There’s one thing particular a few really remoted horror setting. The Nostromo in Alien, Outpost 31 in The Factor, and the USG Ishimura in Lifeless House. Effectively, you’ll be able to add the Beira D to the listing as Nonetheless Wakes the Deep crafts up a contorted setting, dripped in sea water, oil, and blood. Switching out the quaint English countryside for an oil rig off the coast of Scotland, The Chinese language Room has produced a taught, tense and continuously terrifying horror expertise that isn’t to be missed.
The Chinese language Room has all the time been a grasp of the mundane – and we imply that as a praise. 2015’s All people’s Gone to the Rapture expertly captured a wonderfully regular village and doused it with a little bit of the ethereal surreal. That very same deft contact is utilized right here in Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, a linear horror expertise that’s way more targeted, and all of the extra entertaining for it.
It’s Christmas, 1975, and Caz McCleary is making an attempt to get off the Beira D. There’s some mild narrative thriller as to why Caz is aboard the rig and why he’s making an attempt to depart it, however earlier than he can bounce aboard a helicopter to security, one thing occurs. There’s quite a lot of thriller and uncertainty splashing everywhere in the premise of Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, and since this can be a fairly brief expertise – about 5 hours in size – we advocate moving into as blind as attainable. There will probably be no main spoilers right here although.
The very first thing that’ll strike you in Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is the way it captures its setting with pin-point accuracy, by way of each close to immaculate photoreal presentation and its extremely genuine voice work. As you begin the sport, you’ll have an opportunity to discover the small cabin rooms of your co-workers, and right here we get a snapshot into the time interval and the characters, in probably the most naturalistic kind of means. From the posters on the wall, to the ruffled mattress sheets, you’ll be able to instantly sense the lived-in nature of the Beira D, and you may virtually scent the mustiness of its tartan carpets, and the pang of the salty air by way of its each hallway. Truthfully, we’d love a horror-less model of this rig in order that we will simply discover at our personal ease, taking in each element. The Chinese language Room has sunk quite a lot of time into making certain the Beria D is plausible.
It really works hand-in-hand with the horror, too. Nonetheless Wakes the Deep has a gnarly factor or two to point out you throughout its runtime, however quite a lot of the horror is in what you hear and what you assume is forward of you. Delving deeper into the Beira D is a frightening job earlier than you embrace all of the scary issues that go bump within the evening. The rig has an oppressive sense of claustrophobia to it that’ll hold you on edge earlier than the primary drop of blood is spilled.
You’ll discover too how unapologetically Scottish the sport is, with its real and pure sounding accents, not usually featured in video games. With a number of the staff right here at Push Sq. hailing from the bonnie lands – and even close by town a number of the primary characters come from – it is thrilling to listen to pure Scottish dialect with out it ever being hammed as much as Braveheart ranges like is often the case. It’s a superb contact of authenticity that goes an extended strategy to promoting the setting.
When Nonetheless Wakes the Deep begins to lean into the bizarre, it’s right here chances are you’ll be shocked by how arduous The Chinese language Room is channelling pure horror. It’s crammed to the brim with nail-biting sequences, pulpy physique horror, and audio design that would do quite a lot of the heavy lifting by itself if it wanted to. Our thoughts instantly goes to these horror film classics we talked about as we inch our means by way of the hallways of the Beira D, not simply by way of the aesthetics of the sport, but additionally the pacing of which The Chinese language Room doles out its scares. It’s right here although that we suspect there will probably be a break up for gamers.
The Chinese language Room’s earlier video games have usually been derogatively labelled “strolling simulators”, and in quite a lot of methods this might additionally apply to Nonetheless Wakes the Deep. Granted issues are a little bit extra concerned over what you’d discover in Expensive Esther, for instance, as you’ll be climbing up partitions, shimmying alongside ledges, and even making a bounce or two. Nonetheless, this can be a strictly linear expertise, with copious quantities of yellow paint clearly labelling the place you ought to be going at most factors within the recreation – there’s even an replace coming down the road to cut back the yellow paint. The gameplay by no means supersedes the give attention to story and setting then, however we’d argue that we’d slightly The Chinese language Room focuses on what it does finest, slightly than forcing in tedious gameplay mechanics.
That being mentioned, stealth sections are the weakest a part of the sport, as after a few comparable encounters, the restricted margins for error develop into overtly obvious, and the horror loses a few of its sting. It’s fairly powerful to die in Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, so in the event you assume too arduous about it, you’ll begin to see the rails main you ahead. Nonetheless, it’s by no means boring, and while stealth will be trite mechanically, narratively there may be all the time one thing to be fearful of. That is additionally the place the visible and immersive options come into play.
For one, the sound design is spectacular. Whether or not it’s the creaking hull of the Beira D, the fixed flickering of rain, and even the haunting screams from afar, there is a palpable sense of place and hazard at each flip. Even the soundtrack masterfully balances when to remain quiet and when to return in with its eerie sense of dread. This actually is a type of video games you ought to be enjoying with headphones.
There are additionally a choice of gameplay settings to personalise your expertise, similar to controller adjustments, audio customisation, spectacular haptic implementation, and a top quality and efficiency mode possibility. We opted for the smoother body fee over greater decision, however Nonetheless Wakes the Deep continues to be a implausible wanting recreation. It additionally runs effectively for probably the most half, with the odd stutter in framerate between cutscene and gameplay being the one kink in our expertise. Disappointingly, although, the sport does embrace cut-to-black loading screens between every space, which whereas transient due to the PS5, do chip away at immersion.
Fortunately, you may neglect about most of those technical hitches as you are ushered into the subsequent set piece. As we have alluded to, gameplay is not fairly as participating as one thing like Alien Isolation, however mixed with its visuals and audio, it nonetheless does loads to maintain you on the sting of your seat. Chases and a few underwater sequences are extremely efficient, and there are a good few moments that’ll have you ever squeezing that DualSense as the sport tightens its grip round you.
It has that traditional horror recreation sense of “oh please don’t make me go down there” too, which is the precise factor we love within the horror style. Whether or not it’s the oil-filled bowels of the rig, or the course of some haunting howls and hulking thumps, The Chinese language Room by no means fairly lets go as soon as stress begins ramping up, and it all the time retains issues recent visually because the Beira D morphs round you — once more mixing the mundane with the surreal.
Conclusion
Nonetheless Wakes The Deep could not stick round for lengthy, but it surely’ll have an iron-clad grip on you throughout its runtime. There’s clear inspiration right here from horror film classics similar to Alien and The Factor, and we adored seeing these inspirations play out by way of its highly-detailed settings and salt-of-the-Earth forged of characters. It will not be probably the most participating gameplay expertise on the PS5, however The Chinese language Room neatly lays a strong basis within the Beira D and its gaggle of workers, that’ll hold its viscerally targeted horror in your thoughts lengthy after the credit roll.
