Still Wakes the Deep casts the player as electrician Cameron “Caz” McLeary, fleeing an assault charge on the Beira D oil rig in December 1975. The opening hours build a convincing Scottish work family, with the diabetic chef Roy and the hated site manager Renick trading banter before the drill strikes something below.
The drilling awakens an organic substance that mutates and kills the crew, turning many into blind but lethal stalkers. The horror escalates as the rig collapses, with the helicopter exploding and the crew dying one by one.
The core verbs are sprinting, clinging to ledges, shimmying, hiding in lockers and throwing objects to distract the patrolling mutants. The final stretch adds flooded compartments and open-sea swimming, while the Sirens Rest DLC is underwater exploration with a cutting tool for rust-covered obstacles.
The Scottish cast and dialect are the high point, with plain-English subtitles that summarise each line rather than transcribing it. The humour lands consistently, and the writing sustains the banter even as the situation spirals.
The visuals are striking, particularly the organic growth spreading across the rig, and the balance-beam traversal is unusually realistic with the character crouching low. The central mystery is never explained, which keeps the Lovecraftian threat eerie but leaves many questions open.
The camera is a recurring frustration, especially during the flooded chase sequences, and the underwater controls in the DLC are floaty. Technical glitches, from pink squares in menus to a chase that ended with the view pinned into a wall, punctuated the otherwise smooth run.
Overall, the convincing cast, the witty writing and the unexplained mystery made the playthrough a success from the opening banter to the final dive. The refusal to explain the central threat will frustrate players wanting answers, but the journey is well worth taking.