The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe Best & Worst Things

The Stanley Parable is one of the most influential indie games ever created and revived widespread interest in unique, narrative-based adventures. Now, this critically acclaimed darling is back with The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, a revamped version of the original title that includes new endings, dialogue, and features for new and returning players to enjoy.

This new version is packed with fresh content, but the core experience is still there, making this the definitive version of the modern classic. There's quite a lot to love about The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, but there are also a few things that still don't work that well all these years later.

9 Love: Meta-Humor

a museum-like building inside a slant-roofed, wooden house. plinths on the right hold artifacts of the game's past, and ahead there are photos taped to the wall near a doorway leading into the next room. over the doorway is a banner that reads "The Stanley Parable."

A classic piece of the original The Stanley Parable was its emphasis on meta-humor: referencing the real world and the game's condition of being a video game. The Narrator leads this charge by providing a constant voice-over for Stanley's actions throughout the game, even if the player decides to ignore the Narrator's instruction.

There are endings where Stanley can even slip outside the boundaries of the game entirely. The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe takes this to another level by directly referencing the original version of the game and the fact that what players are currently playing is a rerelease that features new content.

8 Don't Love: Easy To Repeat Loops

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The more time players spend with The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, the more endings they'll get the chance to see. There's a finite number of endings in the game, so each finished loop reduces the number of potential new experiences. This means that, as players progress through the game, it becomes easier and easier to initiate a loop they've done before.

It's all too easy to wander down a familiar path in The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, especially for those gamers who are playing the game over a long period of time. It's nice that there's an option to restart the loop at any time, but it's frustrating how easy it is to stumble into the same ending multiple times.

7 Love: New References

the inside of a tall, watchtower with a typewriter on a desk, postcards on the windowsill, and a volunteer posted with a watchtower pictured inside a shield outline. trees and mountains can be seen outside the windows

The Stanley Parable was well-known for its references to the real-world and other video games, and The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has taken this quality to another level. One of the earliest endings players can unlock involves defying the Narrator to the point that he gives up on The Stanley Parable altogether and moves Stanley into another game entirely.

This game is Campo Santo's Firewatch, a very different narrative-adventure game with an unmistakable aesthetic. The game includes other real-world references like Rocket League, Watchmen, and a video game marketplace known as Pressurized Gas (which is a thinly veiled reference to Steam).

6 Don't Love: Poor Character Models

a man in a white shirt and jeans lies face down on a sidewalk. a woman stands to his right holding a metal bucket in her hands

It might be too much to expect everything about The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe to be an improvement over the original game, but the game's character models still look pretty rough almost a decade later. Their stiff, lifeless appearance doesn't do much to make them feel like actual people, which can make it harder to relate to Stanley in moments where he should be sympathetic.

On the plus side, the game doesn't use character models very often, but this just makes their subpar quality stand out when they do show up. It's a minor flaw, but one that does make an otherwise excellent game feel just a little cheaper.

5 Love: Easy To Play

a large, orange sign reads "please rate your experience." under are numbers 1 through 5, each connected to a red button

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is one of the easiest games to just pick up and play, even for a short period of time. The game doesn't require an extensive level of thought to actually play, as the most frequent actions players will do are walking from room to room and listening to the Narrator speak.

Each loop also only takes about 20-30 minutes to actually play through to completion, with a few running even shorter. It's a great game to boot up if there's not enough time to get invested in a sprawling, open-world adventure, essentially making it the equivalent of a breezy, half-hour TV show.

4 Don't Love: Unclear Trophy List

The Stanley Parable - Ultra Deluxe Test Trophy

There are some clever elements of The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe's trophy list, such as the "Test Trophy Please Ignore" trophy that appears to be just an unfinished asset from development. The downside of these jokes, though, is that it can be frustratingly unclear how players are meant to actually unlock these trophies.

That "Test Trophy Please Ignore" trophy is one such example of this phenomenon. Players can find the machine that unlocks the trophy pretty early on in the game, but it isn't finished yet and can't be activated. Finding the machine a second time essentially comes down to luck, as there's no way to ensure that the selected path is the correct one.

3 Love: Substantial Amount Of New Content

a large neon sign that says "new new content" points toward an open door leading into a tiled hallway

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is marketed as the definitive edition of the classic game, featuring both the original experience and new endings for players to enjoy. The end result more than delivers on this promise with a staggering amount of new content that goes far beyond the boundaries of a simple remaster or port.

There are new features such as Jump Circle, a strangely alluring bucket whose allegiance is never quite clear, and even a slightly off-putting sequel that is layered over the original game. But one of the best bits of new content is the staggering amount of new dialogue for the Narrator to chew on, especially in regards to The Stanley Parable 2 Reassurance Bucket.

2 Don't Love: No Saving During A Loop

a large screen taking up one wall of the office building. it's filled with cramped text, and the whole thing is titled: "the confusion ending." There's a timer at the bottom that is steadily counting up

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe revolves entirely around a series of never-ending loops that grow increasingly inane with each time through. These loops don't take much time to complete, with most of them clocking in at around 15 to 20 minutes, but there may still be times when players may want to stop halfway through and pick it back up later.

Unfortunately, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe doesn't have any way of saving the game in the middle of a loop. The only thing players can rely on is their system's native suspend feature, but those have been proven unreliable in the past. Including a suspend feature within the game would have alleviated this problem entirely.

1 Love: The Narrator

a room that has partially collapsed. Vegetation has grown in the corner where the ceiling is open to the sky. In front of the plants is a small post with a yellow button on it with two arrows pointing right toward a single line

The Narrator has always been an exceptional part of The Stanley Parable, and Ultra Deluxe only improves his character. This revamped version of the game includes hundreds, maybe thousands, of new lines of dialogue for the Narrator's voice actor, Kevan Brighting, to bring to life in the most hilarious and mind-bending ways.

The best showcase for this is the Skip Button Ending which features a special button that allows players to skip the Narrator's more long-winded monologues. But this button doesn't just skip past the dialogue, but rather leaves Stanley in a catatonic state for an exponentially growing stretch of time. The Narrator's dialogue and Kevan Brighting's performance in this ending are arguably the best part of this entire game.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is available now for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

MORE: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe - All Endings Guide