The Haunted Hoard: Still Wakes the Deep (Xbox Series X)
Cameron McLeary is a man on the run from the law, and in a place like 1970s Scotland, finding an electrician job out on an oil rig likely seemed like the perfect place to lie low and avoid further trouble. Despite being so isolated though, Caz soon feels reality pressing in on him, his job jeopardized and his wife and kids at home likely not able to get by if he does end up in prison for his crimes. Before the long arm of the law can truly pull him back to the mainland though, trouble finds its way to the oil rig, that isolation that was once his way of staying safe now threatening the lives of everyone on the structure.
Still Wakes the Deep is a horror stealth game that starts right as Caz almost has to return home to face the consequences of his criminal activities only for the oil rig to come under attack from some strange unknown entity. After drilling through something they clearly shouldn’t have, the oil rig workers find the Beira rig almost infected with something beyond their understanding. Large ribbons that would look almost beautiful if they weren’t pulsing flesh on closer inspection begin to wind through the rig’s structure, exposure to it causing a range of unusual symptoms. For some, proximity distorts their vision, the first-person game utilizing an interesting effect like melting film to represent how being too near to any of the abnormal entity’s growths impacts Caz. More direct exposure can lead to horrific mutations, Caz coming across many familiar coworkers who have been twisted into unrecognizable lumpy masses with tendrils. One of the most eerie elements of this already effective body horror though is how the mind of the victims seems to struggle to comprehend what has even occurred to the body. While a monstrous creature comes barreling towards you, it is begging you not to leave it or even asking you to explain what is happening. Even when the horrific mutation seems intent on tearing someone to shreds, the person within can’t comprehend it, acting more like someone going into shock after a heavy injury rather than something twisted into a bloodthirsty predator.
The unnerving nature of the mutants you encounter is only made more effective by the early moments of the game. Still Wakes the Deep is patient in rolling out direct depictions of the horrors you’ll need to run from, the game overall not too long but making use of its quiet moments well. There’s a slow build of tension as you see or hear things related to the dangers before witnessing one directly, the mystery building well while the game also makes use of a stress-free entry to sow seeds for later. Caz knows the people on the oil rig well having lived with them for a while, the player getting to see some of that familiarity as he walks about near the start. There is a rather funny touch though involved with how the subtitles are approached, the voice acting happily utilizing Scottish phrases and strong accents but the subtitles try to tidy things up by swapping in more standard words even for terms like “numpty” that aren’t hard to parse. When things go south though, all the victims of this horror from the deep are people he knows by name. Some he doesn’t like, but still seeing them altered or killed still affects him. A few do get a bit more focus so the player can fear for their fates as well, the isolated situation making escape feel like an impossibility and yet Caz and his allies keep trying to find ways to turn things away from a doomed situation.
Periodically, you’ll get little flashbacks of Caz’s life back on the mainland with his wife Suze, the game helping to flesh out his backstory so you know what he did to seek refuge on the rig and what he wants to get back to. A bit unfortunately, Still Wakes the Deep kind of hammers home the same few ideas with these flashbacks without counterbalance. We almost never see the happy side of Caz’s life that would make his desperate devotion to returning to his family feel even more personal, and the game even seems to struggle with its central theme. Caz left to the oil rig in a strange mix of avoiding responsibility and assuming it, heading out there to avoid the law but he needed to since there would be no income to support his family if he was locked up. When the oil rig unearths the unfathomable horror, Caz feels like he all too quickly assumes responsibility and almost never deviates from it. While certainly in a dire situation people will step up and show their true colors, there are moments that feel like they could have allowed us to better view Caz’s warped sense of responsibility and show it grow or develop. He’s too quick to offer aid even at risk to himself here, unquestioning when it comes to putting his life on the line for the hope of helping others. Most of the narrative just feels like you constantly trying to outfox monsters to get around them in different areas of the oil rig rather than having any strong throughline in terms of interesting characters or personal growth.
The almost pure focus on this being an escape plot at least has a lot of locations to play with despite this being an isolated oil rig. The entity infecting the station is able to corrupt most every space, the development team having done in-depth research to turn pretty much every part of it into a place for possible perilous exploration. Living spaces, the open rig platform, deep within the mechanical systems, or even swimming through busted ballast that is meant to keep the facility afloat, you do have an overrepresentation of industrial spaces but they allow for unique sorts of corruption. Living spaces are more cramped, but outside there are moments you’ll have to leap over open churning waters to cross damaged equipment, Still Wakes the Deep making climbing truly perilous. Sometimes you’ll need to line up a jump properly or fall to your doom, or your grip will slip and you need to grab on tight quickly, it never too demanding and the checkpoints aren’t too far back but it is at least true danger rather than just some unopposed navigation. Swimming in particular can demand you try and find a safe way out while an area is flooding, there being some excitement beyond actual confrontations with the warped versions of your fellow rig workers.
The stealth elements arise in Still Wakes the Deep when some monstrous mutant can actively patrol an area. If they get a hold of you it will be an instant death, so you need to find ways around them. While the creatures are conceptually disturbing, a bit too early on you will start to notice Still Wakes the Deep doesn’t really want these segments to be too difficult. There are often small spaces you can crouch down and crawl into where enemies won’t be able to grab you, crouch walking is always quiet enough to avoid attention unless you’re right in their line of sight, and the places where you need to sneak around are littered with objects you can throw as a distraction. Once you know the structure of these segments it becomes pretty easy to grab an object, hurl it as far off as you can, and go through the hidey holes with ease, most of them not even that far apart so you can safely huddle down if the creature comes skulking back until you throw the next object. This structure is repeated a bit too much without meaningful alterations, but there are times instead where it becomes a mad dash to escape a mutant that can be a bit more tense since losing speed or stumbling can actual lead to your demise. Unfortunately, Still Wakes the Deep does struggle a bit with how to mark a section as complete, some creatures who reappear throughout your escape efforts often abruptly dispensed with in a way that didn’t give that last meeting a sense of finality. Since many monsters do have some of their mind still, it makes it even stranger their demises are so quick when there is little room for a possible last exchange between Caz and someone he had a connection to before their corruption.
THE VERDICT: Still Wakes the Deep presents a full-bodied exploration of how its oil rig setting can be used for peril and horror, even emphasizing the inevitable personal connections that grow from such an isolated setting. The monstrous mutants seeming almost unaware of their warped nature builds on that further, the visuals and concepts providing an effective host for this unnerving horror experience. Unfortunately, Caz’s personal stakes feel underexplored as he has to play the protagonist role too squarely and the stealth sections, despite featuring unique environments, fail to stand out much from each other. It’s a short enough tale that it doesn’t wear thin, but it fleshes out aspects unevenly and Still Wakes the Deep feels less cohesive for it.
And so, I give Still Wakes the Deep for Xbox Series X…
An OKAY rating. Still Wakes the Deep definitely gets full use out of the oil rig, truly finding ways for most every part of it to provide some gameplay challenge or set up a bit of horror. It is a well-researched game, its visuals are well-realized, and its unusual organic horror from the depths provides some unique visuals and situations that continue to stoke your curiosity. Those effective elements are what make some of its weak attempts to provide gameplay feel so painful. While your personal connection to a mutant who still recognizes you and doesn’t even realize what their body will do to you feels like it could provide rich encounters, many fall into the same standard and shallow stealth format or are abruptly tied off. Still Wakes the Deep has a keen eye for setting up disturbing and abnormal sights but these don’t fit into the limited mold its gameplay adheres to, but they could have just served as ways to remind you of the danger you’re in if the story had been given more attention. In some ways the escape feels too realistic, Caz stepping up and being an all around helpful guy to anyone who needs it, but that makes the escape feel less personal as a result. We are given so many moments that emphasize his connection to people around the rig and yet his issues with responsibility invert too quickly and without meaningful steps or contemplation. The setup that he’s out on the oil rig was already a bit of a strange mix, Caz willing to attack a man over something paltry and jeopardize his family’s well-being for it and yet he evades the police because he wants to be able to continue supporting them. It could be a very complex mindset to examine, but while the oil rig workers were willing to drill deep despite the risks, the narrative doesn’t seem as willing to explore its potential depths.
Taken as a pure horror experience of escaping an oil rig overwhelmed by an unknowable and corruptive horror, Still Wakes the Deep works aesthetically and provides some interesting scenarios that make good use of the setting. If the stealth sections weren’t so cookie-cutter you could possibly even write off the weaker elements of the plot and just appreciate it as if you were the one trapped in the situation, but it does keep pushing you to look at a plot that could have been more personal and elevated the experience for it. It is sort of a high concept horror experience despite frequently hinting it could lean towards character exploration instead, but even if this was purely an oil rig escape game it needed some better execution to truly bring the ideas presented all the way home.