Still Wakes the Deep

This is The Chinese Room’s best game yet. It has the bombastic set pieces, unflinching gore, and intense stealth sequences that make it a harrowing experience that deserves to stand alongside other games about guys having really bad days. But it also offers a well-paced, meaty narrative with excellent performances that I’m going to be chewing on for months to come.

It’s what The Chinese Room does best. Still Wakes the Deep is exactly the kind of game that made the studio well-known in the first place, and it shows that even after a few years away from the genre, they’re still the masters of it.

Still Wakes the Deep is an example of modern psychological and survival horror done right in just about every way possible. It's obvious that The Chinese Room has learned a lot from creating titles like Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, and that expertise has culminated in the studio's best title yet.

An emotive story that is equal parts terrifying and traumatic.

Still Wakes the Deep is a great horror game with an intriguing story, good acting, and intense chase sequences. I recommend it to all fans of the horror genre.

With its atmosphere, story, gameplay, editing, sense of tension and fantastic finale, it is an experience that everyone should experience.

Most horror stories focus on the monster, while this one is about people. There won’t be any insights about cosmology or biology of the impossible creature threatening the oil rig; neither is there an abundance of diaries with innermost thoughts of our colleagues. But that down-to-earth approach is exactly what makes this story so believable and relatable. [Issue#265, p.60]

Still Wakes the Deep is a gripping horror game set on a doomed oil rig, delivering intense atmosphere and a strong narrative. The game excels in creating tension and dread, but its linear progression and predictable scares may not resonate with everyone. It’s a well-crafted experience for horror fans, though it might feel rigged from the start for those looking for more surprises.

Still Wakes The Deep uses its unique setting to the absolute fullest, bringing something new to the horror genre that’s as bracingly refreshing as a breath of cool North Sea air. The gameplay is straightforward, and the playtime is short, but the atmosphere more than makes up for it. The sense of terror is as thick and impenetrable as the Scottish accents of the oil rig’s crew. If you’re looking for a brisk cinematic experience full of beautiful set pieces, brilliantly acted character work and monstrous thrills then I donnae ken how ye cae do better.

It's clear to me that Still Wakes the Deep is about the journey and not the destination, and I do think that journey is thrilling and worth your time.

I would recommend Still Wakes the Deep for everyone, with the caveats that it is short-lived and you do have to sit back and let the game tell the story it wants to. Trust me, it is well worth it for this truly is a great yarn.

Entertaining horror trip with an exciting setting and some minor flaws.

Still Wakes the Deep is a good atmospheric horror game. Having it set on an oil rig is terrifying enough because of their innate labyrinthine structures, and the monster encounters provide the right amount of horror energy. The straightforward nature of the pacing and tale is refreshing, and even the presence of a few flaws doesn't hamper one's desire to play the game to the end. If you're a horror fan who favors exploration more than fighting, Still Wakes the Deep is definitely worth checking out.

Still Wakes the Deep dredges up The Chinese Room’s greatest strengths at immersive storytelling, but a low fear factor leaves this oil rig horror in the churning waters of authentic Scottish drama.

In the end, Still Wakes the Deep is worth the six or seven hours it takes to blast through the story. It’s not scary as such, but it’s tense as hell, and there’s a poignance here that shines brightly through the veneer of soot, and gloop, and toxic masculinity What this game is really about, just like that bronze monument in Eyemouth, is the widows and bairns left behind.

This is a great, if short, horror game with impeccable looks and fantastic atmosphere. It's scary and full of character, but with a barely five-hour run time your enjoyment could depend on what you paid for it.

What is for sure is that over its six-hour span we're engrossed in Still Wakes The Deep far more often than not. [Issue#399, p.100]

Aided by its magnificent setting, purposeful suspense, and slick pacing, Still Wakes the Deep is a nicely crafted first-person horror game that needed more complexity.

Still Wakes the Deep has great characters and an interesting setting, but the magic quickly runs out once you notice the rails under your feet and the scripts the monsters are frantically reading. While I do recommend it, it may be worth waiting for a sale.

Still Wakes the Deep is an entertaining game from start to finish, without any filler, and audiovisually very good, which takes us to an original setting to tell us a more than well-known story. Taking into account that as a walking simulator or narrative adventure it relies completely on what it tells, we believe that the story is not strong enough to support all the weight, and relies too much on an ending that we found very good to be able to justify its existence. This does not mean that we had a great time, and we enjoyed the almost six hours that it lasted, especially thanks to a very successful ending that knows how to close to leave a very good taste in our mouths.

Falling short of its potential, Still Wakes The Deep’s linearity and simplicity of gameplay does disservice to a great concept. Despite this, it’s still well worth a look, owing to its stellar art direction, well-written characters and strong atmosphere. The result is an inviting and alluring world that’s a joy to take in, even if it doesn’t quite scare the player in ways it intended.

Despite the shortcomings in interaction and gameplay complexity, Still Wakes the Deep has an appeal through its linear, but high-quality set pieces and engaging storytelling. The game’s ability to draw players in and keep them invested in the unfolding narrative is a testament to The Chinese Room’s proficiency in creating immersive experiences. By focusing on the development of compelling characters, a wonderful and personalised environment with the oil rig that is mysteriously engulfed in unknown biological matter, combining it with an appealing plot helps succeed in delivering an entertaining game. Players will find themselves engrossed in the eerie atmosphere and suspenseful moments that Still Wakes the Deep has to offer, even with the limitations of its linear structure and simple gameplay. Plus the game’s splendid visuals are a bonus that adds to the overall atmospheric setting.

Still Wakes the Deep is a relatively short game (I completed the campaign in under five hours). The story is strictly linear, akin to some of The Chinese Room’s other games, with no collectibles or secrets. While it’s true that the game builds on the setting, atmosphere, tension, and body horror, it flubs the most crucial aspect: the moments when you actually face the creatures. It’s like if The Thing was “from another world,” but it’s revealed to be E.T. due to how harmless it is. In the end, this romp through an infested oil rig might look slick, but it spills over and slips when it matters most.

Still Wakes The Deep has a hauntingly well-realised setting in its North Sea oil rig, propped up by stellar sound and environmental design. Caz’s story carried some genuinely emotive moments, even if the backstory feels slightly underdeveloped and while the moment-to-moment stealth and navigation lack the depth of an ocean, they’re still deeper than the puddle many in the genre fall into. You’ll come for the nightmare, but stay for the rig.

To be clear, there’s still a decent horror game to be had here for fans of the genre, but by the time the credits rolled, I found it difficult to not feel a tinge of disappointment in seeing just how much further the characters and concepts could have been taken to create something truly unique.

A well-composed horror experience that will perhaps be primarily remembered for its unique and compelling setting.

Still Wakes the Deep seems dragged out and occasionally devoid of meaning, but it's still very much science fiction, clearly inspired by John Carpenter's classic films.

Still Wakes the Deep is a very capable walking simulator, but that's it. No sparks of genius here. The game is quite monotonous, fortunately it delivers some fun with a unique setting and a really good, dramatic storyline that would fit a movie far better than a game.

Still Wakes The Deep is a work plagued by numerous problems. The coherence between story and gameplay often leaves something to be desired, with serious consequences on the effectiveness of the narrative and the horror phases. Once the game is finished, you get the feeling that something during development didn't go right, or that the team failed to realize their vision. Rejecting The Chinese Room's game would be unfair, yet there remains regret for a title that could have given much more, especially considering the history of the studio.

Still Wakes the Deep is a conundrum: a narrative adventure with a penchant for passive survival horror, but one that proves incapable of expressing the values one would expect from The Chinese Room a full eleven years after Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. It feels like a Scottish-style reworking of Dead Space, and the gameplay is merely a set of gimmicks put there to tell the story, but with little desire and even less courage.

I want to give Still Wakes the Deep all the credit it deserves for its fantastic art, dialogue, voiceover work, and setting. But it's frustrating to play with its nearly on-rails structure that actively scoffs at the idea of exploration. And as much as I wanted to be freaked out by it, I almost never was, trying as I might to set the mood as best as possible. It's the kind of game where I think watching someone else play through it and playing it yourself would be nearly identical experiences, and that doesn't make it easy for me to recommend.