PC gamers will be familiar with the wildly popular title “The Stanley Parable,” a mind-bending game written by developers Davey Wreden and William Pugh and originally released on July 31, 2011. “The Stanley Parable” centers around the protagonist who never speaks, Stanley, and a disembodied Narrator voiced by British actor Kevin Brighting. During the Narrator’s depositions, the player is presented with various choices which directly affect the ending of the game. The degree to which the story is affected by player choices is the main draw for many, as throughout the role-playing genre, player decisions have little to no actual impact on how future events play out.
“The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe” is an expanded re-invention of the original, building upon the base story with many new narrative options. These new choices are naturally accompanied by several new corresponding endings. Developers say the mystery and curious deja-vu like occurrences in the game are being reimagined and that the script for the updated content is as large as the script for the entire original game. Having been in development for over 3 years, “The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe” will be available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on April 27, 2022.
by Kyle Manseill