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Still Wakes The Deep PS5 @Th3solution You're going to love it, when you get to it.

I need to put the whole thing into one big spoiler, it's a really good game and I don't want to ruin it for anyone. I will say this though, I liked it more than Until Dawn. I took notes too so here goes something:

The first thing I asked myself was why does it say I'm signed in as an active user on an offline walking simulator? that's odd. And off to the options, there's motion blur again, turned right off. The audio options were quite good, I saw dynamic and panning options. The yellow paint options are actually yellow, grain went off too. I really liked the opening and the dialogue that explained where the character was and why, the score framed it perfectly. As soon as I heard the name Caz I thought of my friend Kaz. Right away the interiors impressed, the detailing is fantastic and I love that mid-Seventies look, I marveled at transistor radios, snooped through every cabin, peered through the crew's things and took my time to take some pictures (I did that a lot, there's no photo-mode, but there's no Hud/UI either) Next I wandered into the showers and watched a very naked man until I heard my Partner clear his throat behind me, so I got back to exploring. I think the Developers did an incredible job of catching the mood and atmosphere of the period, I love that they used real photographs, I even found a British National Front poster and a lot of notes and clippings pointing to strikes and such, I have to applaud the accuracy. Next came the canteen, the food, cutlery, I liked that I could talk to everyone. I then asked myself 'what is leccy? what is graft?', then chatted to Roy the Big Man. I liked him a lot.

I noted that Silent Hill 2 prepared me for spinning valves, and it did. I also noted that the rig was it's own main character, it buzzed with electricity, gurgled with oil and water, groaned in high gales and creaked as beams settled and shifted, it did what Until Dawn's mountain couldn't. And that's to be it's own character, a living breathing environment. The first time I saw some spooky gore I said to myself 'what the fudge', so did the protagonist. There were big The Thing vibes when I peered through that window. Next I saw lockers and places with a 'hide' prompt, eventually I found out what those were for and did enjoy hiding and throwing things to distract/lure the Horror. I noted that while they do reuse locations it never felt cheap, rather the destruction and transition of the rig meant it was organic and not lazy. The swimming was a little tricky, I did like getting taken by the current and pushed and rag-dolled by the water, the pontoon segment with the oil was so unique and while a little frustrating was a lot of fun. I noted again how much I like Roy and his genuine connection with Cas, I believed the dialogue, I felt their humanity and it elevated the humanity of the piece. The fire extinguisher mechanic was unexpected and and appreciated, it made me feel like I was making a difference to the games environment. I made a note to ask why beef was in a tin, and milk too, then realized I could throw those too, brilliant. I felt like a cat knocking things over and I loved it. I noted how great the detailing on the phones are, each number (while on a call) does represent the room (on the chart) I found a playlist scribbled on a wall by the jukebox and pondered 'but will these be real musicians?', it did, even Springsteen's Born to Run was there. I don't know if the magazines were real, they looked authentic.

The Horror itself was incredibly well done and very scary. Rennick's big head chasing me through the halls was terrifying, hearing him shouting and getting personal (swearing at Caz) while he closed in had me on edge the whole time. I did feel like I was running for my life, unlike Until Dawn where I never really felt terror, or tension. The monster outside Adaire (I think) was a great gimmick, seeing him zoom around the rig reminded me of both The Thing and The Mist. I was happy to see Rennick drown (he was awful, even before he was a giant mutated head) blowing up Adaire with the flare was a big nod to the thing. Those long tentacle things were a big nod to The Thing. Caz being called Caz McLeary was probably a nod to MacReady from The Thing, what I'm saying is the Developers really like The Thing and so do I, which probably added to me enjoyment of the game as a whole. The howling from Adaire was pure The Thing too, one of my last notes was about Roy's passing and Caz's dialogue with him. It was both raw and heartwarming.

All in all it was a fantastic little game: drenched in atmosphere, impressive accuracy to the period, real humanity went into the dialogue, the Horror was genuine, the sound added so much depth, and I really liked that there was a lot more to the game than just walking. It took me about five-hours, six if you count the time I spent carefully drinking in all of the atmosphere and snooping in cabins.