The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is coming out in April

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is coming out on 27th April 2022, the enhanced version of the popular indie game coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC. For Americans, that release date is a nice inside joke, considering that you play as Employee 427. This joke doesn’t work anywhere else in the world.

Getting a firm release date is a big milestone, as developer Crows Crows Crows has had to delay the game from planned released in 2019, 2020 and 2021. There’s good reason for this, as The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is far more than just a port or visual overhaul.

The Stanley Parable was first released in 2013 where office worker Stanley discovered all of his co-workers had disappeared. So he wanders around the abandoned offices while his actions are narrated by the Narrator, voiced by Kevan Brighting. You can follow an apparent path laid out for you through the world, but also diverge from that point, leading to environments, situations and humorous scenarios.

Crows Crows Crows has previously explained that everything from the 2013 game remains within the new release, but that this has been fleshed out significantly with new content to explore and discover. “Since The Stanley Parable is a game about surprises,” they write, “we’ve tried to implement new content in ways that players won’t be expecting. The script for this new content is longer than the entire original game.”

Of course, the game has been given an overhaul in other ways. There’s a graphical upgrade for more modern systems, while the game now has accessibility features including localised in-game text, colourblind options and content warnings.

OK, so this isn’t actually the first time that the game has been remade, with the 2013 game a full production based off a Half-Life 2 mode that came out in 2011. The full game rebuilt all of the environments, original creator Davey Wreden working in collaboration with William Pugh, while also reconsidering the mod’s story and how events were interpolated. We’ll just have to wait and see what surprises Ultra Deluxe features.

Source: Crows Crows Crows