Review: Still Wakes the Deep

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, GeForce Now, Microsoft Windows

Initial release date: June 18, 2024

Developer: The Chinese Room

Engine: Unreal Engine 5

Composer: Jason Graves

Genres: Adventure game, Puzzle

Publisher: Secret Mode

The terror of the sea is taken and transformed by Still Wakes the Deep into a virtual world in which you are a little, trapped person trying to get away from an incomprehensible entity. It’s a cruel cosmic horror game that draws inspiration from some of Lovecraft’s best works. I think the horror community will remember this survival horror game for a very long time.

The Chinese Room is a developer most known for narrative games like Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, which do a fantastic job at conveying an engaging tale with mediocre gameplay. The intensity of Still Wakes the Deep is increased. You take on the role of Caz, an electrician who accepted a job on the oil rig in 1975 in order to escape Scotland and avoid facing legal action. The game is set on an oil rig in the North Sea. Even though his history has finally caught up with him, it is insignificant in comparison to the historic event that takes place on the rig as soon as his supervisor learns about them.

There’s so much mood in the first scene in Still Wakes the Deep. A strong crew surrounding a barely hanging together rig, a flawed protagonist with a less than glamorous past, and a passably excellent first-person perspective and movement system—which feels as clumsy as a middle-aged Scotsman should—are all introduced to you.

The remarkable images are something that really stayed with me from the beginning to the end. I had trouble at times understanding why the game appeared so realistic. With this game, The Chinese Room has worked some type of sorcery, and the horrors you encounter seem to be springing out of reality, which heightens your fear. That makes perfect sense since, shortly after the hushed opening, the rig hits something, a creature, and chaos breaks out on the platform.

But just like the movement mechanics, the graphics aren’t flawless. This might be fixed in an update, but Still Wakes the Deep’s restricted wire reasoning is, to put it simply, absurd. Although phones and other wires will also go crazy and flutter around in strange ways, it makes sense for foes. My immersion was broken by these things popping up and disappearing or flying about randomly, but at least the game wasn’t broken.

Only after being flung around a lot does Still Wakes the Deep show its true hues. I love how this game, which feels at first like a walking simulator, quickly transforms into a first-person horror experience. A great balance is struck between platforming, environmental challenges such as switches and fires, and hiding from enormous, unbeatable foes.

I really enjoy the environmental puzzles. Like in the first Dead Space, they’re all framed as either repairing a system or locating an item you need to help someone and advance. This helps you forget the terrifying bits until they unexpectedly reappear and gives you a sense of purpose. These challenges are straightforward in theory, but the way they’re employed in the game keeps things interesting and never feels repetitive.

But the real horror/fun is with the enemy. The thing the drill on the rig ran against changed some of the workers. They are fat and hardly human, yet they still have some intelligence and a few appendages that hang loose. The monster design is excellent and frequently made me cringe. The fact that these monsters resemble things straight out of nightmares even had me freeze a few times.

These are not things you are resisting. Rather, you’re running away from them, maneuvering around a setting—sometimes a lengthy sequence of rooms—while hurling things to divert their attention. In certain interactions, you are required to initiate the rig’s systems, which can be quite distressing when a massive mass of fish-flavored human flesh is attempting to engulf you.

If this sounds a lot like the Xenomorph encounters in Alien: Isolation, that’s precisely how playing it feels. While the surroundings and weapons in that game altered how you maneuvered around your adversaries, Still Wakes the Deep’s atmosphere and variety of enemies prevent things from getting monotonous. It will surprise you and keep you on your toes even when you believe you know how an enemy would respond.

It’s not simply the way these objects move and look; it’s also the way they sound. People have had their voices warped to resemble animals or to reflect characteristics of their pre-transformation personalities. They are degraded by this, but they also feel frighteningly sophisticated since you can’t quite figure out why they’ve been warped in this way.

Overall, Still Wakes the Deep has superior sound design compared to many AAA games. When it comes to the audio, it’s excellent, yet silence is employed to lethal effect. Even with the controller resting on the table and nothing happening, this game manages to frighten you with every footstep, metal creak, and distant moan.

Not to mention the excellent Scottish voice acting. Since the majority of my family is Scottish, hearing so many words that many would surely miss used in passing made me feel almost at home. The dialogue is excellent for the most part, however some of it comes across as forced. Despite the fact that the game is filled with terrifying monsters, it feels genuine because of this.

And lastly, the narrative. The true story of Still Wakes the Deep is revealed by your deeds, the adversaries’ appearance, and flashbacks. The protagonist Caz’s mental state is the real nightmare, not the rusting rig collapsing around him, in typical cosmic horror fashion.

For at least ten years, I can see Still Wakes the Deep being a game that people find new ways to investigate and explain, much how the horror community continues to analyze, dissect, and discuss Soma to this day. It is definitely well-made and has a clear, well-executed vision, which I believe has been achieved.

I’ve always believed that thinking about the unknown depths of the water is terrible. A significant portion of the waters on Earth are uncharted territory for us. We’re so eager to drill right down into the crust below and hope for the best when targeting roughly where we think there’s some oil, which is why it’s always sounded a little crazy to me.

Review Overview

Gameplay – 84%

Story – 90%

Aesthetics – 88%

Content – 80%

Accessibility – 75%

Value – 85%

Overall Rating – 85%

Very Good

Summary: However, Still Wakes the Deep tempers this horror with real human frailties. I’m not sure if a game has felt so specifically Lovecraftian outside of Dredge. Because of its endless story mode, you can play this game once, which is something that everyone should do. Although it’s far from flawless, this game is notable, one you won’t soon tire of hearing about, and it fulfills the itch you’ve been itching to since finishing Alien: Isolation.