Still Wakes the Deep

Ah, dammit, here we go again: yet another first person horror walking simulator with a cool title but not much else to give. Such a great name, though -- Still Wakes the Deep. It evokes the same feelings as the names of the couple of Vernor Vinge's novels I've read, that use of 'deep' as a noun. I also love how one can read the title in two ways: the deep waking yet again or the deep waking unmoving. In the game you can find a poem where title seems to have originated from -- unknown if it was written for the game or if it existed before the fact.

Almost needed a wake-up call

In addition to the game's name, Still Wakes the Deep is of interest because the developer, The Chinese Room, is behind Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 that is to be released the coming fall. How are their games; and what could be expected from the sequel to a cult classic.

I don't know how much this game's team is even involved in that project, though. I believe some years ago, The Chinese Room laid off all their people. Obviously they had to have done a lot of hiring since then to be able to put out two games this year. In 2018, The Chinese Room also became a subsidiary to Sumo Digital.

(Slightly off the topic but Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw generally comes off (to me at least) as if he has pretty good general knowledge of things. But every now and then something makes me suspect there are holes in what he knows. Like in his recent review of this game, he jokes about the developer studio's nationality and I'm not sure if it's just a joke for entertainment purposes or if he really wasn't aware of the Chinese room thought experiment. It's mentioned in The Turing Test and as a video game critic one might expect Yahtzee to have played it.)

I've never played the various walking simulators the studio has made (Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Everybody's Gone to Rapture) and based on Still Wakes the Deep, I would say that has been the correct course of action. I'm actually surprised about the very positive reception Still Wakes has gotten. I found the story to be short, shallow, and linear -- it's a nothingburger. The horror isn't scary either and gameplay features are very limited.

Free jumping is a novel thing in a walking simulator though it doesn't do much outside the platforming sections where you can jump to your death. A couple of times you can grab a fire extinguisher to get rid of a fire blocking the way. Doing it the first time unlocks an achievement called Fahrenheit 0451. Why is the 0 there, Chinese Room? What are you trying to say?

The only thing really worth mentioning is the game's voice acting. Still Wakes is set on an oil drilling platform in the North Sea and the whole crew is Scottish. I don't find the accent particularly entertaining, especially in such quantities but that's just me.