The Chinese Room
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
There is a genre of video games known, in slightly derogatory fashion, as 鈥渨alking simulators鈥�. The label has its roots in the combat-heavy nature of most video games, where pushing a button to pull a trigger provides the bulk of player engagement. As a reaction to this norm, walking simulators put the guns away and simply ask players to explore a space, perhaps with some light puzzle-solving, but mostly to piece together a story or experience from the environment.
Developer The Chinese Room is possibly the leading creator of walking simulators, with critically acclaimed hits including and , but 鈥� and I may have to whisper this bit, lest hordes of angry gamers descend on me 鈥� I found them both incredibly dull. Despite this, I was keen to give their latest title, Still Wakes the Deep, a go 鈥� mostly because of its setting: a 1970s North Sea oil rig beset by an eldritch horror.
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This game immediately establishes its period visually, with a tatty industrial look and posters from the National Front (a fascist political party in the UK), and through sound, from the crashing noise of the ocean to naturalistic Scottish dialogue that could have been ripped from an Ian Rankin novel. In fact, the game is so committed that it offers a choice of subtitle options 鈥� one that renders the dialogue as spoken, and another 鈥渢ranslating鈥� it into more traditional English.
The first half hour or so is The Chinese Room in full walking simulator mode: ground the characters before the tentacles come out. You play as Caz McCleary, a Glaswegian electrician on the Beira D oil rig, and you are quickly introduced to a cast of characters ranging from a union-hating overseer to a kindly chef.
Just as I felt I was getting a handle on everyone, an explosion kicks off the plot. It is clear the drill has hit something bad, and both the rig and its occupants start to come apart at the seams. People are transformed into strange, twisted monsters but seem to remember who they are, calling out to Caz as they chase you.
With no ability to fight back, the game boils down to getting from A to B without being eaten. This involves a basic traversal of the crumbling rig, along a path so linear it may as well be on rails, and even more basic puzzle-solving. I must have turned the same wheels or pulled the same levers a dozen times. Adding to the repetitiveness, each time you fix part of the rig trying to get out alive, a character will come on the radio and reveal the next thing that needs repairing. I suppose it fits Caz鈥檚 character well, but I soon felt I was ticking off a list of chores.
This wasn鈥檛 helped by Still Wakes the Deep鈥榮 monsters being, well, a bit silly. Although the game is full of horror tropes, from ambiguous moans to flickering flashlights, I never felt scared. I ended up glad for the run button, not to escape the monsters, but to get to the next section faster.
It is ironic that the last thing I saw after completing the game was a 鈥淲alking Simulator鈥� achievement 鈥� apparently given for having run for under 10 minutes during the game. This might be a bug, because I know I spent much longer holding down the run button, but it made me think I would have preferred to have spent more time in the game鈥檚 first 30 minutes, absorbing its unique atmosphere. Maybe there鈥檚 something to this walking simulator idea after all.
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Still Wakes the Deep takes inspiration from 叠颈辞厂丑辞肠办鈥�s underwater city of Rapture, one of the best and creepiest environments in gaming.
Jacob Aron is 快猫短视频鈥檚聽news editor. Follow him on聽X聽@jjaron
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