Still Wakes the Deep

Still Wakes the Deep is a 2024 survival 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 in the North Sea in the 1970s, having no way to escape while being pursued by mysterious monsters under harsh weather conditions. Played from a first-person perspective, the game does not feature any combat system, and players must rely on stealth and solving light puzzles to survive. As players continues the story, the oil rig will gradually evolve and change, though the game itself is largely linear.

Studio co-founder Dan Pinchbeck first pitched Still Wakes the Deep as "The Thing set on an oil rig", and served as the game's director until his departure in mid 2023. The studio, which previously released Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013) and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015), described Still Wakes the Deep as its return to story-driven horror games. While the game features a supernatural entity, the ocean was described as the game's secondary enemy, and the team felt that the setting can evoke a variety of fears such as vertigo, drowning and claustrophobia. The Poseidon Adventure and Annihilation both served as inspirations for the team. The team interviewed engineers 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. Scottish actors were also recruited, with Alec Newman voicing the game's protagonist.

Announced in June 2023, the game was released for Windows PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S in June 2024. The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the game's story, atmosphere, graphics, sound design and voice performances, while criticizing its gameplay, linear structure and overall length.

Gameplay
Still Wakes the Deep is a survival 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, though Caz may tremor when navigating through the rig's hostile environments, causing him to fall if the player do not respond in time to quick-time events. Caz is equipped with a flashlight, which can be used to illuminate otherwise dimly-lit areas.

The game had a minimalistic head-up display. If the monster is in close proximity the player, colored bubbles will appear in Caz's peripheral vision. However, the game does not have a combat system, and players have to rely on stealth (such as hiding behind objects or inside vents or throwing objects to distract enemies), and solving light environmental puzzles to progress. When the player is being chased by the monster, they have the option to quickly look behind while running forward. Still Wakes the Deep is a linear game, and the development team used yellow paints on surfaces on the oil rigs to direct players towards their objectives. Players will have to visit several locations multiple times throughout the game's campaign, though its environment will gradually change as events in the game unfold. The game had an easier gameplay mode named "Story mode", allowing players to complete the game without their player character dying.

Plot
Cameron "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


Development 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. "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. 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". A wide range of films, such as Annihilation, Midsommar, The Southern Reach Trilogy, Sapphire & Steel, and Suspiria all influenced the game. The game was designed to be narrative-driven, and the game intended to evoke these fears through creating tension instead of using tangiable gameplay mechanics. The team intentionally avoided implementing punishing gameplay design so that the momentum of the story will not be disrupted. While body horror tropes were used extensively, the team wanted to maintain a sense of mystery, often shrouding them with fog, mist, and darkness. Through creating obscurity, the team felt that players will "fill in the gaps themselves with their own worst fears", resulting in a more terrifying experience.

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 Poseidon Adventure was described as the "perfect archetype" to Caz McLeary, the game's "unathletic" main character. This is an intentional choice to make players feel "powerless", so that every decision made by players will feel impactful. Puzzle solving and traversal, therefore, become the main ways for players to progress. While Caz is an everyman, he was not designed to be an "empty shell" for players to inhabit. He, and his surrounding cast of characters had their own backstory and reactions to the events unfolding in the game. The goal for the team was to create a story in which "extraordinary events" happened to a very ordinary person, and the horror aspects of the game were grounded with common, relatable themes concerning love, family, and relationships with loved ones. To save cost, the team chose to set the game at Christmas. This allowed the team to create less characters as only a skeleton crew will remain on the oil rig during the festive period. The game was designed to be narrative-driven, and the game intended to evoke various fears through creating tension instead of using tangiable gameplay mechanics. The team intentionally avoided implementing punishing gameplay design so that the momentum of the story will not be disrupted.

Early sections of the game focused on knowing the oil rig crew. This section of the game was inspired by the doucmentary films made by British director Ken Loach. These sections were used to juxtapose with the game's later parts which focus more on horror and action. As the game is set in a small environment, players sometimes have to backtrack to certain areas of the game. To keep the overall experience interesting, the oil rig will gradually be changed as events unfolded in the game, with portions of it becoming completely destroyed or flooded, potentially opening up new areas for players to explore. Designer Rob McLachlan compared the oil rig in the game to the spacehips and space stations in Event Horizon and Dead Space. Spaces inside the oil rig is designed to be small, and navigation through its various compartments are designed to be difficult. This was an intentional decision made by the design team as they believed most places are reserved for machines, and the needs of humans are not prioritized in the design of an oil rig. The time setting was chosen as it was the period where safety awareness in workplace was low, with workers having no access to advanced equipments such as GPS and satelite phones to connect with the outside world, ultimately evoking a strong sense of isolation and helplessness.

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. 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. The team also watched urban exploration videos of stranded oil rigs on YouTube, and carried out research on storm history and freak waves. The team also made unsuccessful attempts to visit decommisioned oil rigs in Hartlepool and Hull. 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. The team wanted the ocean to be the second enemy in the game, and players to "fear the waves, and to feel trapped above the cold dark water". 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". The sections set on the exteriors of the rigs, where the player are surrounded by ocean, were used to create contrast with the claustrophobic environments inside the oil rig. Elaborating on the ocean setting, McLachlan described the North Sea as an inglamorious setting, essentially an endless "grey ocean filled with sediment", one that is both "unknown and unknowabale".

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.

Reception
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.

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". 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. 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. Mark Delaney from GameSpot also liked the game's story, describing it as "somber", "sad" and "spooky". Jim Trinca from VG247 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.

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. 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". Writing for GamesRadar, Leon Hurley praised its similarity to The Thing, though he noted that it focused more on "eldritch and cosmic horror". He strongly praised the game's atmosphere and pacing, and how the game often teased the presence of a monster instead of directly showing it. He also praised the game's lack of a head up display, which contributed to player's immersion.

Tauriq Moosa from The Verge found the gameplay options to be limiting and noted the game had a very stringent pathway as to how to succeed, though he praised the controls for being very "tactile" and "intuitive". 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. Leana Hafer from IGN also found the gameplay to be uninspiring, and that players who have experience with games of similar nature may no longer find Still Wakes the Deep scary because it did nothing new to stand out from its competitors. In addition, she remarked that it was "frustrating to play with its nearly on-rails structure that actively scoffs at the idea of exploration" and expressed her disappointment for the puzzles in the games for being underwhelming and simple. While Jason Rodriguez from Game Informer liked the chase sequences, he found them to be too sparodic, and further criticized the game's enemy artificial intelligence for undermining the horror aspect of the game. Several critics remarked that the game was short.