Still Wakes The Deep – PS5 version, Reviewed on PS5 Pro – Horror, Survival, First-Person
Ever wanted to face your fears and place yourself directly in a horror-movie type scenario? Still Wakes The Deep virtually gives you just that, pitting the player into a first-person survival adventure on a Scottish oil rig in the North Sea in 1975. The waters swirl, but what is below them is the true threat. What happens when that threat starts to devour the rig?
Story:
This chilling and psychologically nutty disaster tale begins through introducing the player to an oil rig crew on December 26th, 1975. They are hard-working, and very tired, while ready to go home to their families after a long stint in the ocean. The player is Cameron ‘Caz’ McLeary, who focuses on electrician duties amongst other labors, while reminiscing about his wife and children. They write him often, and miss him during his time away, needing his presence.
Too bad Caz can’t focus on this, as the oil rig calls in with some news that something was disturbed deep below the waters as they hit something, and alarms start sounding. As a terrorizing new presence enters the game’s atmosphere, the rig slowly shifts from a place of mechanical work and hard labor to a zone of confusion, insane creepy-crawly monsters and psychological madness.
The story is too much fun to explore during gameplay, so we’ll leave it mostly at that, but mostly I felt like this was greatly influenced by John Carpenter’s The Thing, Jacob’s Ladder, Alien and creepy things in that vein. Jump into the game and let it drive you mad while you do your best to dodge nasty ocean dangers. Will you get to a lifeboat, or will the entire rig prove to be your coffin?
Gameplay:
Gameplay is very very simple for this game, as it is primarily narratively drive, and it is more like playing a movie than a video game. Yes, you do walk around and select things, but mostly, you have one path to follow, and don’t have traditional video game mechanics like inventory, health bars and such.
Instead, you explore your surroundings, find hints, clues, pathways, and dodge monsters to stay alive. You can throw objects to distract, and need to hide and plan movements carefully. Other than that, you talk, look around and walk or jog through the rig and meet your objectives.
This game pitted me against my mortal enemy: large bodies of water with nasty fucking enemies hidden in it. I really struggled with a few portions of this game, which felt quite realistic and I almost shat my britches.
Mostly this game is about graphical and sound presentation of its story while you slowly make it through, and these elements shine. You may wind up hating the story, but it’s very well written, and even tugs at some emotional heart strings when it can.
Someone should make this game into a movie.
Graphics:
The gorgeous game helps bring you into the narrative and is full of fantastic details and nice graphical movements or weather-related touches. Water is amazing and realistic, or also ominous at times when deep dark pools may hide hidden enemies.
The rig is smartly designed and detailed, and shifts appropriately with story beats. Enemy design is great, despite potentially being influenced by other properties the results here are still chilling and horrifying.
Sound is always important in games too, but this one sticks out as probably having the best sound effects I can think of. They are horrifying and pull you deep into the experience, whether it is the roar of bending metal or the shriek of a chasing enemy, the expertly crafted sounds heighten it all.
Fun-level:
This game is a total blast, and should get your adrenaline pumping. The story is good, the writing is good, the voice acting is good. The sleek graphics and stupendous effects heighten the solid and scary plot. It is a short game, and can be zipped through quickly in a session or two, but that should not dissuade people from buying into this experience. Support this indie game and try to keep your pants clean.
Downloadable Content (DLC) Review:
N/A – None that I know of
Final Score: 8.5
DLC Score: N/A