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The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe (Switch): COMPLETED!

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The Stanley Parable is actually one of very few PC games I’ve completed. Certainly before I got my Steam Deck, anyway. It was funny, silly, and I enjoyed it very much. The “don’t play for five years” achievement was also a bit of a struggle because I did want to play it again in that time, but had to wait. I did though, then played it some more. But!

Then! This happened!

Poor Stanley.

Ultra Deluxe is, on the outside, the same original game with some more content. Actually, it’s not just more content. It’s new areas, new stories, and a load of meta stuff about the narrator creating The Stanley Parable 2 (and 3, and 4) as well as some looking back at the reception the original game had in the press. It’s all very 4th wall breaking. And funny. And silly.

Jump, jump!

All the original stuff seems to be still there, but the new things cleverly intertwine. For example, the narrator decides that Stanley would be happier and feel safer if he had a bucket to carry round with him, so one is available to pick up and doing so changes the “normal” outcome of the path you take. Even if in a minor way, such as the classic Broom Closest interaction, where the bucket unlocks more dialogue.

Ma bucket

With a lot more to explore and new interactions to discover, it took me quite a bit longer to finish this time despite already knowing how to reach most of the original endings. And by “complete”, I mean, I reached what I think is every possible ending, as well as collect all the new Stanley figurines (Stanfigs? Figurleys?) which, as is pointed out repeatedly, serve no real purpose but are a purpose unto themselves.

It’s all stupid stuff and it’s great.

Arcade Paradise (Switch): COMPLETED!

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In which you run a launderette, put washing on, tumble dry, collect it up, and pick up rubbish. Only! In the back room of the launderette is a mostly forgotten and unloved video game arcade with a handful of machines! So when you make laundry money, you buy more arcade machines, and then they make you money, and then they start to make so much money that, actually, the laundrette starts to just get in the way so you oust a few washing machines for more arcade space. You can see where the endgame comes. No washing!

It’s a slog to get to that point though. Like a clicker game (such as the same dev team’s game Vostok Inc), you slowly build up money and spend that on things which let you earn money a bit faster, and the cycle goes on – supplemented by laundry, and a bit of cash from collecting trash and occasionally unblocking the toilet. However, there’s more to the game than just getting more arcade games. You see, you can play all the arcade games too.

And there’s loads of them. Most are a spin on existing games, or a mashup of classic arcade games. You’ve got the Not Canyon Bomber game, the Not Puzzle Bobble game, the Not GTA Crossed With Pac-man Game, NotQix, an air hockey table, table football, an Out Run/F-Zero hybrid and loads of others. Many of which are excellent games on their own too, and I especially like the twin-stick Zombie shooter game and the cute RPG/Candy Crush one.

Playing the games is fun in itself, but doing so has a purpose. Each has a number of achievements, and hitting these makes the machines earn more. Just playing them makes them more popular for a time too, again increasing income. Unfortunately, near the start of the game you can’t spend much time Arcading because the laundry requires your attention (and time passes when you play games), but you soon start being able to purchase upgrades that do away with some of the laundry chores (and some of the arcade ones – like emptying the coin hoppers).

If the 35 or so arcade games aren’t enough, then your office PC can also be upgraded to play a couple of desktop games – Not Minesweeper and Not Solitaire. And even some of the menial tasks, like chucking bin bags in the skip and pulling gum off tables, are presented as a minigame. It’s games all the way down. There’s also even a story about your overbearing father who thinks you won’t amount to anything and hates the idea of you having an arcade, just in case there wasn’t enough going on already.

When I first started playing there were a handful of bugs, like a crushed can that you can’t collect, some cut scenes which crashed the game, and some bizarre lighting issues, but they all seem to have been fixed now, along with some tweaks to the games making them a bit easier and/or playable, so it’s hard not to recommend Arcade Paradise now. I mean, it’s worth the cost of entry even for just a handful of the cabinets you unlock, but to have this many and a metagame on top? Bargain, mate.

My Brother Ate My Pudding! (Switch): COMPLETED!

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You know those silly “Mon Hid My Game!” games I played a while back? This is one of them, only with a slight difference.

Each level, you have to hide from your sister. The first few are easy – behind a curtain, or in a cupboard – but they soon get more complicated. The gameplay, such that it is, is almost exactly like the other games and it has some similar 4th wall breaking “surprises” later on, but it’s a bit of silly fun for a low price, so why not, eh?

Lord Winklebottom Investigates (Switch): COMPLETED!

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A point and click murder mystery adventure game where all the people are actually animals? Why yes, yes I do believe I will buy and play that.

It’s really very good too. The puzzles are neither too easy nor too obscure, and the whodunnit (and, after that, the whydunnit) were both surprises and kept me wanting to play to get the resolution. The graphics are amazing, and the voice acting really something special.

My only issue is the pacing is a bit off, with the bulk of the story, puzzles and events occurring in the middle act, and the final act being very short, but it’s not a problem, and certainly shouldn’t put you off playing it.

Heaven’s Vault (Steam Deck): COMPLETED!

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What an unusual game. I don’t mean that in a bad way, it’s just not really like anything I’ve played before. Heaven’s Vault has the feel of a point and click adventure game (albeit with direct control of your character), but it’s also mostly a visual novel. Except, it has “driving” sections. And, perhaps most interesting and unusual, there’s an entire language you have to slowly translate as the game progresses. Then there’s the animation style, which is like a flickbook with static frames rather than fluid animation – again, not something you see often.

All these quirky features are before you even get into the world (or rather, worlds), the lore, the story and the characters.

In the universe you inhabit, there are a number of moons. Some are huge, with cities of people living on them, and some are not much bigger than a house. Some are very technologically advanced, some are farmers, and some have slums. Water is an asset, and the richer moons have lots of it. Religion and history play a big part across the moons, with the main concept being The Loop, where everyone that dies is restored and history is cyclical, but as Aliya (you) discovers on her travels, it’s not quite that simple. Or true.

As an archaeologist, she’s interested in the artefacts found on all these moons, on wrecks of ships that once travelled the “waters” between moons, and books and inscriptions with the ancient language I mentioned previously. Slowly, with the help of Six (definitely not Johnny Five), a robot from times past who was reactivated, you discover the true history of the universe: The gods, the robots, the reason why it declined, and the nature of The Loop itself.

Heaven’s Vault has probably the most compelling and deep story I’ve found in any game for a long, long time. There’s just so much to find out, piece together, and draw your own conclusions from. So many questions, not all of which are answered (at least, not in a single playthrough). The basic mechanics of the game aren’t perfect, with the navigating from moon to moon being somewhat dull and boring (although you do unlock some fast travel later) and a lot of to-and-fro to take items to various people, but the world building is top notch and has to be experienced.