Still Wakes the Deep

Still Wakes the Deep was provided by Secret Mode for review. Thank you!

This review used an LCD Steam Deck. OLED details will be coming later.

Still Wakes the Deep is a challenging game to write a review on. Much like The Chinese Room's earlier releases, Still Wakes the Deep is a walking simulator at heart, with a firm reliance on the game's story to drive it. Therefore, I will try my hardest to minimize spoilers in this review while still giving my opinion on the game. But long story short, Still Wakes the Deep is yet another feather in the cap of The Chinese Room's portfolio.

For me, The Chinese Room set their bar high for their games with Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (EGttR). I adored that game, despite my struggling with "horror" games. EGttR bridged the gap between being a little creepy but at the same time being quite beautiful, and the visuals were stunning for the time.

Still Wakes the Deep borrows some pointers from EGttR. It is a visual masterpiece, with a fantastic focus on realism, making screenshots on the highest quality settings fool you into thinking they're real. The voice acting is also another highlight for me, going with Scottish actors instead of the usual British. The voice actors do a good job of bringing their characters to life with their personalities and keeping you immersed in the story and situation, which needless to say, is not a good one.

To briefly touch on the story, as I don't want to spoil it, it's your classic "dug too deep" scenario. Caz, our protagonist, is a worker on a North Sea oil rig, which is managed by a rather ruthless character named Rennick. Upon encountering a "blockage" while drilling for oil, Rennick orders that it be pushed through with the drill, unleashing a rather "otherworldly horror," as the game's developers put it. The rest of the story follows Caz and the oil rig crew attempting to survive and escape before it's too late.

You will also gradually learn parts of Caz's backstory, such as why he is on the oil rig and his family situation, giving you an idea of why Caz has to fight to survive.

While EGttR was a sedate adventure, carrying an eerie vibe, but with no real enemies that could harm you, Still Wakes the Deep features enemies and could best be described as a mix of the Amnesia games and EGttR. While parts of it are very much a walking simulator, a fair bit of the game is firmly grounded in stealth, avoiding enemies, and a bit of psychological horror. Although, I wouldn't say the game is quite as creepy as Amnesia. The enemies are obvious, and if you are seen or an enemy gets close, you are pretty much dead. You can take your hands off the controls and just let it happen, which lowers the tension a little.

Still Wakes the Deep is a masterclass in storytelling through the video game medium. I expected it from The Chinese Room, but the visuals, combined with the voice acting and that little bit of terrifying horror, really help you to be immersed in this world.

The story is a little out there, but I think the way the characters react to the situation helps it feel much more grounded than it perhaps is. There's no wise-cracking, jokes, or 'light-heartedness' to take you out of the situation. Terrible things are happening, and the crew all act like that's the case. The game also airs on the short side. You will likely be done with the game in about 6 hours, even less if you aren't a chicken and just go for it. You can also ask for a hint on the objective at any time, telling you exactly where you need to go, so you won't get confused over where to head next.

While some argue that the game's price is high for just 6 hours of gameplay, I think it's a fair price for a fairly unique experience. There's no recycled content or gameplay here; it's 6 hours of solid story all the way through, and it's worth a look if this is your kind of game.

Still Wakes the Deep - Steam Deck Performance

Still Wakes the Deep has a nice array of settings to mess with and does support modern upscaling techniques such as FSR3, DLSS, and XeSS. Unfortunately, these settings aren't useful on the Steam Deck, as we have to run at an absolute minimum to get a playable experience.

By default, FSR3 frame generation is used, but as the Steam Deck generally runs the game at sub-30, the input lag it introduces is pretty bad, probably not far off 500ms, so I recommend turning it off and just accepting some frame drops from 30 FPS.

However, the controls on the Steam Deck are perfect, and the interface can be scaled to suit your needs.

Recommended Settings - 30 FPS

In your SteamOS settings, set an FPS Limit of 30 FPS and 60/90Hz and remove any TDP limit.

We'll want to reduce all the graphical settings to their minimum for the most playable experience. I keep FSR3 on Performance, as I found Ultra Performance to add an awful amount of noise to the screen that ruins the quality of the image. I also disable Frame Generation to reduce input lag. Lighting Quality has to be on high, as the only choices are High and Epic and Epic uses Ray Tracing, which we don't want to be enabled.

These settings allow portions of the game to run at a smooth 30 FPS with minimal input lag. However, at times, you will see dips as far as the mid-20s. Fortunately, Still Wakes the Deep isn't exactly an "action" game, and these dips shouldn't affect you too much. The game still looks pretty great on these lowest settings on the smaller screen and remains playable.

I did end up giving the game a lower visual rating due to some issues with FSR and how far away this is from the maximum quality, but it still looks quite good on the smaller Deck screen.

As for power draw, it's a pretty mixed bag depending on the area you're in, ranging from 16W-25W, but I would say it airs more on the 20-25W side of things, especially when you're in the outside portions of the game. So don't expect more than 2 hours of battery life from an LCD Steam Deck and 2.5 hours from an OLED Steam Deck.

Temperatures, like the power draw, vary. In quieter sections, expect around 75C, but outdoors, it can go up to 85C. I noticed 90C several times in loading screens, so expect the fan to kick in loud.

Accessibility:

Still Wakes the Deep has quite the suite of accessibility options, you can adjust the size of subtitles, if they have a background to them, and the opacity of said background. You can adjust the interface size by using objective text and markers. Closed Captions are available if you want sound effects to be shown as subtitles. There are colorblind filters, the ability to disable flashing lights, the ability to disable camera shaking, and the option to increase the time before you must react to button prompts.

You can't fault Still Wakes the Deep for being accessible—except for those of us who might be terrified by it!

Conclusion:

Still Wakes the Deep is yet another fantastic story The Chinese Room tells. I had high hopes after Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, and although Still Wakes the Deep is another style of game, it retains great storytelling and visuals that immerse you in the game world.

It's a little on the shorter side, but the game is packed with a great tale, voiced lines, and good world crafting. There's no filler here, and I think it's well worth the price if you're after a solid narrative game with some horror elements.

As for performance on the Steam Deck, it's not the best. Holding 30 FPS is impossible without FSR3 Frame Gen, and that introduces significant input lag. Personally, I didn't mind the occasional drops in frame rate, and the controls work perfectly fine. All-in-all, the game is playable, but you might prefer to play on a more powerful device to enjoy the beautiful visuals more and get the most from this experience.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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