The Chinese language Room stepped into the highlight earlier this yr as the brand new developer of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, however that is not the one venture it has on the go. It is also engaged on a brand new horror recreation known as Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, and at the moment we lastly bought our first have a look at gameplay—and I am joyful to say that it seems to be like all the pieces I hoped, and feared, it could be.
Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is ready aboard an oil rig being battered by a raging storm on the North Sea within the Seventies. The decks are awash, the corridors flooding, and a lot of the crew is lacking and in want of your assist. However that is not your solely downside, and even your largest: The actual downside at hand is “the unknowable horror that is come aboard” amidst the chaos. Because the saying goes, it doesn’t want you effectively.
The Steam web page for Nonetheless Wakes the Deep guarantees “a symphony of motion, trepidation, tender feelings, and awe,” and sure, that is fairly over-the-top. However it’s additionally the kind of factor that The Chinese language Room is thought for. Expensive Esther is a polarizing recreation however I cherished it, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs was extra bizarre than scary but additionally arguably a extra adventurous tackle narrative-based horror due to its refined, light-touch strategy. I did not play Everyone’s Gone to the Rapture, however it made a really optimistic impression too.
This new gameplay trailer bears echoes of The Chinese language Room’s earlier work—linear, bizarre, inscrutable—however it additionally comes off as extra overtly horrific and action-oriented. I am unsure how I really feel about that: Typically talking I am not a fan of working blindly from screaming, slavering monsters who wish to put on me like a swimsuit, however I’m actually curious how The Chinese language Room’s trademark slow-burn storytelling is perhaps punched up with some full-on Frictional-style pants-shitting. As with different horror video games I’ve compelled myself into over time, I’m each reluctant and desperate to play it. Yeah, it is a bizarre feeling.
Nonetheless Wakes the Deep does not have a launch date but however it’s presently anticipated to be out in early 2024, and can be obtainable for PC on Steam.
