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Period atmosphere is best part of game set on turbulent oil rig

In Still Wakes the Deep, you play as a Glaswegian electrician on a 1970s oil rig. The well-crafted setting gives way to horror, but I wish I could linger in mundanity for longer, says Jacob Aron

By Jacob Aron

24 July 2024

Still Wakes the Deep - Screenshot

There are monsters on the Beira D oil rig – and you must evade them

The Chinese Room

Still Wakes the Deep
The Chinese Room
PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S

There is a genre of video games known, in slightly derogatory fashion, as “walking simulators”. The label has its roots in the combat-heavy nature of most video games, where pushing a button to pull a trigger provides the bulk of player engagement. As a reaction to this norm, walking simulators put the guns away and simply ask players to explore a space, perhaps with some light puzzle-solving, but mostly to…

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