Still Wakes The Deep will include a story mode in which you won’t die as much

The Chinese Room / Secret Mode

It’s a big year for The Chinese Room with two projects developed by the horror game studio set for release – on June 18, 2024, narrative horror title Still Wakes The Deep will make its way on to PC and Xbox Series X|S – with a Day 1 launch on Xbox Game Pass – and in Fall 2024 the RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will be unleashed.

During a recent ID@Xbox presentation, The Chinese Room announced that Still Wakes The Deep will feature a special story mode that’ll decrease the chance of death in order to allow players to experience the full narrative without getting frustrated by a lack of progress.

Unlike many other games of the genre, Still Wakes The Deep won’t feature any sort of combat – to survive the mysterious and horrific event that has befallen the Beira D oil rig off the Scottish coast, your wits are the only tool in your arsenal. With an unknowable horror on board, comms dead, and a deadly storm raging outside, the entire oil rig is in danger of going under. It'll be up to you – a regular offshore worker with a family and friends to lose – to save as many people as possible.

Don't expect to stay dry. / The Chinese Room / Secret Mode

With the environment being as much your enemy as the monstrous entity haunting the rig, you’ll need to explore and backtrack to find a way out – hallways are constantly collapsing, flooding, or being blocked by unspeakable horrors, so you’ll need to stay on the move.

What stood out most during the preview that was shown to press during that recent event was Still Wakes The Deep’s sound design – you can hear the ocean doing its work, sending shivers through the entire structure of the oil rig, tearing through walls and beams. Men are pleading for help, begging for mercy, and suddenly going silent. There’s movement in the walls. It drives the point home that both the oil rig and its inhabitants won’t be long for this world – and adds to the powerless feeling the player will be subjected to as they scurry along the failing corridors, like a rat seeking to leave the sinking ship.

Still Wakes The Deep looks like a safe bet for anyone looking for this kind of thing – and those who may at least want to dip their toes in the experience will have an easy time thanks to that Day 1 Game Pass inclusion.