There Is Nowhere To Run
HIGH The voice acting and environmental design are sublime.
LOW Any section with swimming.
WTF The number of pulsing tentacles.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
Cameron “Caz” McCleary is having a rough day.
The oil rig he’s on in the North sea is a cold, isolated place. The crew enjoys his company, but the foreman is looking to fire him the first chance he gets, even though it’s a just few days before Christmas. Then the drill on the rig hits… something… and unleashes an otherworldly power that corrupts and kills everyone on the rig. Now Caz only has one thing on his mind — survival.
Still Wakes The Deep is a narrative horror title where players control Caz as he explores the oil rig, avoids monstrous creatures, and looks for a way out. Players can run, jump, and pick up items lying around the area, but there’s no possibility of fighting these deadly creatures — Caz will be killed in one strike, so the only option is to hide and evade.
The atmosphere in Still Wakes is sublime. The crew areas of the rig feel lived-in, each with their occupants’ personal effects on display and full of items that fill in their backgrounds. As I went deeper into the depths of the rig, the lack of maintenance was obvious as I found places that were starting to rust and wear down, even before the entity started corrupting it.
The rig isn’t the only thing that feels fleshed out, though. When comparing Still Wakes the Deep to other titles in the same space, it’s refreshing to have a character that feels like they have a personality to them, and relationships are a key focus for Still Wakes the Deep overall.
There are many flashback scenes where we see Caz’s home life with his wife, and the trouble they were having. Caz is also able to walk around the mess hall and talk to several members of the crew. In a conversation with his crewmates Brodie and Raff, we learn that Raff’s first dive is coming up today, and it’s obvious that he’s nervous. Caz tries to make a joke to cheer him up, but then quickly turns to reassuring comfort when he realizes the joke isn’t working. In another conversation, he’s chatting with a maintenance partner and they commiserate about the foreman cutting corners on the build quality of the rig. Everyone feels like they knows each other from the start — it makes perfect sense since workers would be a tight-knit team on such a small rig — and the chatter sets the tone between everyone right from the start.
As far as the mechanics go, there isn’t a lot to it — the emphasis here is definitely on narrative. Players will have the option to walk, run, jump, and crouch. There are few areas where it’s possible to hide in a locker, but they felt few and far between. Some items can be picked up and thrown to make a noise and draw monsters away from the player, but most of the running time is spent walking or sneaking from one area to the next, occasionally finding platforming sequences when jumping to a ladder or over a broken walkway.
While Still Wakes has a horror flavor to it, it wasn’t a kind of horror that I expected. It does have monsters that will take out the player in a single moment, but it never felt scary. Most of the time I was able to walk past creatures without them noticing. I was also expecting a lot more puzzles, and not as many platforming challenges. Honestly though, that’s all perfectly fine since the narrative was expertly crafted.
Still Wakes defied many of my expectations. I was expecting a typical horror experience where the main character is isolated, but instead got character drama and complex relationships. I expected jump scares and terrible monsters, but those were just ancillary to the storytelling. I expected slightly obtuse puzzle solving, but instead received an atmospheric walk through a creepy oil rig.
Players wanting rich mechanics or complex play might not find much to enjoy here, but Still Wakes the Deep is a definite recommend to those who enjoy dramatic narratives and horror flavor.
For me: Still Wakes The Deep gets a 8 out of 10.
Disclosures: This game is developed by The Chinese Room and published by Secret Mode. It is currently available on PC, PS5 and XBS/X. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS5. Approximately 5 hours of play were spent playing the game, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M and contains Blood and Gore, Strong Language, and Violence. The official description reads: “This game is a short horror experience where players will shoot either the dealer or themselves with a shogun. There is blood that splatters the screen when the players successfully complete a round and defeats the dealer. Beer is as a usable item, and players can take a pill (medicine/drugs) or smoke cigarettes to heal damage.”This is a survival horror game in which players follow an off-shore oil rig worker as he works around the North Sea. From a first-person perspective, players search the rig for survivors while avoiding mutant creatures and environmental hazards (e.g., fires, drowning, debris). Mutants are able to attack players at various times; one cutscene depicts a mutant screaming after being set on fire. During the course of the game, players can encounter human corpses, occasionally mutilated and/or bloody. Mutated creatures are sometimes depicted with exposed viscera and bone; some environments contain bloody, fleshy walls. The words “f**k” and “c*nt” appear in the game.”
Colorblind Modes: Colorblind Modes are present.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, and subtitles can be altered and/or resized. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: Controls are completely remappable.
While Sonic and Street Fighter were great places to start, his first love was Final Fantasy X when his dad bought a PS2. Ever since, that love for gaming has evolved -- there are a number of game worlds out there, and he intends to explore them all. RPG to horror, platformers to casual and everything in between -- if it’s available, he’ll play it.
While his time is short between writing reviews, tabletop gaming, and attempting to start a cheesecake business, he has caught all 806 pokemon and can speedrun Star Fox 64 in less than 40 minutes. He’s always looking for new things to try and new challenges to conquer. You can find him on Twitter -- @eugene_sax.
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