The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe or Ultra Deception?

Satire, an existential crisis, and a bucket. All things that make up The Stanley Parable. 

The original version of The Stanley Parable came out in October 2013, and then in April 2022, it was expanded to The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. It’s available to play on Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Microsoft. The Stanley Parable was developed by Crows Crows Crows and is a single-player first-person adventure game that makes you question everything. 

This is the story of a man named Stanley. A story where you will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will make a choice, and you will have your choices taken from you. The game will end, the game will never end. The end is never the end is never the end…

Confusing, right? 

That’s the experience of The Stanley Parable. Everything is questioned and poked at by the brilliant satirical elements. The Stanley Parable is a comical satire on video games- specifically the choices made within them. There are hundreds of choices and plenty of different endings, much like Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology.

The main story of The Stanley Parable- the one where you follow everything you’re told to do- only takes 15 minutes, but listening isn’t the point of The Stanley Parable. When you ignore the predetermined path, you get to see more and experience more, upping the playtime. 

When playing The Stanley Parable, you’re supposed to ignore those voices that tell you what to do and express your own free will. The Stanley Parable gives those voices a character in the form of The Narrator. 

A surreal adventure game at heart. You play Stanley wandering the halls of his office as The Narrator instructs you where to go and what to do. As the player, you can choose to listen to The Narrator or deviate from the path he lays out. For example, your very first choice is to either walk through the left door or the right door. The Narrator wants you to go left, but you can go right if you choose. Ignoring The Narrator, listening to him, or a mix of both, brings one closer to one of the many endings. 

The Stanley Parable is a game that’s easily worthy of at least a handful of replays. There are 46 endings, combining the 19 original endings with 27 new ones added with the Ultra Deluxe version. The differences between the two versions are basically new content to expand the original game and some improved graphics. 

The Ultra Deluxe version brings better lighting and at least four to six hours of new content. While there’s pretty much an entirely new game to play with the new content, the fact it’s presented as less is one of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe’s best gags. 

Ultra Deluxe focuses its satire on the idea of sequels, expansions, downloadable content (DLCs), and some pointed self-reflection on the original game. The new dialogue and writing are just as funny as the old game. The original version’s satire focused on how games are traditionally supposed to behave and predetermined paths in games. Both versions are incredibly self-aware, which adds a whole different level to the brilliance of The Stanley Parable. 

A little bonus for returning players is that Ultra Deluxe asks the player if they have played before when you first boot up the game. Ultra Deluxe is still the original Stanley Parable with additional things added to the base game. I stress this because it’s important to answer this question honestly. If you have played before, it will bring you to the new content sooner; literally, there’s a door you can walk through that says ‘new content’ and will just appear at some point. 

A piece of new content that I personally can’t make this review without mentioning is the Reassurance Bucket. Its purpose is simple: to comfort Stanley and the player. The Reassurance Bucket alters some endings, so it's important to pay attention to it. In fact, it's important to pay attention to everything, because you have no idea what way The Stanley Parable plans to mess with your expectations. 

I don’t typically like comedy, but there’s something that The Stanley Parable does so right. If I had to put my finger on it, I’d point toward the satire elements. Adding to the brilliant satire is the amazing voice acting done by The Narrator’s voice, Kevan Brighting. 

The Stanley Parable is a fantastic satire comedy game that I’d recommend to anyone looking for something that will leave you thinking in the end.

So grab your reassurance buckets and strap in for the ride of your life, or don’t, it’s your choice.

Or is it?

My Rating: