Still Wakes the Deep Review Summary

Stunning audio-visual presentation: The game excels in its audio-visual presentation, creating a captivating and immersive experience. Reviewers consistently praise the stunning graphics, detailed environments, excellent voice acting, and impactful sound design. The combination of these elements contributes to a strong sense of atmosphere, drawing players into the game's world.

Immersive, terrifying atmosphere: The game creates a tense, oppressive, and often terrifying atmosphere, drawing comparisons to titles like *SOMA* and films like *The Thing*. This is achieved through detailed environments, unsettling sound design, and a focus on psychological horror rather than relying on jump scares. The game evokes feelings of dread, isolation, and vulnerability, immersing the player in a world of constant unease.

Effective monster design and horror: The game features well-designed and often disturbing monsters, drawing inspiration from classic horror films like *The Thing*. The creature designs contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere of dread and tension. The game also balances horror elements effectively, avoiding over-reliance on jump scares and providing varied gameplay experiences.

Unique, detailed oil rig setting: The game is set on a detailed and realistic oil rig in the North Sea, creating a unique and compelling environment for the story. The setting is praised for its immersive atmosphere, attention to detail, and effective use of claustrophobia and isolation. The oil rig setting is a key element that sets the game apart and enhances the overall experience.

Authentic Scottish voice acting: The game features excellent voice acting, particularly highlighting the authentic Scottish accents and dialogue. This adds a unique charm and realism to the characters and setting, enhancing the overall immersive experience. The accurate representation of Scottish culture and language is a major draw for many reviewers.

Short, linear, overpriced, unpolished: Many reviewers found the game to be short, linear, and lacking in replay value, making it not worth the full price. The story and characters are underdeveloped due to the short playtime, and the ending feels rushed and unsatisfying. Some reviewers also experienced performance issues and bugs.

Underdeveloped story, characters: The story and characters are underdeveloped, making it difficult to connect with them or care about their fates. The plot is often described as generic, predictable, and lacking depth, with an unsatisfying ending that leaves many questions unanswered. The game fails to create a compelling narrative or explore its themes effectively.

Uninspired monsters, poor AI: The monster designs are uninspired and the AI is poor, making encounters predictable and easily avoidable. The monsters often behave illogically, failing to create a sense of danger or tension. This diminishes the horror experience and makes the monsters feel more like a nuisance than a threat.

Repetitive tasks, linear design: The game features repetitive gameplay mechanics, such as turning valves, pulling levers, and crawling through vents, within a linear and restricted environment. The game relies heavily on visual cues like yellow paint and button prompts, removing any challenge or sense of exploration. This leads to a monotonous and unengaging experience.

Weak horror, uninspired story: The game fails as a horror experience due to weak enemy AI, predictable jump scares, and a lack of genuine tension. Many reviewers found the game easy and boring, with limited player agency and repetitive gameplay mechanics. The story is uninspired and fails to deliver a compelling narrative or logical explanation for the monsters.

Linear horror walking simulator: The game is primarily a linear "walking simulator" with horror elements. Core gameplay involves exploration, simple puzzles, stealth/chase sequences, and limited combat, emphasizing narrative and atmosphere over complex mechanics. Many reviewers compare it to games like Amnesia, Outlast, and Alien Isolation.

Stealth and distraction mechanics: Players must evade monsters using stealth and distractions, as there are no weapons. This involves hiding, throwing objects to create diversions, and utilizing the environment to avoid detection. Stealth sections are relatively easy, especially in story mode.

Simple puzzles and interactions: The game features simple puzzles and interactions, such as flipping switches, turning valves, and unscrewing grates. These tasks are often repetitive and serve to progress the story rather than challenge the player. The protagonist is an electrician, which contextualizes these actions.

Simple and easy gameplay: The game is designed to be easy to understand and play, even on normal difficulty. Quick-time events are fairly timed and not frustrating, and navigation is straightforward. The gameplay is simple, focusing on the story.

Punishing stealth with checkpoints: The game features stealth sections where players can fail and die, but checkpoints are frequent. Enemy encounters are more about navigating the environment than traditional stealth. There are opportunities to escape tricky situations, but death is still possible.

Inconsistent, often poor performance: The game's performance is inconsistent and frequently poor, even on high-end hardware. Many players report experiencing frame rate drops, stuttering, crashes, and freezes, regardless of graphics settings. Optimization issues are a recurring concern, with some attributing the problems to the game's use of Unreal Engine 5.

Smooth performance reported by some: Some reviewers report that the game runs smoothly and looks great, even on mid-range systems. They praise the graphics and optimization, noting the absence of significant bugs or performance issues. This contrasts sharply with other reports of poor performance, suggesting variability based on hardware or game settings.

Confusing/unclear graphics settings: The game offers a variety of graphics settings, but some are confusing or have a limited impact on performance. Some settings may be poorly labeled or have unclear effects, making it difficult for players to optimize the game for their systems. Adjusting shadow and geometry settings can improve performance.

Upscaling/anti-aliasing visual issues: Some reviewers have noted the presence of upscaling artifacts, video noise, and ghosting effects, even when using DLSS or DLAA. Temporal Anti-Aliasing (TAA) is reported to cause blurring and ghosting, negatively impacting visual clarity.

Inconsistent Steam Deck experience: The game's performance and visual quality on the Steam Deck are inconsistent. Some report playable frame rates with FSR enabled, while others find the game unplayable due to blurriness or poor performance, even on lower settings.

Purchase on sale recommended: Many reviewers suggest purchasing the game only on sale due to its short length, technical issues, or lack of replay value relative to its full price. Some recommend waiting for significant discounts or trying it through services like Game Pass. This point is very common.

Walking simulator with horror: Some reviewers describe the game as a walking simulator with horror elements, emphasizing its linearity and limited gameplay mechanics. While some find it enjoyable as an interactive movie or cinematic experience, others may find it mediocre or lacking depth. Some reviewers suggest adjusting expectations.

Great for horror genre fans: Reviewers recommend the game to fans of horror, especially those who enjoy atmospheric, psychological, or story-driven experiences. Some suggest playing with headphones in a dark room for deeper immersion. The game is often compared favorably to titles like Dead Space, SOMA, and Amnesia.

Excellent, worth the price: Many reviewers express strong positive sentiments, praising the game as excellent, worth the price, and a must-play. They highlight its overall quality and express hope for future content from the developers. Some reviewers give the game perfect scores.

Appeals to specific horror fans: The game is frequently recommended for fans of specific horror subgenres and media, including Lovecraftian horror, body horror, cosmic horror, and works like 'The Thing', 'Alien', and SOMA. Reviewers highlight the game's ability to capture the atmosphere and themes of these influences.

Focus on protagonist Caz's story: The game centers around Cameron "Caz" McLeary, an electrician on the Beira D oil platform, and his personal story, including a tragic love story. The narrative emphasizes his ordinary background and the challenges he faces in extraordinary circumstances.

Mature language, unfiltered dialogue: The game contains mature language and unfiltered dialogue, reflecting the tough environment of the oil rig setting. The frequent swearing is a notable characteristic of the game's dialogue.

Triggers thalassophobia and vertigo: The game may trigger thalassophobia (fear of the sea) and vertigo due to its setting and scenarios. Players sensitive to these conditions should be aware of this aspect.