Still Wakes the Deep is a 2024 psychological horror video game developed by The Chinese Room and published by Secret Mode. The story follows an electrician named Cameron "Caz" McLeary (Alec Newman), who is trapped on a damaged oil drilling platform in the North Sea in the 1970s, having no way to escape while being pursued by mysterious monsters under harsh weather conditions. Played from a first-person perspective, the game does not feature any combat system, and players must rely on stealth and solving simple puzzles to survive. As the player continues the story, the oil rig will gradually evolve and change, though the game itself is largely linear.
Studio co-founder Dan Pinchbeck first pitched Still Wakes the Deep as "The Thing set on an oil rig", and served as the game's director until his departure in mid-2023. The studio, which previously released Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (2013) and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015), announced Still Wakes the Deep as its return to story-driven horror games. While the game features a supernatural entity, the ocean was described as the game's secondary enemy, and the team felt that the setting would evoke a variety of fears, such as vertigo, drowning, and claustrophobia. The Poseidon Adventure and Annihilation both served as inspirations for the team. The team interviewed engineers who used to work on an oil rig, and viewed BP's documentary archives to ensure that the oil rig presented in the game was authentic and period-accurate. Scottish actors were also recruited, with Alec Newman voicing the game's protagonist.
Announced in June 2023, the game was released for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and Series S in June 2024. The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the game's story, atmosphere, graphics, sound design, and voice performances, while criticizing its gameplay, linear structure, and overall length. Still Wakes the Deep received two nominations at the 28th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards, and eight nominations at the 21st British Academy Games Awards, winning three. An expansion for the game, titled Siren's Rest, was released on 18 June 2025.
Gameplay
Still Wakes the Deep is a psychological horror video game played from a first-person perspective. The game is set in December 1975, on an oil rig named Beira D in the North Sea. Player assumes control of a Glaswegian electrician named Cameron "Caz" McLeary, who must navigate through the oil rig following a catastrophic event, looking for a way to escape while surviving the harsh weather and evading the pursuit of creatures. Caz can run, jump, and climb ladders, though Caz may tremor when navigating through the rig's hostile environments, causing him to fall if the player does not respond in time to quick-time events. Caz is equipped with a flashlight, which can be used to illuminate otherwise dimly lit areas.
The game has no head-up display. If the monster is in close proximity to the player, colored floaters will appear in Caz's peripheral vision. The game does not have a combat system, and players have to rely on stealth (such as hiding behind objects and inside vents or throwing objects to distract enemies) and solving environmental puzzles to survive and progress. When the player is being chased by the monster, they have the option to quickly look behind while running forward. Still Wakes the Deep is a linear game, and the development team uses yellow paint on various surfaces to direct players towards their objectives. Players have to visit several locations multiple times throughout the game's campaign, though the environment will gradually change as events in the game unfold. The game also has a story mode, allowing players to play the game on a lower difficulty.
Plot
On Boxing Day 1975, Cameron "Caz" McLeary (Alec Newman), an electrician for the "Beira D" oil rig in the North Sea, is fired by his bad-tempered boss Davy Rennick (Clive Russell), who discovered Caz is wanted by the Strathclyde Police for a violent altercation and evading arrest. Before Caz can board a helicopter bound for the mainland, a catastrophic drilling failure rocks the facility, knocking him and several men into the sea. Only Caz is rescued and, after coming to, discovers the rig is being overtaken by mysterious blood vessel-like tendrils that were brought up on the drill and contaminated the oil, which mutated numerous workers into bloodthirsty monsters. Evading them, Caz locates his diabetic best friend: the Beira D's cook, Roy (Shaun Dooley), who has taken refuge in the kitchen. Caz then leaves to secure the lifeboats, only to lose them to poor construction.
Rennick orders an evacuation by helicopter, but he leaves without waiting for the others. However, the helicopter crashes into the rig shortly after takeoff. With the tendrils damaging the Beira D further, Caz helps his coworkers Brodie (Michael Abubakar) and Finlay (Karen Dunbar) stop it from capsizing. All the while, the trio are hunted by the monsters, whose presence causes them to hallucinate seeing and hearing their families. After preventing a gas explosion when the flare tower fails, Caz attempts to rescue Roy, but finds him dead from diabetic ketoacidosis. After Brodie sacrifices himself to float the rig, a despondent Finlay snaps and attempts to blow up the platform using a lighter that Caz had given her, but is crushed by falling machinery. Before dying, Finlay convinces Caz to do it to prevent the infestation from spreading to the mainland. Caz agrees and, in his last moments, relives memories of meeting his wife Suze (Neve McIntosh) and the birth of their children.
Back in Scotland, Suze, who previously sent Caz a letter hinting at divorce, writes a new letter to him; resolving to persevere in their marriage and wishing for him and Roy to come home.
Siren's Rest On 14 May 1986, eleven years after the Beira D was destroyed, saturation divers Mhairi and Rob are sent on an underwater search and recovery mission to retrieve the rig's data logger, catalogue the remains of its deceased crew, and retrieve their personal effects to return them to their families. Searching the rig, Mhairi discovers some of the bodies are covered in fossilized coral-like growths. She soon retrieves the data logger, but is temporarily knocked out by falling debris and briefly experiences a vision of herself on the Isle of Skye before coming to and narrowly escaping the rig as it falls apart. While making her way back to the diving bell, she sees more of the Beira D's wreckage at the bottom of a trench. Mhairi reports her findings to Rob, who is initially reluctant to investigate further until she convinces him that this may be their only chance at finding out what happened. Their diving supervisor, Hans, eventually agrees to send them down a second time, on the condition that communications will not be lost at such a low depth.
Upon returning to the wreckage, Mhairi makes her way to the accommodation block, where she becomes trapped and is forced to sever her umbilical cable. Unable to reach her, Rob gives her several flares and tells her to meet him back at the diving bell. Mhairi navigates through the rig and eventually finds an air pocket, where she hallucinates Rob chasing her before being chased by a monster. She successfully escapes, but is drawn into another vision and finds herself exploring the Beira D before it was destroyed. After locating her father Brodie's room and finding a sentimental photograph, she regains her senses and escapes the rig. Mhairi returns to the diving bell, but Rob is not there. After failing to reach Hans, the monster suddenly attacks and destroys the bell. Mhairi flees back to the Beira D, where she has one final vision that sees her reuniting with Brodie, who offers his hand and asks her to "dive together" as the Beira D and several of the deceased crew members appear. At this point, Mhairi is presented with two options. If Mhairi accepts and takes Brodie's hand, she silently accepts her fate and drowns in the wreck. If Mhairi refuses and lets go, she awakens to find Rob rescuing her.
Development
Development of Still Wakes the Deep was led by The Chinese Room, the studio behind Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. The concept was created by the studio's co-founder, Dan Pinchbeck, who directed the game until his departure in mid-2023. John McCormack, the game's art director, was then promoted to replace Pinchbeck. Pinchbeck pitched the game as "The Thing set on an oil rig," while Who Goes There? inspired the overall atmosphere of the game. The team believed that the setting, which sees a group of professionals stranded in a remote place with no outside connections, provided an excellent venue for character drama. An oil rig was chosen to be the game's setting because it provided opportunities to explore various types of fears, such as "vertigo, drowning, claustrophobia". A wide range of films, such as Annihilation, Midsommar, The Southern Reach Trilogy, Sapphire & Steel, and Suspiria all influenced the game. The game was designed to be narrative-driven and intended to evoke these fears through creating tension instead of using tangible gameplay mechanics. The team intentionally avoided implementing punishing gameplay design so that the momentum of the story would not be disrupted. While body horror tropes were used extensively, the team wanted to maintain a sense of mystery, often shrouding them with fog, mist and darkness. Through creating obscurity, the team felt that players would "fill in the gaps themselves with their own worst fears", resulting in a more terrifying experience.
The game does not have a combat system, and the team emphasized that the player character is not an action hero. Reverend Frank Scott from The Poseidon Adventure was described as the "perfect archetype" to Caz McLeary, the game's "unathletic" main character. This is an intentional choice to make players feel "powerless", so that every decision made by players would feel impactful. Puzzle solving and traversal, therefore, become the main ways for players to progress. While Caz is an everyman, he was not designed to be an "empty shell" for players to inhabit. He, and his surrounding cast of characters had their own backstory and reactions to the events unfolding in the game. The goal for the team was to create a story in which "extraordinary events" happened to a very ordinary person, and the horror aspects of the game were grounded with common, relatable themes concerning love, family, and relationships with loved ones. To save money, the team chose to set the game at Christmas. This allowed them to create fewer characters, as only a skeleton crew would remain on the oil rig during the holiday.