PC

Still Wakes the Deep gets the fundamentals of horror just right while also having an incredible location and grisly action

“The player should feel like they are almost always about to die but never do.” This is what the lead developer, Rob McLachlan, told me after I’d finished playing through the first third of the upcoming single-player horror game Still Wakes the Deep. Almost a week later, I’m still thinking about how brilliantly accurate that statement is. 

Working on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland seems unnerving enough, the developers even told me that they couldn’t get access to a rig due to the strict training that’s needed, which includes being dunked into the North Sea to prove that you could survive a fall into the frosty ocean. But The Chinese Room doesn’t use this fantastic setting as just some horror gimmick. Instead, it’s clear the devs have worked hard to springboard off this isolated location, using it to terrorise players in some really creative ways. 

A rig covered in fog

(Image credit: The Chinese Room)

An oil rig is made up of various compartments and sections for ease of access and navigation, but humans come second on these metal islands. With the machinery being prioritised it takes up most of the space everywhere except for the few social rooms like the lounge and kitchen. This is one of the reasons why navigating the Beira D is so difficult and daunting—most of the locations aren’t made with you in mind: “We made a lot of spaces that are very small, so you feel like you’re squeezing your body through because it’s a place for machines, with humans moving through gaps between them,” McLachlan says. “We wanted players to feel that physical connection with the rig.”  

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