Few games in 2024 have shown promise like Still Wakes the Deep. Since it was initially previewed to select audiences last August at Gamescom 2023, the long-awaited outing from British indie studio The Chinese Room seemed destined for greatness. After such a build-up, it’s great to know it mostly delivers on expectations.
Ever since it was announced, Still Wakes the Deep promised to challenge gamers of all persuasions by tapping into a wide selection of common fears–heights, drowning, loneliness, darkness, tight spaces, and more–but the real horror comes through the incredible performances of its cast aboard the stricken Beira D oil platform.
Even for weeds like me, who play horror games in the same way the U.S. plays with the metric system–at a great distance, wincing, and with eyes mostly closed–it’s not traditionally scary, despite looking that way in previews. Instead of relying on the hits to get under your skin, Still Wakes the Deep uses common phobias as a smokescreen for a much more insidious horror experience.
That’s not to say that magnificently animated seas, inventive monstrosities, and occasional jump scares won’t freak you out, but the true spine-chilling moments come from its portrayal of the simplest fear of all: the unpreventable inevitability of death itself, in whatever form it takes.
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Setting your own scene
The game’s estimated completion time is six hours. I was closer to seven, but I spent about 45 minutes fiddling with the visual settings. Still Wakes the Deep’s out-of-the-box graphics–motion blur, film grain, and roughly there 30fps quality mode–can make you feel seasick, even if the oil platform is (still) sturdy in the North Sea.
Conversely, removing film grain and motion blur, then putting it into performance mode, takes you out of the moment entirely, especially as it never quite hits 60fps on Series X. Trust the middle ground: keep the effects, switch to performance mode, and you have the throwback, VHS experience for modern sensibilities.
Despite occasionally hazy visuals, Still Wakes the Deep works wonders with Unreal Engine 5. Between sections of dingy furnishings and dull-looking industrial installations, it rewards you with regular breathtaking vistas. You can almost smell the salt in the air.
That ‘70s S*** Show
With all the tinkering out of the way, you can finally “enjoy” mid-1970s Britain by way of the Scottish coast. You’re thrust into an isolated, North Sea outpost in which polarized workers, recovering from the Three-Day Week, are used to dealing with a faltering manufacturing industry and enduring the general hopelessness that came with the weather, a stiff upper lip, and the U.K.’s weakening global power.
The Beira D oil rig is already bleak, and not just because of its location and purpose; it’s awash with barely-there tartan carpets, leaky ceilings, miserable cabins, and the occasional racist National Front supporter. It’s Christmas, too, which is being celebrated with a plastic tree and at least three paper chains.
You had to be a certain type of person to work on an oil rig back then, and your character, electrician Caz McCleary, is no exception. Voiced to perfection by Alec Newman, Caz escaped the mainland to avoid being prosecuted after kicking someone’s head in. Your wife is far from happy, and things open with you tossing aside a sternly worded letter from her.
Initial conversations with other members of the crew shore up STWD’s focus on human emotions and personalities, helping you glean more about Caz’s misgivings and character flaws–and theirs. You’re introduced to a diverse cast of phenomenal voice actors including your Barnsley-born bestie Roy (the multi-talented Shaun Dooley); your tyrannical, corner-cutting boss Rennick (Clive Russell, A.K.A. Brynden “Blackfish” Tully from Game of Thrones) right-on trade unionist Trots (Nicholas Boulton); and greedy, malicious bully Addair (Stewart Scudamore).
From the start and throughout, you’re lightly railroaded around your confines; garbage, a ladder, or a locked door will stop you exploring past the planned route. It’s a slow-paced affair, even when things get messy. The Chinese Room’s escapade Dear Esther earned it the moniker “walking simulator,” which clearly stuck in the minds of its devs, given an achievement is named after the phrase. Maybe it was a planned joke that Still Wakes the Deep’s running mechanic almost feels slower than your standard saunter.
Striking toil
The core narrative focuses on your team setting up to drill into the Earth’s crust, but something goes wrong, people die, and all hell breaks loose–apparently literally–as you quickly see former colleagues reduced to vague, fleshy growths across the installation. Sadly, some of them remain mobile, and the fact the game reduces you–an everyman brawler–into a helpless pacifist only underscores the gravity of the evil you’ve uncovered.
As your options, and friends, thin out, the full force of the oil platform’s hopelessness really sets in. The fact the Beira D is built so shoddily–not just by modern standards, but by Rennick’s callous disregard for safety–means you never feel safe. Wall panels are easily smashed by the hellish threat, opening it up like a tin of corned beef. Even in scenes where you're up against one specific enemy, you never feel comfortable, even if you’re in a well-built room; you actually feel safer outdoors.
The first taste of the real horror to come is when Raffs, who was underwater when everything went sideways, is stuck in the diving bell. You will never hear a more pained, guttural, human response to unimaginable horror in gaming. The fact you have to have a full conversation while he goes absolutely crazy inside a small metal ball is heartbreaking. You can’t get away fast enough.
Your first true vision of the unknowns you face is in the form of Trots, your friendly neighborhood leftie, who transforms from working class fighter into a tumorous human pizza transfixed on opening and closing the door of a glowing washing machine, with the listless, simple dread of the head-banging fella in Dead Space. The voice acting goes up a notch and becomes demonically corrupted as former friends show anger and fear through demented conversations, as if they’re controlled from within from a parasitic force who knows their deepest secrets and worries.
Trots is one of your first “bosses,” even though these are never battles. Instead, you go up against various monsters unarmed, save for the occasional distraction item. These sequences are drawn out and relatively repetitive–some fast, some super slow, but never too scary. There’s no horrific death animation if you’re found, which also helps.
Stumbling around
The Beira D folk are a messy bunch, so hammers, helmets and Thermos flasks are everywhere, ready for you to pick up as you dodge from one hiding hole to another. However, always-on prompts ruin immersion during the most important sequences, specifically when you’re attempting to distract a former worker. Picking up a throwable automatically plasters the screen with “[THROW]/ [DROP]”, taking up valuable screen space and undermining the atmosphere.
Still Wakes the Deep is keen to keep the narrative ticking along, even if these encounters can feel formulaic–they mostly play out as slow and steady before inevitably giving way to a final “running” chase you escape from. It’s another issue that undermines the scares of the game–even if it has a dedicated “look over your shoulder at whatever the f*** that is” button–but at least you keep delving deeper into the mystery of what happened.
However, and rather ironically, the platforming elements of this oil-platform-based tale are far from its strong suit. The camera can be confusing; your path isn’t always clear, so you find yourself wilfully dying just to uncover a route; most frustratingly, walking over some transitions triggers Caz to think he’s falling, meaning he randomly screams bloody murder when walking along a seemingly safe route. It’s a hilarious quirk, but no less annoying, and quickly dispels the increasingly dark tone of the game.
Thankfully, this is the only example where the game’s strongest suit lets it down. Hellblade 2 will inevitably win awards for audio achievement, but it’s hard to think of a game that captures the human condition better than Still Wakes the Deep. That’s not just for this year, either; Still Wakes the Deep is a masterclass in game acting.
Its ragtag personalities help pace the game perfectly. There’s always a reason to push on; always a task you need to do to survive; always a hope you’ll escape the ever-worsening hell around you. You become so bonded to Caz that, for all his faults, you suffer when he suffers–your fears are his, you mourn when he mourns, and you find resolve when he needs to face the next horror lurking around the corner.
While you’re treated to a laundry list of obvious influences and contemporaries–Alien Isolation, Outlast, Scorn, Control, The Thing, and even Bird Box–Still Wakes the Deep manages to craft its own unique take on horror. Sure, it fumbles a couple of things–most of which could be fixed with patches–but while this might not be the best game of 2024, it’ll stay with you longer than the rest.
