The term 'walking simulator' is one that can at first glance seem a bit negative, but I enjoy that sub-genre of video games and use the phrase in a positive fashion. Still Wakes the Deep is the latest game from The Chinese Room (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs) and fits into the criteria. It shared a heck of a lot in common with the Amazon Prime TV show The Rig, and also bizarrely gave me Dead Space vibes, if that game had been combat-less and set in the 1970's.
Caz (voiced by Alec Newman - A Plague Tale: Innocence, Dragon Age: Inquisition voice work) is an electrician working on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland in 1975. Wanted for questioning by the police after putting a man in hospital on the mainland, Caz is using the job as a place to hide away, something he has been doing for the past several months. After the stern and mean boss of the rig - Rennick (Clive Russell - Game of Thrones TV show) discovers this, receiving a letter from the police, he summons Caz to his office and fires him, telling the man a chopper is waiting to take him back to the mainland. Before he can board the chopper however disaster strikes on the rig, with the main drill digging into something that causes an explosion that rocks the structure, resulting in Caz plunging into the sea. Swiftly rescued, he discovers that the drill hit some type of ancient organism beneath the waves, a gigantic fleshy plant-like thing which has climbed up the drill and has started to spread out all over the rig. As if that wasn't bad enough, it is soon discovered that anyone who comes into contact with the plant is transformed, mutating into a hideous mound of flesh that use long tentacles to move around, and who, despite their change, still retains aspects of their personalities and memories.
With the rig falling apart and many of the crew dead or mutated, it is up to Caz to not only try and find a way for the survivors to escape, but also fix the many problems that are putting the rig in danger of total collapse.
With the rig falling apart and many of the crew dead or mutated, it is up to Caz to not only try and find a way for the survivors to escape, but also fix the many problems that are putting the rig in danger of total collapse.
Sure, this might fall into walking simulator territory but it is likely the most action packed version of that style of game I have ever played. The game is split between mild platforming challenges, simple puzzles, and stealth sections where the defenceless protagonist has to creep around his mutated crewmates. I had a strangely hard time getting into Still Wakes the Deep. My first attempt had me about an hour into the game, but I was just not enjoying it. It sounds odd, but I put the blame on a bug that meant it was impossible to turn the subtitles off, and I could just not help myself reading those subtitles rather than pay attention to what was happening on screen. When I went to return to it I discovered I couldn't remember anything that had happened, so tried again. Even then, it was a third fresh start (after the subtitle bug had been patched) that I finally got into the game.
Exploring the rig was always entertaining and I liked the transitions between the various areas, each new location having its title appear on screen in a bold font. There was variation between areas, but it is an oil rig so obviously much of the locations are industrial in nature. The accommodation block was the place with the most world-building to it, including the laid back prologue where you can explore and speak to people with no sense of urgency. This was one place that your character kept going back to, over the course of the game it gets more damaged and flooded due to the massive plant growth overtaking the rig, so it was nice to keep seeing a familiar location transforming over the five or six hour game.
With the rig literally falling apart there were lots of fun platforming moments which never felt too over the top. Walkways have collapsed everywhere, so Caz must jump over gaps, climb up and down ladders and use small lifts to traverse the environments. It is around fifty/fifty for interior and exterior locations and seemed a good pacing between the two. I have a huge fear of heights in real life, sometimes that carries over into games also, but sadly here, despite often being up very high, I just never got that feeling of peril. The puzzles are simple and revolve around using your screwdriver to open grates, pushing buttons, and occasionally moving objects. Later in the game when the rig is flooding, these puzzles involve Caz having to traverse under water, I especially liked the parts when the sea suddenly rushes in and you have to figure out a way for him to escape the location.
The other side of the game is the locations where The Thing style mutants are roaming. They had a cool enough design to them and were not used in over abundance or more than one mutant at a time in an area. Stealth was functional, there are plenty of little vents to crawl through and you can throw objects to distract the enemies. Those sections where also were I would typically give up my session for the day, they can cause a bit of repetition thanks to their one hit kills should you be spotted. Unfortunately, I never found these moments scary at all, it was more a breath of relief once they had been dealt with and I could move on with the story. Occasionally you get into a scripted chase sequence, thanks to the option to quickly glance behind you, these few parts were always thrilling to do.
The other side of the game is the locations where The Thing style mutants are roaming. They had a cool enough design to them and were not used in over abundance or more than one mutant at a time in an area. Stealth was functional, there are plenty of little vents to crawl through and you can throw objects to distract the enemies. Those sections where also were I would typically give up my session for the day, they can cause a bit of repetition thanks to their one hit kills should you be spotted. Unfortunately, I never found these moments scary at all, it was more a breath of relief once they had been dealt with and I could move on with the story. Occasionally you get into a scripted chase sequence, thanks to the option to quickly glance behind you, these few parts were always thrilling to do.
Though the plot for The Rig was mostly unexplained, it is even less here, with no explanation for what the thing beneath the waves is. That was perfectly fine, but I do wish there had been something at the very least. Instead, the story is more centred on Caz's past, with flashbacks whenever he is knocked out that have him talking with his wife before leaving for the rig. I thought the voice acting was a highlight of the game, authentic Scottish voice actors were used, with the language coming across as realistic, even dropping the 'c' word a few times.
With the plant thing able to cause hallucinations, this bleeds into the game more as it progresses, but anyone hoping for some late game twist will be disappointed as everything pretty much is as it seems. There are certain notes in the environments you can look at in greater detail, though these are mostly dull safety instructions rather than letters and diary entries. There is a kind of audio diary in the form of ringing telephones Caz can answer. Sometimes the person on the other side of the line will give new instructions for Caz to follow (amusingly the game sees fit to highlight how absurd it is that Caz is the one person having to do everything), sometimes it will be someone who is in the process of being killed, which did feel a little silly due to how many times that is the case. It all leads up to a satisfying conclusion, though one that wasn't surprising.
I liked Still Wakes the Deep but I wouldn't say I loved it. The hours spent with the game were entertaining, but the story had the potential to be more involved than Caz just rushing from one disaster to another, while the large cast meant that many of the deaths in the game didn't affect me, due to getting confused which character was which. It was well designed and certainly well paced and I did like seeing how messed up the rig got over the course of the experience, but when it was all over it kind of faded from my mind. Still Wakes the Deep can currently be played on Xbox GamePass.
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