Review: The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe

First all, a disclaimer: I never played the original version of The Stanley Parable. I wanted to, but life got in the way, as well as a deluge of other cool games in its original release, so it just never materialized. As such, Ultra Deluxe is my first play of the game at all, so be aware that no nostalgia is present here. 

The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe is an updated version of the original game from 2013. It is classified by developers Crows Crows Crows and Galactic Cafe say it is a remake and pseudo sequel to the original game. Honestly, I feel that is stretching things a bit, but what makes me feel that way is also kinda of the point. 

You play as Stanley, an office worker who likes to sit at his desk and push buttons. Loves nothing better in fact. There is a narrator who explains what Stanley is doing, and gives hints as to what to do next. You can walk and look around and, shockingly, push some buttons. That's about it. Now, do not let this lack of interaction fool you, the game is intensely clever and well written with genuinely funny laugh out loud moments throughout, but mechanics heavy it aint. 

The genius is the way the game reacts to what you are doing. Follow the Narrator’s instructions and things happen one way, but change just one thing on that path, and new possibilities open up, and the game and, more specifically the Narrator, reacts to that change. He can try to get you back on track, or just roll with what you are doing and the levels change to reflect your actions too, at least in some cases. 

The point of the game is to find all the different ‘endings’. I put that in inverted commas cause it feels more like a reset than an ending, you don’t see credits for example, but in each case you reach some kind of conclusion to Stanley’s story, and some are fairly mundane, while others are pretty wild and surreal. If you think you have a bead on what  the actual story is about, I can assure you, you don’t. 

The game is more like a meta-narrative on game design and interaction than anything more traditional and it excels in that, with knowing prods at tropes and design ideas any gamer has experienced a hundred times over, with some laugh out loud comments from the narrator who does a fantastic job at conveying everything. 

Ultra Deluxe’s only real downside is that, as per the developers, it is a pseudo-sequel. What this means in broad terms is that at some point you walk past a door marked ‘new content’ which has, as you might infer, the new content in it. Some other bits have changed in the main game, but without being hyper familiar with the original release you probably won’t even notice. Honestly though, it feels more like it could be a patch rather than any kind of meaningful sequel, though given how meta the game is overall, feels exactly in line with what The Stanley Parable is about. 

I really enjoyed my time with the game and if you haven’t played the original definitely give this a go, it is super fun, has some knowing winks and nods for those who know and is genuinely funny to boot. The voice acting is fantastic and will provide more than enough entertainment to justify the cost. A great, different game all round.

Review: The Outer Worlds

It is easy to tell a Japanese RPG from a Western one. JRPG’s focus on cool visuals, heavily inspired from anime and manga with at times cheesy dialog and story lines and combat that features summoning monsters and comically over sized swords. Western RPG’s, generally speaking, focus on the dialog and story, presenting worlds that seem to brim with possibilities. Obsidian Entertainments The Outer Worlds is very much the second of these, and in some ways is an excellent example, but not so much in others. 

You play as the sole revived occupant of ‘The Hope’, a colony ship left on the edge of  the Halcyon colony, light years from earth. The man that revived you says he can save the thousands of other colonists on the ship if you help him, and of course you do, setting you forth on an adventure across space stations and worlds to encounter a cast of crazy characters, strange planets and vicious monsters. So far, so RPG. 

To solidify this, there are stats, upgradable weapons, companions and quests. Everything you would want from an RPG, except for one important thing: Stakes. The stakes here never feel world ending, there isn’t some ‘big bad’ coming to destroy you, it is a smaller tale than that, which is a deliberate design choice but one that makes everything feel a little bit muted and understated. 

There is a sense of humor to The Outer Worlds that a lot of RPG’s lack, and this comes through in the excellent writing and story lines. The tale of corporations running everything and the rivalry between each one that leads employees to not even take medicine if it isn’t made by the one they work for is something genuinely different and fun, with people you encounter saying the company marketing line at the end of every sentence. It can get a little tedious, but that is kind of the point, corporate policy infringing on everything in your life is just that. 

You start out a loner, but soon come upon your first companion, Pravati, an engineer naive in the way of the colony. This is where the game really comes into its own, showcasing the excellent, nuanced writing that is truly the hallmark of The Outer Worlds. Each companion is a very unique character you help shape over the course of the story, and the both satisfying and disappointing ending wrap up scenes serve as a nice conclusion to each arc, though that does depend on how much of each character's quest line you complete. 

The game is a bit Mass Effect 2 in that regard, with each character coming with a ‘loyalty mission’ style quest line that gives back story and develops each one into those unique characters. The best part is that they aren’t ‘go to this place, fight a bunch of creatures/bad guys and win’. A couple are, but most are helping these characters find closure on an aspect of their lives or giving advice in times or need. 

Of course, you do have the option to be a massive dick. This being a story and character heavy RPG you get the option to be good, bad or somewhere in between, and characters do change to reflect that. Being the person I am, good was my path through the game and I saw plenty to give me a satisfying conclusion. It’s all this that will make or break the game for you in the end, if you find the dialog grating or cheesy, and hate the voice acting, cause everyone is then this won’t be the game for you. It’s not, but that's just my opinion, the voice acting is pretty great throughout, though most people have a southern american accent that isn’t for everyone. The writing as previously stated is excellent and these feel like real people, it's truly impressive. 

What's not impressive however, is the combat. It’s in there, it works, but it's just all so lackluster. The guns have little weight to them and on most encounters are so very easy they are a bump in the road rather than an obstacle to overcome. To put into perspective about how easy these encounters are, each companion comes with a unique combat ability, as well as things that boost your stats in certain ways but the fights being as easy as they were I didn’t have to use these abilities. In fact I actively forgot about them until about two hours from the end of the game. 

The ability to assign different states to your companions doesn’t help with this either, since setting them to aggressive and giving them decent weapons and armour means they will just wade in and wreck anything they see, though this does normally result in at least one dying. On the plus side, as soon as all the enemies have been dealt with they instantly revive, so it's no big deal. 

All that was required was the guns to feel that little bit more weighty, like actual armaments, and the enemies to be harder to kill, just by a little bit and that would have given a better performance out of the combat. As it stands, if it wasn’t there at all you wouldn’t lose that much when playing, which is a shame because effort has been made here, with a variety of weapons both ranged and melee that give you plenty of options, it just all feels kind of pointless. 

Travelling about the halcyon colony grants you areas that include a space station, cities and small towns on a few different planets. It's a bummer that there isn’t more of this as the stellar map has several planets you can’t seem to go to, though to be fair I didn’t find all the companions during my play through so that could have changed, as well as the fact I played as a good guy so the options could have changed. The environments I traveled to were pretty varied and very nice looking, so monotony didn’t set in until the back travelling kicked in towards the end of the game. 

The Outer Worlds is a great RPG that just needs better combat. The writing, characters, environments and tone provide a unique setting that is entertaining to explore. There are ideas around what characters in a game of this type could be and prove successful and satisfying, and despite the ending scroll being disappointing for its lack of animation it gives you closure to a character set you come to love, especially for your player character.

 If you are itching for a RPG that doesn’t have all the over top weapons and summons of a JRPG then this is the game for you, and it isn’t over a hundred hours to play, so it doesn’t out stay its welcome. As western RPG’s go, this is a great one.