Info about Still Wakes the Deep:

Official game description:
**STILL WAKES THE DEEP** is a return to the first-person narrative horror genre for The Chinese Room, creator of critically acclaimed games such as **Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture,** and **Dear Esther**.
You are an offshore oil rig worker, fighting for your life through a vicious storm, perilous surroundings, and the dark, freezing North Sea waters. All lines of communication have been severed. All exits are gone. All that remains is to face the unknowable horror that’s come aboard.
GAME FEATURES
-------------
*   Explore a stunningly realised offshore oil rig in 1970’s Scotland that evolves throughout the story
*   World-class visuals, audio, writing from award-winning studio The Chinese Room
*   Star-studded cast of voice-actors: Alec Newman, Neve McIntosh, and more
*   World-class, haunting soundtrack by Jason Graves
*   Six hours of terrifying gameplay
*   Brace yourself for a symphony of action, trepidation and awe
LIVE THE HORROR
---------------
*   An immersive disaster story aboard an authentic North Sea oil rig
*   Face a terrifying, unrelenting foe
*   Pray that, one day, you get to see your family again
*   Experience the beauty and ferocity of the sea, as it rips apart one of humanity’s strongest structures and its steadfast crew
ESCAPE THE RIG
--------------
*   Avoid, distract, and sneak around in best attempts to survive
*   No weapons. No powers. Just your wits and determination
*   Run, climb, and swim through the flooding corridors and storm-lashed outer decks
*   Struggle for survival, as one wrong step could be your last

Release date: 18 Jun, 2024

Categories: First-Person Perspective, Narrative Adventure, Survival Horror, Stealth Gameplay, Walking Simulator, Linear Progression, Atmospheric Horror, Puzzle Solving


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Stunning audio-visual presentation (weight 0.97): 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 (weight 0.55): 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 (weight 0.48): 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 (weight 0.38): 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 (weight 0.28): 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.
- Engaging story, relatable characters (weight 0.26): The game features a well-written and engaging story with relatable characters, creating an emotional connection with the player. The narrative focuses on themes of survival, loss, and human connection in the face of overwhelming horror. The story is often praised for its pacing, emotional impact, and satisfying conclusion.
- Exceptional sound design (weight 0.16): The game's sound design is exceptional, creating a chilling and immersive atmosphere. Realistic ambient noises, unsettling creature sounds, and effective use of silence contribute to a sense of dread and tension. The sound design is a standout feature that enhances the overall horror experience.
- Detailed animations and interactions (weight 0.05): The game features detailed animations, realistic environments, and immersive interactions, enhancing the overall experience. The attention to detail in the game's world and characters contributes to a sense of realism and engagement. The game also includes action sequences and hiding mechanics, adding variety to the gameplay.

Common complaints:
- Short, linear, overpriced, unpolished (weight 0.83): 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 (weight 0.7): 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 (weight 0.63): 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 (weight 0.63): 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 (weight 0.6): 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.
- Technical issues, clunky controls (weight 0.3): Many reviewers reported technical issues, including poor optimization, frequent crashes, stuttering, and graphical glitches. The controls are often described as clunky and unresponsive, making movement and platforming frustrating. These issues significantly detract from the overall experience and, in some cases, render the game unplayable.
- Difficult to understand dialogue (weight 0.08): Some reviewers found the Scottish dialect difficult to understand, even with subtitles. The subtitles themselves sometimes had discrepancies with the spoken dialogue. This made it difficult to follow the story and connect with the characters.
- Repetitive chase sequences, pacing (weight 0.05): Chase sequences become repetitive and less tense as the game progresses. Some reviewers felt the game was too short, while others felt it dragged on towards the end, indicating pacing issues.
- Frustrating swimming sections (weight 0.04): Many reviewers found the swimming sections to be frustrating due to slow movement, unclear direction, and buggy controls. These sections often felt unnecessary and detracted from the overall experience.
- Triggers phobias, stressful experience (weight 0.03): The game evokes strong negative emotions and phobias, such as submechanophobia, hydrophobia, and claustrophobia. Some reviewers experienced motion sickness and found the game to be overwhelming and stressful.
- General complaints, refund requests (weight 0.02): This cluster contains emotional language without specific details and complaints about the price. It also contains a cultural reference and doubt about the game's quality due to its use of Unreal Engine. This point shows signs of review bombing.

Gameplay feedback:
- Linear horror walking simulator (weight 0.5): 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 (weight 0.32): 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 (weight 0.29): 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 (weight 0.26): 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 (weight 0.25): 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.
- Survival over combat focus (weight 0.02): The game focuses on survival rather than combat, emphasizing the protagonist's vulnerability. Players must rely on strategy and resourcefulness to overcome challenges. The absence of weapons increases the feeling of vulnerability.
- Tension and emotional narrative (weight 0.01): The game thrives on tension and anticipation, with a character-driven story that focuses on human emotion. The plot is linear and emotionally driven, focusing on personal relationships. The game is short, which complements the tense atmosphere.
- Yellow paint guides player (weight 0.01): The correct path is marked with yellow paint on ladders, beams, pipes, barrels, and rags. This makes the oil platform's layout easy to navigate. The game uses subtle yellow markers to indicate climbable ledges, providing assistance without feeling patronizing.

Performance notes:
- Inconsistent, often poor performance (weight 0.23): 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 (weight 0.17): 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 (weight 0.13): 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 (weight 0.02): 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 (weight 0.01): 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.
- FSR 3 causing crashes (weight 0.01): Several reviewers have reported that using AMD FSR 3 can cause crashes, particularly during transitions between areas. Disabling FSR3 may resolve these crashing issues, but the effectiveness is inconsistent.
- Vsync malfunction (weight 0.01): Vsync does not appear to function correctly, failing to cap the FPS to the monitor's refresh rate. This can lead to screen tearing or other visual artifacts.

Recommendations:
- Purchase on sale recommended (weight 0.56): 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 (weight 0.46): 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 (weight 0.25): 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 (weight 0.24): 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 (weight 0.06): 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.
- Desire for sequel/more content (weight 0.03): Many reviewers express interest in future projects from the developers, particularly sequels or expansions that explore the game's universe and lore further. Some reviewers hope the developers continue creating games in a similar style and atmosphere.
- Good for single playthrough (weight 0.03): Several reviewers mention that the game is suitable for a single playthrough due to its short length and limited replayability. Some suggest it can be completed in one or two gaming sessions. This may deter players looking for long-term engagement.
- Hyperbolic praise (weight 0.02): Some reviewers use hyperbolic language to describe the game, calling it a masterpiece, game of the year, or an absolute classic. These points lack specific details and constructive feedback, so they are given a low importance score.

Other player notes:
- Focus on protagonist Caz's story (weight 0.03): 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 (weight 0.02): 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 (weight 0.01): 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.

Emotions:
No emotions}