Games: Still Wakes The Deep makes high art from horror with atmospheric, sea-bound survivalist chiller

Still Wakes the Deep (Multi, The Chinese Room)

FROM Dear Esther to Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Brighton-based developer The Chinese Room knows how to spin an atmosphere-soaked yarn, and its latest – an utterly authentic Caledonian claustrophobia simulator - plays out like John Carpenter meets Ken Loach.

Set just before Christmas 1977, Bohemian Rhapsody is topping the charts and electrician Caz McLeary must do his own grim fandango aboard a damaged oil platform off the Scottish coast. When disaster strikes the Beira D, a few greasy gulls is the least of their worries: with a tentacled parasite run amok, it’s up to Caz to save the rig and ensure oil’s well that ends well.

The original pitch was “The Thing set on an oil rig”, and while there are no disembodied heads sprouting spider legs or arms chomped off by fanged bellies, the developers have captured the sweaty paranoia of John Carpenter’s bar-raising horror to an oily tee. A survivalist chamber drama set aboard a North Sea rig, its surly workers face a grotesque evil four years before Thatcher.

As a walking simulator (and I don’t use that term negatively) it’s a fairly on-rails affair, with no combat, bar occasionally chucking objects to distract monsters. But unlike the drilling that ignites its horror, SWTD ain’t boring - even managing to make once-reliable insomnia cure The Shipping Forecast terrifying.

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With much pootling through corridors, vents and ledges, its thrills involve hiding from mutated roughnecks by stuffing yourself into lockers and cupboards before scarpering when the time is right. A ‘look behind you’ button is even introduced during its cat-and-mouse-chases, which is terrifying, if redundant.

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Richly detailed and lavished with ‘70s period detail, visual polish and top-notch performances elevate Still Wakes the Deep to high art. With a terrifying soundtrack by horror maestro Jason Graves and a cast of authentic regional actors (including Tyrone-born Alan Turkington) swearing a blue streak, never has the C-word been uttered so much in a videogame.

Even if you know your bampots from your bairns, a subtitle option ‘translates’ some of the more colloquial banter while, in a gaming first, it’s possible to set the captions to Scots Gaelic.

Fans of the Resident Evil school of horror may find it all a tad simplistic, as aside from the chases and stealth, turning valves and flicking switches is about as interactive as it gets. They’re gloriously rendered valves and switches, but still. It also suffers from aggressive signposting, and with dashes of yellow paint marking objectives, it’s nigh-on impossible to go off-piste.

A return to the mid-2010s heyday of horror-themed walking sims, Still Wakes the Deep’s creature feature boasts a suffocatingly bleak atmosphere and frights by the barrel-load. Much like the Scottish diet, it’s guaranteed to have you soiling yer breeks – if you survive the heart attacks.