a post-it note. Whoopie. The purpose of our journey was to help the narrator overcome his fear, and in so doing, we've learned... what, exactly? As a silly walking sim, it fits the criteria, but [i]CORRIDOR[/i] doesn't dare to do anything with its setting. Besides making the actual task more convoluted or impractical, it has a few funny genre switch ups with are short lived, and would have been excellent to explore more. Perhaps sprinkle sarcastic commentary about these and why the narrator decided that button pushing is the penultimate gaming experience? As a conduit to tell a short story, [i]CORRIDOR[/i] misses the chance to convey just how painstaking it can be to craft art, rather than intentionally mocking the game experience as a means to an end. You may be thinking that I'm being too harsh on a what's clearly a joke on a budget. And that's fair. It's cheap, it has achievements, and it may give you a chuckle. I just wish to see something different and exciting from a decades-old trope, a new iteration or perspective. Even if it is just a buck. Once you see all it has to offer, you're unlikely to open it ever again... which, ironically, is exactly what the narrator intended at the start. [u]Achievement Hunters[/u]: See guides for walkthrough. About half missable, but short enough that replay is no big deal. (If you do complete it and need to return, use the reset data option in settings). If you use a guide from the very start and don't need any replays, I estimate ~20 minute completion is possible.