The Tape Recorder Room is the main location of the Vent Ending and appears exclusively in Ultra Deluxe. In the HD Remix, the vent leading to this area is nonexistent, which includes the accompanying plank which makes it easier for players to reach it, though it is still possible to reach before the plank is added by walking along the edge with the caution tape of the first warehouse section and then dropping down to it. The vent leading to the Tape Recorder Room is large enough to enter without the player needing to crouch.
Information[]
After loading in, the player is dropped down from the vent and is met by a white and pale green hallway with with a bright window to their right. In the player's immediate view, many readable papers are scattered on the floor. The small section which the player is dropped into is fairly kempt but quickly degrades with debris laying on the floor, peeling concrete on the bottom section of the walls, and shattered ceramic tiles. On the other end of the first section is a set of filing cabinets and a printer, with printer-related papers next to it. There is one door on each end of this room but they cannot be opened.
In the center of the first section is a steel catwalk with a set of metal stairs leading into the main and larger area of the Vent Ending which is held on a brick foundation and shares a similar design to the warehouse, with rows of boxes and containers placed on large shelving units but with an addition of chairs and serious tables being present as well. The table to the right has a green rotary phone placed on it alongside a turned off desk lamp and three missing posters looking for a cat named Gene.
A destinction between the tape recorder room and the warehouse is by the former's lack of light aside from a fluorescent ceiling lamp on the floor laying on its side, illuminating a large collection of cassette tapes labeled "Narrator Dialogue" near it. More cassette tapes are scattered over the floor and table in the center, as well as in the opened cardboard boxes on the sides.
On the central table encountered at the end of the room sits mug facing away from the player with the text "Time 2 Wake up" printed on it and a cassette player which appears slightly differently depending on which version of the ending is being achieved.
In the Vent Ending[]
Without the Bucket[]
In the regular version of the Vent Ending, the tape recorder will be relaying the Narrator's last spoken phrase: "Stanley had now gotten himself so far off the beaten path, that it seemed the office had begun -", repeating the bold section indefinitely until the player pauses the recorder it to progress the ending.
After the player interacts with the tape recorder to turn it off, the Narrator continues to speak a few seconds, astonished that Stanley had thought he was a tape recording despite "All the back and forth between you and me" and the various emotional adventures they had been on together, being something that cannot be done through a mere recording. The Narrator says it must be easy to be Stanley, someone who is entertained by such simple "plot twists" in storytelling. The Narrator states that the situation has made him sad and the game restarts. The tape recorder can be interacted with at the player's will while the Narrator talks.
With the Bucket[]
In the bucket version of the Vent Ending, there is no Narrator dialogue and tape recorder is set on "Stop" (⏹), requiring the player's input to set it on "Play" (⏵), which is the opposite of what occurs in the regular version.
The tape which is inserted into the tape recorder is now labeled "EVIDENCE #252" with a piece of masking tape and the one speaking in the recording is the Tape Man, describing the powers of the The Stanley Parable Reassurance Bucket and how its powers are affecting him. He soon comes up with an idea to monetize the reassuring abilities of the bucket by making people pay to hold it. Before he has the chance to proceed with his plan, he is interrupted and killed shortly afterwards by Gambhorra'ta, or turned into another Reassurance Bucket himself.
Trivia[]
- Only the front of the platform that the tape recorders are placed on is textured.
- The Elden Ring/Dark Souls Easter Egg can be found in this room.
- The cut off section of the Narrator's looping dialogue is "so far off the beaten path, that it seemed the office had begun to shrink." according to the line titled "ud_narrator_tape_recording_part1_02" in the game's files.