Room have shown in the past.

What I didn’t expect was a full-on torrent of authentic accents from around Scotland (and some other parts of UK) that will strain the brains of many a fellow human not versed in my country’s wonderful range of dialects.

Sometimes comedic, often uncouth, but always hard-edged and real, the dialogue of this game world is only surpassed by the quality of the voice acting.

Even this though is second to the real star of Still Wakes the Deep, which is the Beira D itself. A battered and quickly aging oil rig that creaks and groans as if alive and in pain, joints rapidly rusting in the harsh salt air.

You play as Caz, a troubled Glaswegian on the run from the law who gets a job on the rig to give himself time to figure out how to fix his mistakes.

After disaster strikes, Caz, with the help of the surviving crew, must try to escape before it’s too late.
This involves making your way through almost every section of the beautifully realised oil rig whilst trying to figure out what has gone wrong and at the same time not being caught by the new local, and very dangerous, fauna. Think The Thing mixed with Alien Isolation in terms of feeling and you won’t be far off.

Graphically the game looks beautiful, even though some of the characters can be very angular looking in certain shots (especially their hands), showing the fact that this game is from a small team with a limited budget. Overall though, it’s so good you can almost taste the salt in the sea air.

Thankfully the game is also not as scary as I was expecting, but is still very tense, with a great sense of place. It also played upon some of my phobias, making my say, "oh hell no" on more than one occasion.

The less I say about the horrors that hunt you the better, since it’s all part of the charm of the game.

So, is it worth your time?
For me it’s a resounding yes.

Is it perfect?
Don’t be silly; nothing ever is! I mean, the enemy AI is a tad stupid at times, but you'll be too busy hiding to care.

But, it’s well worth the asking price which is remarkably low compared to other titles of this quality.

#StillWakesTheDeep #review #PS5