VideoGame A metaphilosophical masterpiece.
It's very easy for something to be too clever. So self-aware and meta that it defeats its own purpose or somehow misses it altogether. But I feel like if you say The Stanley Parable is too clever, it's going to be as a hyperbolic compliment.
The game takes the form of a postmodern philosophical exercise, as an office worker named Stanley is controlled in first-person after discovering his building suddenly abandoned. A narrator preemptively dictates actions you don't have to actually follow, forming the crux of the game as you and the narrator grapple with questions about game design and player freedom, with the narrator/character dichotomy standing in for the player/developer dynamic. The game's structure is one of branching narrative paths determined by your level of adherence to the narration, and often, endings don't cut off when assumed or the intro has subtle changes to keep the player off-balance. The game also gets in some good digs at player expectations for secrets and rewards. The aesthetic of the game is corporate but also frequently bizarre and unsettling, with the game having a good amount of tension with some of the more emotionally and visually disturbing setpieces. It's a comedy game with some excellent jokes but it never leaves you feeling entirely secure and goes into heavy and chilling moments from time to time. Its aesthetic and tone was later heavily emulated by the game Superliminal, and while there's likely no connection, fans of The Good Place will probably vibe pretty well with its philosophical bent and visuals.
The rerelease adds some fantastic new commentary and content as well, grappling with the game's own legacy and reception and the question of follow-up. What's got to be added? Should there be a sequel instead? The game eventually comes around to making itself into its own sequel and adds new content in a pretty deeply-integrated manner, including a nonsensical second game of sorts where each ending is altered or replaced for the sillier by taking an item with you at the start. The game devs definitely poke fun at themselves but also at the laziness some rereleases may display, all while successfully (to me) committing those sins in a wry and funny way. Perhaps I'd be more resentful coming into the game having owned the previous version, but for what it's worth, I've been familiar with the game for years before finally buying and playing this edition and didn't feel annoyed by the new content.
I love the experience of this game, as it asks the player how much smarter than the game they can realistically be while providing funny and harrowing moments in turn. You have a choice to buy it...but many (or no) more choices may await you if you do.
VideoGame Ultra Deluxe is a game about committing a mistake ' ' ironically ' ' to convey a message
TSP Ultra Deluxe is a re-release of the Stanley Parable that tries to showcase how all those remasters and remakes lately tend to be overpriced and either very pointless and/or diluting the original experience... and does so by committing the exact same mistakes as them.
The basic premise is this: you have the original game in a mostly unchanged form (aside from the Games ending...), which had a few graphical enhancements done to it and then the New Contentâ„¢ tacked onto it. The said new content is the Narrator spending a very long time discussing how sequels nowadays are just more of the same with a few new gags and gimmicks added... and then the game hands you the Bucket of Reassurance and tells you to run through all of the endings you already saw in the original release, just so you can then bear witness to bucket-themed versions of them.
That's... pretty much what most of the Ultra Deluxe is. There's very few new endings that DON'T involve the bucket. From how trailers claimed there would be new endings, you'd think that those new endings would come from new paths that are hidden throughout the game (like those very few non-bucket ones), not from rehashing the existing ones. To me, this is very disappointing.
And I'm sure I know what you're about to say. It's supposed to be like this. It's supposed to mock how remakes and remasters do this. But... this doesn't change the fact that Ultra Deluxe also does it itself. If I were to shoot someone to death and then turn around and say "See? Shooting people is bad!", that's not really gonna excuse me from the fact that I just shot someone to death.
TSP Ultra Deluxe is the equivalent of giving Davey Wreden $25 so he can then put on an elaborate lecture about how you just wasted your money. A lecture that can be entertaining at times, but... still.
The end result of all that sequel and bucket tomfoolery is a game that feels bloated, unfocused, and not really knowing what it's trying to accomplish. And if that was the goal, then, well, you achieved it, but... to what end?
VideoGame Rebelling against narrative brings true freedom (review of original version)
NOTE: This is a review of the original version of this game, before the new, standalone version was created. I wrote this before The Stanley Parable was remade.
It's literally impossible to talk about The Stanley Parable without risking spoiling anything. That's because talking about what makes it interesting automatically ruins the experience of finding out for yourself.
So if you're planning on trying this mod for yourself, stop reading immediately!
The Stanley Parable is about a man named Stanley who has the job of sitting at a computer and pushing buttons and doing exactly what he is commanded to. Despite the apparent monotony of such a job, he loves it, and eagerly awaits his next instruction. Hmm...
But one day, as we're told by a voiceover narrator, Stanley isn't given any orders. So he has no instructions, and the freedom to do what he wants.
Or does he? The narrator tells you what happens next in the story as it's happening. That extends to exactly what door Stanley enters. "Stanley headed through the hall, and entered the door on his left." The catch is that you're told this as you're doing it, so you have the opportunity to disobey. Doing so causes the narrator to variously get angry, change the story accordingly, or mess with you. You could even end up in a graphically unfinished room, causing the narrator even more stress. The world itself is built to try to force you into compliance, with doors that lock shut behind you and can never be re-opened, and other doors that can never be opened at all. Sound familiar?
Different people took different things away from the experience of playing this mod, and in my case, I perceived it as a big middle finger aimed at the current state of the "narrative-driven" aspect of the gaming industry, particularly modern First Person Shooters. Think of games like Call of Duty (single-player), with dialog telling you what to do, micro-objectives telling you exactly what to do next, and a tightly scripted story you have zero control over. You can't stop what you're doing and explore.
The irony is that in The Stanley Parable, your actions do affect the story. You can piss off the narrator, explore a bit, even discover an incomplete, unrendered room (while the narrator mocks you for wasting your time), and ultimately end up with one of 6 possible endings. In a way, The Stanley Parable, despite only letting you walk and push buttons, gives you more freedom than a lot of games.
VideoGame A Review....OR IS IT?!
The Stanley Parable is a brilliant metafictional commentary on the nature of choice and free will in regards to video gaming.
No it's not.
....I'm sorry, what?
It's a bit of silly humor most of the time and you know that.
Look you need to follow my review script, you can't just run off and do what you like. Besides that "silly humor" is to reinforce the commentary of the game. Go on...give some examples.
No.
...But my review, not wanting to spoil the game or it's insightful commentary decided against it and instead listed some of the game's main strengths and weaknesses.
Screw you, I don't listen to some disembodied voice, I'm going back to the broom closet. Hey reader? Did u get the broom closet ending? Theb room closet ending was my favrite!1 XD.
What? No! Reader you can't read that yet, that's all a spoiler! Quick reader close yours eyes!......Oh who am I kidding the whole review is rubbish now. How about instead of trying to salvage this nonsense you pick up the game and try it for yourself hmmmm?
5/5
VideoGame The HD Remix: Worth the Money
NOTE: This review assumes you have played the original mod (if you haven't, you should). The overall experience between the mod and the standalone is largely the same, with this review discussing the differences.
While the original version of The Stanley Parable was a very good mod, it was still a mod, and as such, could feel very "moddy" at times. You know, those times when you go, "hey, I recognize that wheel from here" or "this door comes from there" and get taken out of the experience. The HD Remix not only fixes those (very minor) problems, but adds several more paths for you to take, making it considerably more than simply an improved version of the mod.
With its own assets, the game feels a lot bigger. The office feels more like an office, with desks and papers scattered around and one of those inane slide shows running in a conference room. What was once a narrow corridor with TVs on the wall is now a massive, pitlike chamber with screens covering the walls. The employee lounge looks less like a kitchen and more like a lounge. All of this serves to make the story more real when you follow it. On the other hand, when you disobey and start breaking the game, it feels more fake than the original mod, and so makes its point a lot better. There's even new music, all of it quite fitting for the situation (too fitting, in one case).
Of course, none of this is worth much if the rest of the experience hasn't been preserved. Fortunately, all of the choices have been kept largely intact, with additions where appropriate. A slew of new endings has also been added, ranging from attempting emergent storytelling to examining the disconnect between PC-as-player and PC-as-character to questioning the viability of choice when you can simply reload and make the opposite choice to mocking overly-simplistic, pretentious "art" games. The Narrator remains as story-devoted, passive-aggressive Narrator-y as ever and, taking all the endings into account, develops into a surprisingly complex character, given that you can experience almost everything about him in approximately three hours.
With all of these additions, the HD Remix is well worth your money. The changes it makes to the original mod only improve its story for the better. Or improve its lack of story, depending on your choice. Your choice does matter, after all.
VideoGame The Stanley Parable 2845: Deadly Baby
From the ashes of depravity rises the phoenix of quality. How else to describe The Stanley Parable 2845: Deadly Baby? Such a revolutionary step forward in the lineage of one of the most beloved video game properties of all time! The additions and changes made to this part will surely resonate in the annals of the history of all media ever made.
It is perhaps true to say that no mistakes are forever etched in stone, for the stone into which The Stanley Parable was carved has itself been transmuted, offering a message of hope to those who have ever erred in their judgement. You are not beyond redemption. You may change, and you may become more, so much more than you were before.
If there is any message to be taken from The Stanley Parable 2845: Deadly Baby, it is this... What a fortune, a privilege, a joy it is to have had such an experience. It leaves me hopeful that as a community - as a world - there is time for us to become our greatest selves, as great as we ever could dream of in our wildest, most ambitious visions for a brighter future.