PC Gamer - UK (2022-07)

But what even is Ultra Deluxe? It’s

not just a remaster, though the

original game has been faithfully

rebuilt in Unity. You can play through

it once again as office worker Stanley,

who realises he’s the

only one in the building

and sets out to discover

why while a gentle

storybook-style

narration guides him

through the empty

corridors and rooms.

Once again, the simple

act of disobeying the

narrator and making your own

choices leads to numerous branching

paths, a range of reactions from the

narrator, multiple endings and the

pure joy of doing something

unexpected and discovering the game

fully expected you to do it.

But at some point while replaying

the new version of the old The

Stanley Parable, the new content

begins to intrude. It’s not a subtle

introduction – a door labelled New

Content appears in the familiar office

corridor you’ve walked down a dozen

times already. Step through it and a

bunch of new features are trotted out

to you. Like a bucket that Stanley can

pick up and carry around with him.

BUCKETS OF FUN

That’s it. It’s just a bucket, a little joke

based on the idea that some players

found the original game confusing,

and so this Reassurance Bucket can

now be carried around as a

companion to stave off any feelings of

discomfort or uncertainty. But of

course, a simple joke in Ultra Deluxe

never remains simple. When you’re

carrying the bucket the narration

changes to reflect that, and once the

narrator began saying different things

I started to wonder what else might

be different while I was holding the

bucket. What if I climbed out a

window with the bucket, or took it

into the closet, or took

it to one of the game’s

many endings? What if

I started over with the

bucket and then

brought the bucket

back to the place where

I originally was given

the bucket? Could I get

two buckets?

As always, developer Crows

Crows Crows has done a brilliant job

anticipating anything and everything

a player might think to do while

playing The Stanley Parable, including

holding a bucket and plenty more,

and the rewards for experimenting

are more humour, confusion, and

thoughtful explorations about game

design and player choice.

And as silly as it sounds, at one

point I decided I’d try to get rid of the

bucket, a lengthy task that rewarded

me with a Replacement Bucket,

which I stubbornly also got rid of,

after which I wound up with no

bucket. And I’m embarrassed to say I

genuinely felt a bit of panic. It

couldn’t be that I had become

legitimately, emotionally attached to

the bucket, could it? No, it was just

that carrying the bucket had

unlocked a number of new endings

(and bucket-based revisions of the

game’s original endings) so I worried

that without the bucket, I might wind

up missing something. Some ending,

some bit of narration, some silly or

funny or thought-provoking moment

that are the real collectibles of The

Stanley Parable experience. I did,

eventually, get my Reassurance

Bucket back, and dammit, as stupid

as it feels to say this, I felt reassured

to once more be clutching it.

There’s far more than just a

bucket in Ultra Deluxe, by the way

• I’ve played it for ten hours and I’m
  fairly sure I still haven’t uncovered all
  its new tricks and treats. As with the
  original, there are a few patience-
  testing moments where the narration
  carries on just a bit too long and I
  found myself restless to keep poking
  around rather than standing in place
  listening. But mostly it’s a delight, an
  adventure full of fun surprises,
  meta-humour, and commentary on
  games and how we play them.
  Certainly nothing a ‘skip dialogue’
  button would improve.

88

A delightful update that

fills the original game

with more humorous and

thoughtful rabbit holes

to get lost in.

VERDICT

I

’ve never given much thought to the ‘skip dialogue’ button in a

videogame, but after playing The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe I

can’t stop thinking about it. The button is just one of several new

features explored in the “expanded reimagining” of 2013’s The

Stanley Parable, which once again turns the act of playing a game

into a hilarious, surprising and thoughtful examination of games and game

development, players and player choice, and yes, even simple buttons.

RELIABLE NARRATOR

Buckets of new features come to THE STANLEY PARABLE: ULTRA DELUXE

By Christopher Livingston

I did,

eventually,

get my

Reassurance

Bucket back

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

The Stanley Parable

rebuilt in the Unity

Engine, but with more

of itself

EXPECT TO PAY

£20

DEVELOPER

Crows Crows Crows

PUBLISHER

In-house

REVIEWED ON

RTX 2080, Intel

i7-9700K , 16GB RAM

MULTIPLAYER

No

LINK

stanleyparable.com

MOD SQUAD

Other mods that became standalone games

DAYZ

The game that inspired countless

survival games began life as a

mod for ArmA 2.

COUNTER-STRIKE

The game had humble beginnings

as a mod for the original Half-Life,

and quickly grew into a sensation.

CHIVALRY

The medieval multiplayer

hack-and-slash game began as

Age of Chivalry, a Half-Life 2 mod.

DOTA 2

Valve’s free-to-play MOBA’s roots

lie in a 2003 mod for Blizzard’s

Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

REVIEW