Why Is The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe

An Interrogation, An Existential Crisis, A Mental Breakdown

It makes no damn sense! Compels me, though.

(Knives Out, 2019 dir. Rian Johnson)

I’ve something to get off my chest. And, you know, it’s really hard to open up about this, but I trust you, and I want you to know about it. But… why is the Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe? Don’t get me wrong, I was pleasantly surprised by the news that the game was coming out in 2018 – I loved the original game in all its absurdity. But at the same time… who was jonesing so much for a remake? The Stanley Parable itself was a perfectly complete product (minus the black box that blocked the art ending) that interrogated the systems of video games, and how the industry dealt with these systems. So why a remastered remake, something usually reserved for big budget games, done to refresh a franchise’s audience, or make reliable bank, or pander to nostalgia, or usually, all three?

...Come to think of it, the games industry has just gotten worse since 2013, hasn’t it. Choice is still always a relevant topic when it comes to talking about games, but is adding more of that enough to explain this indulgence? The game has been pushed back multiple times – presumably out of dedication. And that title – Ultra Deluxe, in illusory gold. Hyperbole to the strongest degree. Remake. Remaster. Repackage. Resell. Reboot?

(More more more more more.) I can’t deny I’d like to see more of Stanley Parable’s absurd, cutting reflection of games and their systems – because, fuck, man, there’s no Game About Games like it. It’s been nearly a decade since the ‘official’ version of the game. Twelveish years since the Half Life 2 mod. So is the increasingly hellish state of the games industry the subject of this jump back into the fray? For it’s not just a remaster, it’s got new content – new content bigger than the original game, the site boasts!

A reddit thread, shortly before the release date of 4/27 was announced theorized that continuous pushbacks were indicative of indefinite rugpull, that there was no game to come. If not for my skepticism about Wreden and Crows Crows Crows putting time and money and goodwill into this venture, I might’ve believed it. The Stanley Parable is so twisty, and absurd, and postmodern that the idea can approach the realm of plausible.

And I guess that’s what has got me in such a twist over this – because I’ve seen the game deliver a wonderfully absurd text that seemed in defiance of the typical, questioning of the systems gamers often took for granted, an absolutely riotous trust fall and now this startlingly, almost parodic decision has me looking around the room to try and spot the foam noses and horns hidden under the business suits. Because there’s got to be something dying to be said that bitched this game. I just hope (and trust) it stays smart and avoids the remake trend of saying nothing novel.