Nonetheless Wakes The Deep Xbox Evaluation

For his or her newest recreation, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, builders The Chinese language Room are taking a dip into the sub-genre of horror often known as aquatic horror. Often, aquatic horror and creature options go hand in hand, however that isn’t all the time the case. Sorry readers, however all these low-budget shark assault horrors don’t rely! For my cash, there aren’t sufficient aquatic horror motion pictures, video games, or books. Whether or not it’s on a ship, a submarine, or, as within the case of Nonetheless Wakes the Deep, a drilling rig, the sense of isolation, lack of locations to run, and no assist inside calling vary provides to the horrific thrill of panic and dread that powers these tales.

Nonetheless Wakes The Deep takes all of those themes and plot gadgets, chucks them right into a blender and goes one additional by including the catastrophe film style into the combo. No longer solely are you operating in your life from one thing nasty, however the collapsing setting round you can be seeking to do you in.

Set on an oil rig on the coast of Scotland, Nonetheless Wakes The Deep transports you again to the yr 1975. You’re distant from the security of land in an inhospitable and uncaring setting the place one mistake might value you, and the boys subsequent to you, dearly. As electrician Caz McLeary, you’ve run to the ocean from the legislation and are simply scraping by on conserving the rig’s electrical programs operating. Simply while you’re about to be despatched packing, the rig’s drill breaks into one thing unknown and catastrophe ensures. Every part that may go improper on a rig does however the actual nightmare is barely starting.

That’s the premise for The Chinese language Room’s cinematic horror journey recreation. It might be improper to name Nonetheless Wakes The Deep a survival horror, though you do must survive, as the sport is extra involved in throwing you into the bowels of a horror film and tasking you with enjoying by what’s, primarily, an interactive film.

Now, initially, I believed that Nonetheless Wakes The Deep’s linear gameplay and lack of exploration was a disservice to a improbable setting. And the idea of interactive motion pictures nonetheless has a nasty style within the mouths of players, however as soon as I realised what The Chinese language Room was aiming for, Nonetheless Wakes The Deep blossomed into considered one of this yr’s greatest horror video games.

You see, the builders need you to dwell a horror film with this. And a catastrophe film too. And identical to these motion pictures, there’s a ticking time bomb propelling you from one set piece to a different. You’ll be able to’t simply escape. Every part has to interrupt right down to kind an deadlock for you. Must get to that lifeboat? Certain however it’s a must to swim by oil, however earlier than you are able to do that it’s a must to shut the facility down or danger changing into a crispy critter.

After which there’s the horror film facet, as pals and foe begin to mutate round you, dying horrible deaths or changing into unrecognisable issues seeking to tear you limb from limb. From the heights of the oil rig to its water-logged depths, it’s a must to remedy the rig’s issues whereas operating and hiding from what your folks have develop into.

Pitched as “The Factor on an oil rig”, Nonetheless Wakes The Deep influences are plainly seen. The Factor, Leviathan and an entire host of gloopy, gory 80’s physique horror motion pictures permeate the sport together with motion and catastrophe flicks equivalent to The Poseidon Journey. It’s an amazing hodgepodge that works splendidly with the sport’s character-centric narrative. There’s a good quantity of psychological drama at play right here, blended in with a vaguely Lovecraftian, cosmic horror aesthetic that retains a definitive clarification as to the organism invading the rig wrapped in thriller. It’s a story transfer that I recognize because it retains the thriller intriguing.

The sport performs out from a first-person viewpoint. You’ll be able to run, leap, crawl, climb and work together with particular objects. There is no such thing as a fight within the recreation with enemy encounters counting on stealth, hiding and velocity to keep away from dying. There’s additionally little or no in the way in which of exploration with the paths it is advisable to comply with clearly highlighted for you. A lot has been mentioned about signposting interactable elements of the setting in yellow not too long ago, however right here it really works as a result of nature of the setting. Yellow railings, lockers and vent covers match completely in with the setting’s industrial design, changing into as a lot part of the setting as crimson gantries or flickering work consoles.

As such, Nonetheless Wakes the Deep is a really linear affair that depends on its cinematic design and character work to maintain you engaged. The builders have used their earlier expertise to craft a tense, pulse-pounding affair steeped in dread.

Whereas the precise story beats might not be stunning, the character work is well-written and acted. The sport sports activities some improbable voice appearing from Scottish actors that retains character curiosity alive.

Nonetheless Wakes The Deep can be a really stunning recreation that includes some beautiful, realistic-looking visuals within the setting design, improbable lighting and completely gorgeous reflections. The rig and climate are characters themselves, with splashing waves and fog-filled visuals paving the way in which. The sport might not be utilizing RT reflections, however the high-quality SSR on water and oil are breathtaking to behold.

The good visuals and set design do come at a value within the extra expansive views although, as I might see some body drops within the outside areas, particularly later within the recreation when the mixture of fog, flame and out-of-this-world lighting mix to create an eerie, alien panorama. There are solely three visible choices out there on the console: Movement Blur, Movie Grain and Chromatic Aberration.

Movement Blur is the very first thing I disable in any recreation and switching off Chromatic Aberration helped to easy out the frame-rate in these sections a bit. Disabling the Movie Grain could have helped as nicely to disable the post-processing load however I favored the ambiance it lent to the sport.

Nonetheless Wakes The Deep might not be the expansive survival horror title I hoped for, however I really feel that the builders have achieved what they got down to do by dropping you right into a horror film. As such, not solely have they created a gnarly physique horror title, but in addition considered one of this yr’s tensest and most atmospheric horror video games.