Still Wakes the Deep is a horror video game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Secret Mode. The story follows an electrician who is trapped on a damaged oil drilling platform, having no way to escape while being pursued by mysterious monsters under harsh weather conditions. The game was released for Windows PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S on June 18, 2024.
| Still Wakes the Deep | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | The Chinese Room |
| Publisher(s) | Secret Mode |
| Director(s) |
|
| Producer(s) | Bruno Julien |
| Designer(s) | Rob McLachlan |
| Programmer(s) | Louis Larsson-De Wet |
| Artist(s) |
|
| Writer(s) | Dan Pinchbeck |
| Composer(s) | Jason Graves |
| Engine | Unreal Engine 5 |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | June 18, 2024 |
| Genre(s) | Horror, walking simulator |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Premise and gameplay
editStill Wakes the Deep is a psychological horror video game played from a first-person perspective. The game is set in December 1975, on an oil rig named Beira D in the North Sea. In the game, the player assumes control of a Glaswegian electrician named Cameron “Caz” McLeary, who must navigate through the oil rig following a catastrophic event looking for a way to escape while surviving the harsh weather and evading the pursuit of creatures. The player character can run, jump and climb ladders. However, the game does not have a combat system, and players have to rely on stealth and solving light environmental puzzles to progress.[1]
Plot
editCameron "Caz" McLeary, a married man with two daughters, is on the run from the Scottish police for a violent altercation with a man named Billy Chamberlain. To avoid prison and risk his wife Suze and their kids losing their flat, Caz gets help from his best friend Roy, a cook on the Beira D oil rig. Despite no prior knowledge or experience in the oil industry, they hire him as an electrician; Caz hopes that the time away will let the situation cool down and he can convince Billy to drop the charges. Leaving for the job and running from the law strains Caz's marriage; he later receives a letter from Suze hinting at divorce. The Beira D is also poorly constructed and rife with issues, while its boss, Rennick, is unpopular, careless, and hot-headed. With Roy's support, Caz helps keep the rig operational along with his coworkers Finlay, Brodie, and others.
After finding out about Caz's incident, Rennick angrily fires him. However, before he can board a helicopter to the mainland, a drilling attempt despite issues with the apparatus shakes the facility, with Caz and several men falling into the sea. Only Caz, near-dead from hypothermia, is rescued. Once he recovers, he discovers the situation has deteriorated: the rig is beginning to fall apart, while mysterious masses of tendrils resembling blood vessels or ribbon which were attached to the drill begin infesting the lower sections. Worse still, numerous coworkers, having come into contact with contaminated oil, have become mutated creatures with tendrils and are hunting the rest of the crew. Sneaking around, Caz finds Roy in the kitchen and attempts to secure the lifeboats, but poor construction renders them lost.
Rennick orders an evacuation by helicopter, but he flies away without waiting and the chopper crashes into the rig. With the Beira D on its last legs, Brodie, Finlay, and Caz work together to maintain power, keep the rig from falling over, and prevent a gas explosion when the gas flare tower fails, all while being hunted by Rennick, who has become one of the creatures. Caz goes to rescue Roy, only to find him dead from diabetic ketoacidosis from having gone too long without insulin. After Brodie sacrifices himself to float the rig, a despondent Finlay snaps and attempts to blow up the platform, but is crushed by falling machinery. Before dying, Finlay convinces Caz to do it: the infestation has overtaken the rig and cannot be allowed to spread to the mainland. Wanting to save his family and avenge his friends, Caz ignites the Beira D, destroying everything on it; his last moments are reliving memories of meeting Suze and the birth of their children.
In Scotland, Suze writes a new letter to Caz, resolving to persevere in their marriage and wishing for him and Roy to come home.
Development
editDevelopment of Still Wakes the Deep was led by The Chinese Room, the studio behind Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. The concept was created by the studio's co-founder, Dan Pinchbeck, who directed the game until his departure in mid-2023. John McCormack, the game's art director, was then promoted to replace Pinchbeck.[2] "The Thing set on an oil rig" was the game's original pitch, while Who Goes There? inspired the overall atmosphere of the game. The team believed that the setting, which sees a group of professionals stranded in a remote place with no outside connections, provided an excellent venue for character drama.[3] An oil rig was chosen to be the game's setting because it provided opportunities to explore various types of fears such as "vertigo, drowning, claustrophobia".[2] A wide range of films, such as Annihilation, Midsommar, The Southern Reach Trilogy, Sapphire & Steel, and Suspiria all influenced the game.[4]
As the game is set in Scotland, the team used the opportunities to include voices not commonly represented in games set in the United Kingdom. Voice actors from Isle of Skye, Dundee, Aberdeen and Glasgow were recruited.[2] The team spent an extensive amount of time interviewing people who used to work on an oil rig, and viewed British Petroleum's documentary archives to ensure that the oil rig presented in the game was authentic and period-accurate.[5] McCormack, who is a Scot himself, advised the team on the aesthetic of Scotland in the 1970s. Abigail's Party, Scarfolk Council, Don't Look Now and Rosemary's Baby were cited as inspirations for the game's overall look, which was intended to be "unnerving" and "unsettling" despite its initial innocuous presentation.[6] The Poseidon Adventure was cited as a major inspiration for the team, and the team wanted players to "fear the waves, and to feel trapped above the cold dark water as it floods the rig". The team also wanted to capture the feeling of "dreich", a Scottish word representing grey and gloomy weather, one that "has taken all the colour and joy out of the surroundings".[7]
The game does not have a combat system, and the team emphasized that the player character is not an action hero. Reverend Frank Scott from The Posideon Adventure was described as the "perfect archetype" to McLeary, the game's "unathletic" main character.[3] This is an intentional choice to make players feel "powerless", so that every decision made by players will feel impactful.[1] Puzzle solving and traversal, therefore, become the main ways for players to progress. Early sections of the game focused on knowing the oil rig crew. This section of the game was inspired by the works of Ken Loach. These sections were used to juxtapose with the game's later parts which focus more on horror and action.[6] Players sometimes have to backtrack to certain areas of the game, though they will be changed as they are either destroyed or flooded, potentially opening up new areas for players to explore.[8]
Still Wakes the Deep was announced in June 2023 by The Chinese Room. It was released on June 18, 2024 for Windows PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S. The Chinese Room and publisher Secret Mode partnered with Microsoft to promote the game, which will also be released for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at launch.[9]
Reception
edit| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | (PC) 76/100 (PS5) 73/100 (XSX) 84/100[10] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Destructoid | 8/10[12] |
| Eurogamer |   [16] |
| Game Informer | 7/10[17] |
| GameSpot | 7/10[14] |
| GamesRadar+ | [18] |
| IGN | 6/10[11] |
| PC Gamer (US) | 86/100[15] |
| VG247 | [19] |
According to review aggregator Metacritic, the PS5 version of the game received "mixed or average" reviews, while the PC and Xbox Series X/S versions received "generally favourable" reviews.[10]
Tauriq Moosa from The Verge praised the game's visuals and sound design for contributing to an immersive experience, and concluded his review by describing the game as a "worthy addition to the horror canon" and "further proof that the great void of the ocean is something I want to avoid".[20] Matthew Murphy from Hardcore Gamer also praised Beira D as the "most accurate depiction of an oil rig" ever shown in a game, and liked how the in-game environments altered as players progress in the game and revisit certain locations. He also liked the performance of the game's all-Scottish cast, adding that they "brought the script and their characters to life and held nothing back in their work", and singled out Alec Newman's performance as Caz.[13] Elie Gould from PC Gamer strongly praised the game's story, calling it "emotional", and liked the game's cast of characters. He added that the game delivered "the most traumatic dialogue and voice acting" he had ever seen in a horror game.[15] Mark Delaney from GameSpot also liked the game's story, describing it as "somber", "sad" and "spooky".[14] Jim Trinca from VG 247 called it Chinese Room's best game and "incredible artistic achievement" for blending the horror aspect of Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and the atmosphere and world-building of Dear Esther.[19]
Gameplay of the game received generally mixed reviews. Gould liked the game's pacing and its balance of action and horror, and added that the game was not as "exhausting" as other horror games available in the market.[15] Jamie Moorcroft-Sharp from Destructoid compared the game to Alien: Isolation, and liked the game's enemy and environment variety. He commended the enemy design, which was "ripped right out of nightmares". He concluded his review by saying that "outside of Dredge, I don’t know if a game has felt so uniquely Lovecraftian".[12] Eurogamer's Matt Wales disliked the gameplay, calling it "disengaging" and criticized its overly linear structure and its excessive use of visual cues to guide players forward, leaving no room for exploration.[16] Leana Hafer from IGN also found the gameplay to be uninspiring, and that it was "frustrating to play with its nearly on-rails structure that actively scoffs at the idea of exploration".[11] Jason Rodriguez from Game Informer criticized the game's enemy artificial intelligence for undermining the horror aspect of the game.[17] Several critics remarked that the game was short.[17][18]
References
edit- ^ a b West, Josh (August 31, 2023). "I was sold on Still Wakes the Deep with three evocative Unreal Engine 5 gameplay clips". GamesRadar. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
- ^ a b c Phillips, Tom (November 16, 2023). "Under the surface of Still Wakes The Deep". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
- ^ a b Skrebels, Joe (October 25, 2023). "Xbox Partner Preview: The Unexpected Inspirations That Make Up Still Wakes the Deep". Xbox Wire. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
- ^ Nunneley-Jackson, Stephany (October 25, 2023). "Xbox Third-Party Preview round-up: Still Wakes the Deep, Spirit of the North 2, Manor Lords, more". VG 247. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
- ^ Blake, Vikki (August 27, 2023). "The Chinese Room reveals how Still Wakes the Deep's environment will evolve". Eurogamer. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
- ^ a b Packwood, Lewis (August 17, 2023). "'Trapped on an oil rig with an unknowable horror': Still Wakes the Deep is a dark 70s throwback". The Guardian. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
- ^ Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (October 26, 2023). "Still Wakes The Deep gameplay trailer asks which is worst, the monsters or the weather?". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
- ^ Smith, Nat (February 15, 2023). "Still Wakes the Deep release date window, trailers, and gameplay". PCGamesN. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
- ^ Hester, Blake (June 11, 2023). "Still Wakes The Deep Is The Next Game From The Chinese Room". Game Informer. Retrieved March 3, 2024.
- ^ a b "Still Wakes the Deep reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
- ^ a b Hafer, Leana (June 17, 2024). "Still Wakes the Deep Review". IGN. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
- ^ a b Moorcroft=Sharp, Jamie (June 19, 2024). "Review: Still Wakes the Deep". Destructoid. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
- ^ a b Murphy, Matthew (June 17, 2024). "Review: Still Wakes the Deep". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
- ^ a b Delaney, Mark (June 18, 2024). "Still Wakes The Deep Review - The Abyss Stares Back". GameSpot. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
- ^ a b c Gould, Elie (June 17, 2024). "Still Wakes the Deep review". PC Gamer. Retrieved June 27, 2024.
- ^ a b Wales, Matt (June 17, 2024). "Still Wakes the Deep review - astonishing artistry can't quite keep this oil rig horror afloat". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
- ^ a b c Rodriguez, Jason (June 25, 2024). "Still Wakes the Deep Review: I Sea Dead People". Game Informer. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
- ^ a b Hurley, Leon (June 17, 2024). "Still Wakes the Deep review: "A moody, ambient piece of short-form horror fiction"". GamesRadar. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
- ^ a b Trinca, Jim (June 18, 2024). "Still Wakes the Deep review: This is perfect Game Pass fodder - great but flawed, perfectly paced, and exactly the right length". VG 247. Retrieved June 24, 2024.
- ^ Moosa, Tauriq (June 18, 2024). "Still Wakes the Deep makes the terror of the ocean more tactile". The Verge. Retrieved June 24, 2024.