Today’s Xbox Partner Preview brought us a good look at Still Wakes The Deep, the new game from The Chinese Room, a studio known for projects like Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
The new project has distinct horror vibes as it drops players into the shoes of a character navigating a ruined oil rig. A strange, alien-like tentacled form reaches up from beneath the roiling ocean waters – seemingly the source of the oil rig’s trouble. As the protagonist navigates the catwalks and beams of the rig, we hear distant and troubling screams. After traversing several tunnels, the first-person lead drops through a hatch into the very water that seems to be the source of the strange tendrils.
The Chinese Room is clearly interested in building atmosphere and tension in this trailer and, presumably, doing the same in the broader game. There’s clearly some awful threat at play aboard the rig, but its nature and what is happening to the others on board the rig remain a mystery.
Nonetheless, the first-person visuals and tense exploration are looking great, leaving us excited for the game’s launch on Xbox Series X/S (including Game Pass) in early 2024.
