Still Wakes the Deep, the promising-looking narrative horror game set on an oil rig, will launch for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 18th June.
This is the much-anticipated next project from British studio The Chinese Room, which previously made Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
Set on a remote Scottish oil rig in the 1970s, Still Wakes the Deep looks to be an atmospheric period horror piece with a dash of the supernatural and plenty of psychological fear elements. You play as a worker on the platform, initially surrounded by a crew – at least, until disaster strikes.
“Vertigo, drowning, claustrophobia, all the classic fears are on an oil rig,” creative director John McCormack listed off to me previously, when I took a deep dive into the inspiration behind the game. “And the distance from land, if communication drops, you’re cut off.” Yep, I’m suitably chilled just re-reading that.
Still Wakes the Deep is designed to be a natural evolution of the studio’s narrative-focused games of old, with an increased focus on gameplay as you attempt to survive aboard the oil rig as its areas shift and its mysteries unfold.
It’s been a good while since the last game from The Chinese Room – four years since the smaller Little Orpheus, and almost a decade since the beloved Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. I visited The Chinese Room late last year to find out what it’s been up to in the meantime.