It was very interesting to revisit this game since my first playthrough in middle school and to see just how little of it I had actually remembered. This was one of my favorite games of all time back then and that only makes me all the more ecstatic to declare that it most certainly does hold up for me. It is every bit as inventive, wonderfully weird, and uniquely original as my vague memories of it made it out to be. The game features a deeply layered, cleverly written and very creatively told story that always has something interesting to say, polished level design, coupled together brilliantly with its minimalist art direction and subtle environmental cues, and an almost absurd amount of secret optional content and multiple different endings to organically discover. The game is also consistently funny (in no small part due to the narrator) and the ways in which that narration frequently interjects during the moment to moment storytelling is one of its most singularly rich pleasures. All of these elements are strung along together flawlessly throughout and they coalesce to make The Stanley Parable an immensely special experience even all of these years later. It’s an influential classic that has definitely earned its legendary status as a critical darling of the indie gaming industry. It has a wealth of genuine thematic depth to unpeel from under its exterior surface and it's also highly accessible and very enjoyable to play despite its simple gameplay. What more can you want?