Publisher Secret Mode and developer The Chinese Room have shown off a snippet of their psychological horror Still Wakes The Deep, set on an oil rig that becomes distorted by paranormal forces.
The footage, which was presented in the Xbox Partner Preview event last night (October 25), was split into two scenes. The first had protagonist Caz McLeary trying to climb across the exterior of the rig, and then the second saw them try to avoid something that is stalking them in a flooded room. Check it out below:
Story details for Still Wakes The Deep are light on the ground, however, the footage revealed that there is some sort of iridescent structure splitting straight through the base of the rig.
It seems to be travelling upwards out of a pipeline, suggesting that it’s emerged out of the sea. Later on, the player is evading something else in the same room that is wailing in rage.
They shimmy through gaps and crawl through the water in the flooded room, eventually being forced underwater to get to the trapdoor to safety.
The section is very reminiscent of the tension in Amnesia: The Dark Descent where a water demon hunts the protagonist in a flooded room as they try not to fall in while jumping from box to box.
Fortunately, in this game, players will have a torch rather than a lantern to illuminate darkness, along with the ability to sprint to put distance between themselves and a threat.
Though Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture are potentially the most famous games from the developer, the team has a history of horror games.
Korsakovia is a mod for Half-Life 2 that pits the player against the character’s own psyche while trying to define what is real and what is not in a psychiatric hospital.
The Chinese Room worked with Frictional Games on Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs in 2013, adding a new cast of characters and storyline to the series at the turn of the 20th century.
As well as Still Wakes The Deep, the studio’s other present project is Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, which was originally in the hands of Hardsuit Labs.
Still Wakes The Deep comes to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S in early 2024. It will also be added to Xbox Game Pass.
In other gaming news, Starfield‘s first community patch has been developed by fans for fans, and promised that it will never charge players.