With the likes of Pricey Esther, Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs in its locker, British studio The Chinese language Room is clearly no stranger to horror (or horror-adjacent) video games, and given the truth that the studio has completed a strong job with every of these video games, expectations are certain to be excessive anytime it returns to that style or that specific type of sport. Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, The Chinese language Room’s latest sport, could be very a lot a part of that lineage- a first-person narrative-driven horror journey sport that’s gentle on gameplay and mechanics, and heavy on story and storytelling. And although it doesn’t reinvent or revolutionize the style by any stretch of the creativeness, for these searching for a strong strolling sim, or a strong horror story, there’s fairly a bit to love right here.
Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is about within the yr 1975, and has you taking part in as Caz McLeary, a Scottish electrician who has chosen to run away from troubles in his private life by taking a job that’s put him on an oil rig in the midst of the North Sea. Wracked by violent storms and ridden with mechanical points and tools failures of all types, the oil rig isn’t a completely hospitable dwelling for the crew that works it, although that seems to be the least of everyone’s points.
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“Nonetheless Wakes the Deep doesn’t reinvent or revolutionize the style by any stretch of the creativeness, however for these searching for a strong strolling sim, or a strong horror story, there’s fairly a bit to love right here.”
After you spend the sport’s opening minutes getting accustomed to protagonist Caz, the issues he has in his life, and the those who he works alongside aboard the rig, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep rapidly thrusts you into the meat and potatoes of its story. A drilling accident rocks the rig, damaging vital elements of an already creaking construction, whereas what follows after the accident is even deadlier- an otherworldly, nightmarish presence that appears to have began taking up the rig not simply by sending unusual, big tendrils crashing via the construction, but additionally by slowly possessing members of its crew one after the other, turning them into horrific monstrosities.
Now, it falls to Caz to unravel the mysteries of what precisely has gone unsuitable aboard the oil rig, however extra importantly than that, try to discover a approach again dwelling, all whereas avoiding the clutches of the horrors that stalk the rig’s halls and chase him via it. It’s a robust core premise, thanks largely to the truth that, proper off the bat, a failing oil rig out in the midst of nowhere is an unimaginable setting for a horror story. Nonetheless Wakes the Deep makes good use of it as nicely, utilizing its tight, claustrophobic corridors to nice impact with its decaying nature and the way remoted it’s to create real stakes and stress.
It doesn’t, nonetheless, go one step above that into precise horror territory- no less than not in any significant approach that stands out in reminiscence. Nonetheless Wakes the Deep actually has a number of moments and sections the place it’s legitimately unsettling, however in case you’re hoping for the sport to outright scare or terrify you, it would come throughout as a little bit of a letdown. What’s notably disappointing is that the sport really does have a number of gameplay sections that appear conceptually ripe for memorable scares, the place the sport tells you that you just’re being chased or stalked by issues that that you must keep away from and keep hidden away from whereas discovering your approach out. These sections, nonetheless, typically are likely to fall flat, thanks largely to an nearly full lack of problem. I notice that problem and mechanical complexity aren’t essentially issues that you ought to be anticipating from story-driven journey video games, however what’s even the purpose of getting gameplay sections that implicitly promise one thing alongside these strains in case you don’t intend to observe via?
“Nonetheless Wakes the Deep makes good use of its setting, utilizing its tight, claustrophobic corridors to nice impact with its decaying nature and the way remoted it’s to create real stakes and stress. It doesn’t, nonetheless, go one step above that into precise horror territory- no less than not in any significant approach that stands out in reminiscence.”
Moderately than making good on its conceptual horror potential, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep’s greater strengths lie within the environment that it creates, in addition to its solid of characters. The latter specifically is propped up by robust writing and voice overs, with protagonist Caz McLeary specifically being one of many solid’s extra compelling members. The general lack of true scares is certainly a little bit of a disappointment, however throughout its runtime of about 5 or so hours, the sport does nonetheless do a good sufficient job of preserving you invested in its story.
It’s a very good factor it does, too, as a result of past the story, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep doesn’t have an terrible lot to supply, which, in fact, is to be anticipated from narrative-driven journey video games. That is an expertise that’s gentle on gameplay, with the majority of its interactivity being restricted to strolling via its environments, partaking in some gentle stealth sections and environmental puzzle fixing, and taking the uncommon likelihood that you just get to discover branching paths and rooms for extra bits and items of story. In case you’ve performed a strolling sim within the final decade or so, you’re going to have a fairly good thought of what to anticipate from Nonetheless Wakes the Deep within the gameplay division.
Nonetheless, regardless of its simplicity and simple nature, I wouldn’t say Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is just not enjoyable to play. There’s the apparent undeniable fact that the largest draw right here is clearly the story, and the story, as I discussed, is partaking sufficient to maintain you going even via a few of the sport’s much less mechanically attention-grabbing sections. Past that, nonetheless, from a pure mechanics perspective, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep deserves credit score for having you partaking with well-crafted environmental puzzle fixing and navigation puzzles at a gradual tempo, so that there’s, on the very least, at all times a sense of fixed ahead momentum.
“Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is probably not The Chinese language Room’s crowning achievement by any means, but it surely’s actually one other strong notch on the studio’s belt nonetheless.”
That’s additionally all the way down to the robust design of the environments, particularly from a visible perspective. Proper from the sport’s opening sections, the place you’ll be admiring the eye to element and crispness of visible high quality when strolling via the rig’s pretty atypical wanting inside and exterior environments, to the later sections, the place you’re strolling via rain, wading via flooded corridors, slowly creeping via vents, or feasting your eyes on a few of the extra otherworldly sights that you just get to see afterward within the sport (which I clearly gained’t be spoiling right here)- Nonetheless Wakes the Deep has a transparent sense of robust setting design, one thing that it backs up with comparable strengths in artwork design and the way spectacular the graphics look from a technical perspective.
Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is, in the end, unlikely to make a believer out of you in case you’ve by no means been one for strolling sims, or no matter it’s you select to name that model of journey video games. Easy design and pared again mechanics make for what’s, from a gameplay perspective, a serviceably but unremarkable expertise, whereas from a story perspective, the sport fares considerably higher. Even when it does let itself down within the horror division in a number of methods, it’s nonetheless compelling sufficient to push you all the way in which to the credit. Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is probably not The Chinese language Room’s crowning achievement by any means, but it surely’s actually one other strong notch on the studio’s belt nonetheless.
This sport was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.
