Still Wakes the Deep

Once again The Chinese Room have delivered another intriguing story set in the realm of horror. They've stepped up everything from their gorgeous art design to the intense moments in the dark. Disregarding some awkward times swimming, the chase and stealth sections are intense and generally a good time. The monster designs are some of the best I've seen in a while making Still Wakes The Deep a must play for all fans of horror.

Still Wakes the Deep is a standout title from The Chinese Room and is a must-play for fans of Lovecraft horror. The game utilizes all its audio elements to craft an immersive experience that's thrilling and chilling. The title has fun toying with your mind and peels back the layers of comfort that's brought during the start of the game. As the environment around you changes, so does your experience, and that's what a good story can do. From exploring the rig to hiding from enemies, The Chinese Room brings together its recognizable elements and puts together a strong sailor worthy of its sea legs.

Treat Still Wakes the Deep like a Netflix mini series and you will have a whale of a time. Its excellent script, acting, and atmosphere make it just as good to passively watch as to actively play, so grab your partner, turn off the lights and binge it over a few evenings.

The Chinese Room’s Still Wakes the Deep sees man’s greed and hubris bring an unknowable disaster down upon an offshore oil rig in a tense, highly effective horror outing.

With a high level of excellence, Still Wakes the Deep is a horror game crafted by those who truly understand the genre. Impactful, profound, and disturbing, it stands out for its maturity and its seamless integration with the concept of the cosmic.

What it lacks in any challenge, it certainly makes up for in authenticity. Still Wakes The Deep provides some excellent lovecraftian horror on board the eery yet original location that is the Beira D. Dedicated and genuine performances from the cast of often relatable roughnecks drive home an engaging story in what ultimately become one of my favorite horror games in recent memory.

Still Wakes The Deep doesn't use any traditional gameplay system and manages to sustain itself solely on the power of good writing and doses of tension at the right times.

This horror adventure goes straight to the point and tells us its story in a convincing way. Not especially remarkable gameplay-wise , but its narrative tide will drag you in.

Still Wakes the Deep is just the best game from The Chinese Room so far. The gameplay is not very demanding and strictly linear, but delivers a high variety for this kind of games. The main thing is, that the horror-trip on a Scottish oil platform provides a compelling experience with mostly perfect sound delivering a strong atmosphere from the start till the end.

Strong dialogue plus naturalistic acting makes the supernatural natural. Short but effective, with a final stretch that makes you reconsider all that’s gone before. [Issue#43, p.90]

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.

Still Wakes The Deep reminds me of John Carpenter’s equally implausible The Thing, an enjoyable schlock-horror set in the Antarctic. But if you can suspend your disbelief about this rigged rollercoaster, you’ll find layers of depth beneath the surface.

Still Wakes The Deep is more than just a walking simulator in the tradition of Rapture or Esther. It nails the feel of bleak 1970’s Scotland to a tee and while everything goes to hell in a handbasket, your man Caz somehow managed to maintain his composure. Very much recommended.

Still Wakes the Deep blends this terror with genuine human flaws. Outside of Dredge, I don’t know if a game has felt so uniquely Lovecraftian. This is a game that everyone should play just to experience once, and thanks to its deathless story mode, you can. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s noteworthy and a game you’re not going to stop hearing about for a long time, and it scratches the itch you’ll have been feeling since playing Alien: Isolation.

If you’re as thalassophobic as I am, you play in the dark and you live alone? Well, you’ll definitely still get a lot out of it, but you’ll also score a temporary paranoia that renders every shadow and rustling noise in your house a potential threat – in the best way.

A horror adventure that reduces horror to its simplest and, therefore, terrible core, made more intriguing by a peculiar setting.

For fans of horror video games, Still Wakes the Deep is one of 2024’s safer bets. It doesn’t have the perpetual terror of a game like Outlast, but that isn’t what it’s going for either. The peaks and troughs between genuine fear and relief turn the game into a rollercoaster of anxiety, but one that lets the player breathe. Though it isn’t hugely long or particularly demanding, it’s a welcome break from the formula of so many mechanics-focused games, making this a welcome return from The Chinese Room. This puts you in the shoes of a protagonist in a movie, with a curated story. Just be aware that what starts as a Ken Loach film quickly turns into something John Carpenter would be proud of.

The beauty of cosmic horror shows best in the recreation of something known, into something unknown. Similarly, The Chinese Room’s newest title Still Wakes The Deep transforms their established formula into something newish and isolates this terrorizing idea onto a secluded oil rig located in the Northern Sea where it gives into this genre’s beauty. Unique Scottish setting, unfathomably well-designed story, and dense audio design with great visuals push this glorified walking sim into a terrifying realm and serve players a true one-of-a-kind experience.

Still Wakes the Deep is a very intensely orchestrated remote horror. However, its effect is heavily dependent on whether you find the setting of a remote oil rig terrifying or not. Are you afraid of underwater steel structures, metallic liminal spaces or the open sea? Then this game is your perfect nightmare, with grotesque monsters included! Otherwise, you may find the game's very linear gameplay and relatively reduced mechanics to be a negative.

Still Wakes the Deep is an incredibly atmospheric, tense, and gripping first-person horror game. With a tremendous sense of place, superb voice acting, and creepy horror elements, it’s a small but punchy experience that we fully recommend despite some hand-holding, simple puzzles, and the story being a little too short.

Still Wakes the Deep tells an emotional tale under extreme circumstances, with a stunningly detailed world and intelligent storytelling.

Still Wakes the Deep is a short but effective game with brilliant performances, a deeply atmospheric setting and fun creature effects. Critics of the hand-holding found in the 'walking sim' genre likely won't be converted, but those looking for an engaging story they can play through in a night or two will strike oil with this one.

Impeccably weaving Lovecraftian horror with real human emotion, Still Wakes the Deep is a fantastic, tense tale that we're not going to forget in a hurry. It's just the right amount of horrifying in all the right places, brought to life with characters who feel as believable as people you'd meet on the street. Only a few technical issues bring it down a little, but they're not enough to truly sully the experience.

Still Wakes The Deep may not stick around for long, but it’ll have an iron-clad grip on you across its runtime. There’s clear inspiration here from horror movie classics such as Alien and The Thing, and we adored seeing those inspirations play out through its highly-detailed settings and salt-of-the-Earth cast of characters. It may not be the most engaging gameplay experience on the PS5, but The Chinese Room smartly lays a solid foundation in the Beira D and its gaggle of staff, that’ll keep its viscerally focused horror on your mind long after the credits roll.

While Still Wakes The Deep doesn’t boast the biggest narrative draw, what will really pull you in is the eerie atmosphere it manages to envelope you in. Fighting for your life against the churning sea and the strange creature that rose from the murky depths provided some truly surreal and hair-raising moments.

Still Wakes the Deep excels when it comes to storytelling and atmosphere, but things stop there as there isn't much room for excitement in gameplay department. With that being said, if you are a fan of psychological thrillers you will probably still enjoy it although it won't be one of the best you ever played.

With a cracking setting and emotional narrative that’s expertly brought to life by fantastic voice acting and writing, Still Wakes the Deep is a solid horror title that falls short of greatness due to its generic gameplay and limited scare factor.

Still Wakes The Deep is a very atmospheric horror game with some brilliant moments and strong character dialogue. It is unfortunately hampered by a safe overall narrative that players may find more comfortable than scary, and a lack of something new within its gameplay model. Nonetheless, it's an effective game that oozes quality, and those after a strong if not purely creative horror title will find plenty to love.

Still Wakes the Deep may clock in just around 5-6 hours, but it could still benefit from cutting some of its length. The second half treads into repetitiveness due to its simplistic platforming and predictable stealth sequences. Nevertheless, it handles the horror aspect very well, and its realistic and believable dialogue overcomes its shortcomings.

Though some tension is lost in the binary and sometimes simplistic encounters with the creature, its physical makeup, and behavior are the game's best aspects and rise to be deeply unsettling, if not terrifying. All of this makes Still Wakes The Deep a story that memorably tugs on your heart, starring a monster eager to tear it out.

An horror adventure with a strong 'Carpenterian' flavour that delivers some interesting ideas and awakens ancestral fears, but in the end leaves the taste of a missed opportunity. An excessively linear gameplay, limited longevity and some technical issues prevent it from reaching the level of The Chinese Room's best productions.

It is not a new concept or anything we haven’t seen yet, but it is an interesting narrative adventure with some very good moments.

Still Wakes the Deep doesn't fully realize the horrific potential of its intriguing setting, and some might find it to be a bit too light on gameplay, but thanks to an engaging story and gorgeous visuals, it's still a game worth playing.

Still Wakes the Deep is a classic walking simulator with few interactions. It's a very linear and guided horror game with a good story and a gameplay that comes from 2010, too simple to leave a mark in this competitive market.

A walking simulator that’s also a love letter to The Thing, transplanting its blend of naturalistic realism and abject horror into an immaculately recreated 1970s North Sea oil rig.

Still Wakes the Deep has an interesting premise for a walking simulator mixing the mundane and ugly with the supernatural and deadly beautiful. Unfortunately, the whole project just creaks at the joints and fails to deliver a memorable experience. The linear gameplay is not counterbalanced but the story, rather they go hand in hand towards a very simplistic approach. The entire game lacks coherence and that “something” that would turn the originality of the basic idea into an outstanding game.

Still Wakes the Deep’s interesting setting and successful mix of a cosmic horror and a drama are enticing. Although it’s set at sea, the game manages to avoid Lovecraftian tentacled clichés. The great foundation for a survival horror was there, but sadly the final result turned out to be a walking sim that completely lacks any sense of threat and fails to pose a challenge.

Still Wakes the Deep feels more like a film than a game. Its very simple gameplay sometimes obstructs and delays the well-written mysterious story that focuses on human minds. This harrowing horror shines best in moments without interaction, supported by excellent visuals and top-notch voice acting. It would work much better as a different medium.

With strong inspiration from cinematic horror classics like The Thing, The Poseidon Adventure and Alien, this stunning but gruesome tale makes the most of its industrial location, Scottish cast and 1970s setting. The chilling atmosphere can be dampened in places by the heavily scripted, linear structure, and it feels like story beats could have hit harder. But the emotional core and frequent thrills make it well worth a dip.

This horror game creates great atmosphere with its acting and visual design, but is regularly brought to its knees by uninspiring gameplay.

While Still Wakes the Deep is a beautiful work of atmosphere and tension, all that can be shattered by its strictly linear trappings.

There’s a lot to like about Still Wakes the Deep. It’s not the sort of game that ties everything up in a neat little bow, and some of the mechanics could have seen more exploration. It doesn’t quite live up to its potential, but if you have six hours to spend, a strong stomach, and don’t mind a lot of unanswered questions, you could do a lot worse.

With a strong setting, nice visuals and authentic performances, Still Wakes the Deep has all the tools to create a memorable experience, but stumbles in providing anything innovative. Its dishevelled oil rig full of mutants is always creepy but never truly scary, and while it’s not a poorly made game by any means, it’s never really exciting, either. I don’t regret my brief visit to a dangerous 1975 oil rig; but when horror as a genre is moving in some seriously impressive and unique directions, Still Wakes the Deep feels a little bit stuck in the past.

The Chinese Room has crafted yet another horrific and thrilling narrative to add to its arsenal of titles that practically pioneered the genre that so many others have contributed to over the last decade. It’s a novel love letter to fantastic films that have withstood the test of time some four decades later. It offers fun, nail-biting adventures that feel true to those authoritative, genre-defining works...But regrettably, mood and atmosphere aren’t enough to elevate this rote walking sim. While it’s an easy Xbox Game Pass recommendation for those looking for some cheap thrills, Still Wakes The Deep lacks any meaningful new ideas, preventing it from standing out amongst the heavily stacked pack.