Still Wakes the Deep is a narrative-driven horror game where you must escape an otherworldly entity, turning your friends into horrific monsters. Read our spoilerless review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Still Wakes the Deep Review Overview
What is Still Wakes the Deep?
Still Wakes the Deep is a first-person horror narrative story where you must venture through a complex oil rig to survive. You must carefully navigate the twists and turns of the entire structure with whatever means you have, whether you have to break open locks to open up new passageways, balance yourself between thin beams and risk plugging into a watery grave, or swim beneath a maze of sewage pipes to escape a rampaging monster.
Still Wakes the Deep features:
⚫︎ Amazing voice acting
⚫︎ A convincingly creepy setting with the perfect ambiance
⚫︎ A great cast of characters
⚫︎ Deep psychological elements
⚫︎ Impressive writing with a lot of solid scenes
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Still Wakes the Deep's gameplay and story.
 Steam |
 Epic |
 PlayStation |
 Xbox |
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| Price | $34.99 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Still Wakes the Deep Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Immersive Voice Acting Amazing Cast of Characters Effective Abominations Great Atmospheric Horror |
Repetitive Tasks Excessive Hand Holding |
Still Wakes the Deep Overall Score - 86/100
Still Wakes the Deep is a fantastic narrative-driven horror game that mostly only suffers from some repetitive gameplay and its short length. Otherwise, its strong narrative, backed with impressive voice acting, effortlessly takes its players on a wild, dangerous ride through its small world being infested by an otherworldly horror.
Still Wakes the Deep Story - 9/10
The game is hard-carried by its excellent cast of characters that you can easily get invested in due to their chemistry. The writing itself feels very organic, although it could use a bit of worldbuilding. And that's where I think it's story's weak point lies. Still Wakes the Deep's narrative lacks an overlooking view of the events, which is something typically done by environmental worldbuilding and miscellaneous lore material like journals or newspapers.
Still Wakes the Deep Gameplay - 8/10
In terms of overall game design, Still Wakes the Deep's gameplay is perhaps its weakest link. Though it tries to hide its shortcomings through its amazing visuals and dialogue, it's nearly impossible to not notice the repetitiveness of every task. Fortunately, it's an overall minor issue that only becomes apparent late into the game.
Still Wakes the Deep Visuals - 9/10
The game relies heavily on visual and audio elements to create the perfect creepy atmosphere. In terms of visuals, it fills every location with sights of ruin and otherworldly structures, filling you with a sense of both wonder and disgust. It’s extremely effective with its lighting and pace, maximizing the discomfort that comes with staying too long in one location. It does, however, use too many visual hints to lead you around.
Still Wakes the Deep Audio - 10/10
Still Wakes the Deep’s entire audio experience is a near-perfect treat. It fully complements its striking visuals, allowing you to easily envision yourself in the protagonist’s shoes. There is nearly nothing to complain about this aspect of the game save for the strangely prominent sound effects of thrown objects, even when they’re thrown far into an open area.
Still Wakes the Deep Value for Money - 7/10
Outside of the game design, Still Wakes the Deep’s value proposition is pretty questionable. Though you’ll never regret picking up the game, you will feel that it could have provided more to justify its $34.99 asking price. On top of that, its repetitive gameplay hurts its replayability, especially since the game is rather linear in nature.
Still Wakes the Deep Review: Still Keeps Me Awake
Any strong horror should have the appropriate ambiance to go along with it. This all starts from the very beginning, even before any of the scary baddies appear.
Right as you start a new run in Still Wakes the Deep, the game has already started its setup. It kicks things off with a very personal letter from his wife to the protagonist, indicating serious family troubles. This is something dear to the protagonist and will continue to plague him throughout the game.
The opening scene also gives us a general idea of how the protagonist gets along with the other characters. These interactions are very important to the rest of the game, as the contrast becomes more striking once the horrors start.
I love these kinds of setups, particularly for the kind of lovecraftian body horror Still Wakes the Deep has. Without spoiling too much, it influences the impression you’ll have once you encounter the still-conscious horrors that your colleagues have become. Rather strongly, at that.
Those impressions are strengthened by the immensely impressive voice work that has been done for the game. The interactions between them, whether it's through the background chatter at the beginning of the game or the urgent exchanges between the event’s survivors, and even the occasional humor that pierces through their dire situation, really gives life to the otherwise dead (figuratively) oil rig that you’re on.
The misshapen abominations that roam the place are a constant source of danger for you. However, most enemy encounters are quite predictable, which does make the game less tense than it should be. Fortunately, though, the game is rife with the unnerving sounds of people screaming and horrors howling, ensuring that your nerves are always on the edge.
But despite all of the great things going for it, Still Wakes the Deep is quite short. I finished the game in about five hours, but I reckon that most people can finish it in much less time. That, combined with its relatively big asking price of $34.99 makes the game’s value proposition pretty questionable.
There are also bugs and/or glitches left in the game, which is kind of expected for a game that just launched. I’ve personally experienced the game blacking out when you tab into a different window while it’s loading, and enemies sometimes get stuck on the terrain. However amusing the latter is, it still doesn’t hurt the overall experience much.
Still Wakes the Deep is still a great purchase, regardless.
Pros of Still Wakes the Deep
| Things Still Wakes the Deep Got Right |
|---|
|
Immersive Voice Acting Amazing Cast of Characters Effective Abominations Great Atmospheric Horror |
Immersive Voice Acting
The voice talents behind each character can’t be described as anything but excellent. Their performance can easily push you into the shoes of the main protagonist. In fact, it wouldn’t be strange to say that the cast hard-carried the narrative with how well they delivered the right emotions into their deliveries.
After all, great writing isn’t enough for a media as all-encompassing as video games. Every detail counts for the voice work, from the quality of their delivery and the manner in which characters interact to the frequency of background and self-chatter. Still Wakes the Deep manages to hit that sweet spot, making player immersion seem like a breeze to it.
Amazing Cast of Characters
As far as worldbuilding goes, the protagonist’s personal history and enough of the others’ to make it feel natural is the most you’ll get. But that’s more than enough to get invested in the recurring ones. This can be attributed to the game’s great writing, which flows quite naturally with the events that unfold.
Of course, the voice acting is also something to thank for that.
Perhaps the cast’s strongest trait is their endearing personalities, though. While they start out as mere background characters at first, their quirks become more prominent as you spend more time with them. Unlike many other horror games, they can also hold their weight and help the protagonist with their tasks (though off-screen). That makes them even more memorable.
Effective Abominations
A good Lovecraftian horror game can only be complete with either an indiscernible cosmic entity wreaking mental havoc amongst the populace or a set of monsters with incredibly misshapen forms that can’t possibly be explained by common sense. In Still Wakes the Deep’s case, they chose both.
The mental element is done easily enough. The protagonist simply gets tainted vision and massive headaches that affect his entire perception whenever he gets close to something terrible. But for the latter, it’s a much more straightforward experience.
The baddies are just extremely deformed humans that have maintained a semblance of their personalities. That’s extremely effective in Still Wakes the Deep, as the game starts by giving the impression that the protagonist is close to those around him. This influences the narrative greatly, with you consistently despairing at the deaths around you and the unfortunate fates of those that turned. That creates a much better immersive experience.
Great Atmospheric Horror
Still Wakes the Deep’s visuals and audio combine to create an effective ambiance that promotes discomfort and disgust. There’s practically no end to the sights of ruined machinery, fleshy structures, and unfortunate corpses. The entire experience is enhanced by all the groaning music, screaming humans, and howling monsters that you’ll hear throughout the game.
Cons of Still Wakes the Deep
| Things That Still Wakes the Deep Can Improve |
|---|
|
Repetitive Tasks Excessive Hand Holding |
Repetitive Tasks
The entirety of Still Wakes the Deep’s gameplay essentially boils down to a handful of activities, divided roughly between navigating the oil rig and escaping from enemies. The former can still be considered acceptable due to the decent variety of tasks you need to perform, such as breaking locks, operating valves, and the like. However, enemy encounters are generally done the exact same way each time; you hide from enemies, throw items to distract them, and run like hell when they see you.
This isn’t a major caveat in the grand scheme of things. But once you get pretty deep into the game, getting past enemies stops being dire situations where your nerves are stretched thin. Instead, enemies simply become creepy things you can easily get through without much urgency. That, of course, ruins the immersion quite a bit.
Excessive Hand Holding
Although it’s mostly expected from a game with linear progression, the way Still Wakes the Deep tries to guide you through its cavernous corridors can get quite excessive. It’s like the game is yelling "go here, go here" with shocking exuberance before you even start wondering where to go next. In a way, it’s safe to assume that you’ll rarely, if ever, get lost in this game. Ironic, given that it only progresses forward.
Though I wouldn’t consider this a big issue, it does come across as a bit intrusive. It almost feels like the game doesn’t trust you to find things out for yourself, despite how everything can be solved using your hands and a screwdriver.
Is Still Wakes the Deep Worth It?
Kinda Short, But Worth Every Penny
While the game is quite short for a $34.99 title, you won’t regret getting Still Wakes the Deep. It’s a genuinely great title with only a few faults. This is especially true if you’re a big fan of lovecraftian or body horror. Besides, it’s not often you get a good horror game like this that doesn’t rely on jumpscares to get a good fright.
| Steam |
Epic |
PlayStation |
Xbox |
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| Price | $34.99 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Still Wakes the Deep FAQ
What is Still Wakes the Deep’s setting?
Still Wakes the Deep is set in 1975 on an oil rig in the middle of the North Sea.
Is there combat in Still Wakes the Deep?
You’re mostly limited to running away from the baddies and distracting them with throwable objects.
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Still Wakes the Deep Product Information
 | |
| Title | STILL WAKES THE DEEP |
|---|---|
| Release Date | June 18, 2024 |
| Developer | The Chinese Room |
| Publisher | Secret Mode |
| Supported Platforms | PC(Steam, Epic Games Store), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S |
| Genre | Horror, Action |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| Rating | ESRB M 17+ |
| Official Website | Still Wakes the Deep Official Website |
