I'm not sure what's scarier: the idea of being trapped on an oil rig in the Scottish sea with some monstrosity or the fact that we're now only a few months away from the release of Still Wakes the Deep after nine months of waiting—the passage of time can really be a tough reality check.
Thanks to a new trailer shown at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase, we not only now know that Still Wakes the Deep is scheduled to release on June 18, 2024 but we also got to see a bit more of the eerie oil rig. Rob McLachlan, lead designer for Still Wakes the Deep, explained in a post-show interview the importance of the Beira D oil rig and how the team has made sure that this experience will leave a mark.
"Still Wakes the Deep is the game I joined The Chinese Room to make," McLachlan says. "Our oil rig, the Beira D, has many antecedents in fiction, such as the Ishimura from Dead Space and the ship in Event Horizon. It is effectively a spaceship hovering over the cold North Sea.
"In such a small environment, there's a risk that the player will get bored with or overfamiliar with the environment. So, to address that, we made sure the rig evolves over time. As the event progresses, the rig starts to shake, crack, and crumble. It starts to sink, it starts to tilt, and it starts to flood. I hope that people still feel after playing the game that they're on that oil rig."
We've already seen a few short trailers for this upcoming psychological horror game. But this time, we don't just get more of a look around the quiet hallways and rickety platforms, which I'm sure we'll all come to fear, but we also get to hear a tragic monologue from the protagonist's partner, who he left to come work on the rig:
"What were you thinking going to that place? I wish you hadn't gotten yourself into this mess, but you did, and you cannae run forever. I know you were just trying to do what's right by me, so now I need you to do what's right by us… I want you home; the girls want you home, but if you don't deal with this, then we're done for good."
It's a pretty tough pill to swallow, especially considering you're fighting for your life on Beira D trying to rescue your fellow workers from some reality-defying horror. But I'm glad to hear some heartfelt dialogue. Instead of playing horror game after horror game where the premise just boils down to "run from scary monster," it's nice to have a slight change in pace and a more meaningful story that can be boiled down to: run from big monster and confront your feelings.
Looking past the tear-jerking words, this trailer also gives us a couple more glimpses into the Beira D rig, in what looks like the aftermath of an attack. Showers are left on with steam clouding the windows, washing machines are ajar with clothes draping out, Christmas decorations cover the canteen: It all looks like the people working on the rig disappeared in an instant, but the unfortunate reality is that something worse probably happened to them.
But other than the grotesque pile of mutated human flesh and body parts stuck to the ceiling of the engine room there's not many clues as to what happened, so I guess we'll just have to check it out for ourselves when the time comes.
