Still Wakes The Deep Xbox Review

For his or her newest sport, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, builders The Chinese language Room are taking a dip into the sub-genre of horror often known as aquatic horror. Normally, aquatic horror and creature options go hand in hand, however that isn’t all the time the case. Sorry readers, however all these low-budget shark assault horrors don’t rely! For my cash, there aren’t sufficient aquatic horror films, video games, or books. Whether or not it’s on a ship, a submarine, or, as within the case of Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, a drilling rig, the sense of isolation, lack of locations to run, and no assist inside calling vary provides to the horrific thrill of panic and dread that powers these tales.

Nonetheless Wakes The Deep takes all of those themes and plot units, chucks them right into a blender and goes one additional by including the catastrophe film style into the combo. No longer solely are you operating on your life from one thing nasty, however the collapsing setting round you can also be seeking to do you in.

Set on an oil rig on the coast of Scotland, Nonetheless Wakes The Deep transports you again to the 12 months 1975. You’re far-off from the security of land in an inhospitable and uncaring setting the place one mistake might price you, and the boys subsequent to you, dearly. As electrician Caz McLeary, you’ve run to the ocean from the regulation and are simply scraping by on protecting the rig’s electrical techniques operating. Simply if you’re about to be despatched packing, the rig’s drill breaks into one thing unknown and catastrophe ensures. Every part that may go flawed on a rig does however the true nightmare is just starting.

That’s the premise for The Chinese language Room’s cinematic horror journey sport. It will be flawed to name Nonetheless Wakes The Deep a survival horror, though you do must survive, as the sport is extra excited about throwing you into the bowels of a horror film and tasking you with enjoying by means of what’s, primarily, an interactive film.

Now, initially, I believed that Nonetheless Wakes The Deep’s linear gameplay and lack of exploration was a disservice to a implausible setting. And the idea of interactive films nonetheless has a nasty style within the mouths of avid gamers, however as soon as I realised what The Chinese language Room was aiming for, Nonetheless Wakes The Deep blossomed into certainly one of this 12 months’s greatest horror video games.

You see, the builders need you to reside a horror film with this. And a catastrophe film too. And similar to these films, there’s a ticking time bomb propelling you from one set piece to a different. You may’t simply escape. Every part has to interrupt all the way down to kind an deadlock for you. Must get to that lifeboat? Positive however it’s a must to swim by means of oil, however earlier than you are able to do that it’s a must to shut the ability down or danger turning into a crispy critter.

After which there’s the horror film side, as mates and foe begin to mutate round you, dying horrible deaths or turning into unrecognisable issues seeking to tear you limb from limb. From the heights of the oil rig to its water-logged depths, it’s a must to clear up the rig’s issues whereas operating and hiding from what your pals have turn out to be.

Pitched as “The Factor on an oil rig”, Nonetheless Wakes The Deep influences are plainly seen. The Factor, Leviathan and an entire host of gloopy, gory 80’s physique horror films permeate the sport together with motion and catastrophe flicks similar to The Poseidon Journey. It’s an incredible hodgepodge that works splendidly with the sport’s character-centric narrative. There’s a good quantity of psychological drama at play right here, blended in with a vaguely Lovecraftian, cosmic horror aesthetic that retains a definitive rationalization as to the organism invading the rig wrapped in thriller. It’s a story transfer that I admire because it retains the thriller intriguing.

The sport performs out from a first-person viewpoint. You may run, leap, crawl, climb and work together with particular objects. There isn’t any fight within the sport with enemy encounters counting on stealth, hiding and pace to keep away from dying. There’s additionally little or no in the way in which of exploration with the paths it’s essential to comply with clearly highlighted for you. A lot has been stated about signposting interactable elements of the setting in yellow not too long ago, however right here it really works because of the nature of the setting. Yellow railings, lockers and vent covers match completely in with the setting’s industrial design, turning into as a lot part of the setting as pink gantries or flickering work consoles.

As such, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is a really linear affair that depends on its cinematic design and character work to maintain you engaged. The builders have used their earlier expertise to craft a tense, pulse-pounding affair steeped in dread.

Whereas the precise story beats will not be shocking, the character work is well-written and acted. The sport sports activities some implausible voice appearing from Scottish actors that retains character curiosity alive.

Nonetheless Wakes The Deep can also be a really stunning sport that includes some beautiful, realistic-looking visuals within the setting design, implausible lighting and completely beautiful reflections. The rig and climate are characters themselves, with splashing waves and fog-filled visuals paving the way in which. The sport will not be utilizing RT reflections, however the high-quality SSR on water and oil are breathtaking to behold.

The nice visuals and set design do come at a value within the extra expansive views although, as I might see some body drops within the outside areas, particularly later within the sport when the mixture of fog, flame and out-of-this-world lighting mix to create an eerie, alien panorama. There are solely three visible choices accessible on the console: Movement Blur, Movie Grain and Chromatic Aberration.

Movement Blur is the very first thing I disable in any sport and switching off Chromatic Aberration helped to clean out the frame-rate in these sections a bit. Disabling the Movie Grain might have helped as nicely to disable the post-processing load however I preferred the environment it lent to the sport.

Nonetheless Wakes The Deep will not be the expansive survival horror title I hoped for, however I really feel that the builders have achieved what they got down to do by dropping you right into a horror film. As such, not solely have they created a gnarly physique horror title, but additionally certainly one of this 12 months’s tensest and most atmospheric horror video games.