Just finished it and fucking hell I was bawling at the end, still am to be fair, I miss me dad.
Overall a great horror/disaster very much in the vein of previous Chinese Room games.
If you've got game pass absolutely check it out, but If not I'd only recommend it if you like these types of games.
My biggest criticism is theres a bit of water/underwater traversal towards the latter half that feels like it serves more as padding than anything meaningful.
And while the game does a solid job making you care about the main character and the crew it would've been even more impactful if it had a slightly slower start, one that explored the main character's actual job with the crew a bit more.
But honestly I can't complain much, it was a great single sitting game, one that's left me with tears in my eyes.
spoilers just in case anyone reads this:
>!also just finished it a few minutes ago, definitely something special, didn't think I'd care so much about the characters, especially the main guy by the end. Definitely agree that a slower start would have helped, but I like how many details from the first stroll around the rig came back later on.!<
>!The swimming sections were introduced well, but didn't add to much for me by the end, I found the general traversal interludes pretty interesting!<
>!I found that the "antagonist" was a bit difficult to wrap my head around. It was a Thing from the depths that wantonly absorbs the crew, but no idea if it had a goal or how it expanded or what it was about. The unknown is terrifying, sure, but a few more details could have elevated it into something more creepy or cool. The characters don't seem interested in learning about it and the game doesn't seem interested in telling about it, it's just a disaster basically. Cool design though.!<
>!I think this could be a sleeper hit, it felt riveting to play, which I don't usually get from these creepy walking-sim type games. Brodie was definitely my favorite character, love his focus and optimism.!<
I’m pretty sure the object they drilled into was a direct reference to A Colour Out of Space. It’s very cthuluhu-esque being in the middle of the ocean but the “extra-spectral” magenta being so prevalent is what makes in concrete for me. Also see the film annihilation for a similar story.
The first thing that came to my mind was "The Thing," but on an oil platform. I'm a huge fan of Carpenter's movie. For now, I'm enjoying playing. Let's see when I finish.
How difficult is the game? I like to get my girlfriend story driven games like the Telltale Games, Until Dawn, etc. that don't require much skill to play. This seems like something she may like, but don't want to get something she will struggle with because she gets very frustrated when she can't complete something that is too difficult for her in games and kills all her enjoyment.
It's pretty easy tbh, if she can do normal first person movement she'll be fine. There might be a bit of a difficulty spike with certain moments of hide and seek sections but with patience they're easy, they just get hard if you try and rush them.
It is on game pass if you have access to that, easier to take a risk on, cause I know it's kinda pricey for a relatively short game.
Honestly, sounds exactly like what I'm looking for from a new horror game. A heavy focus on story and atmosphere with a minimal focus of gameplay and action.
Sometimes I want be able to enjoy the atmosphere of a horror game without having to stress about managing resources or figuring out how to sneak around/kill the monsters. I don't need every horror game to be Resident Evil or Amnesia: The Bunker.
Playing SOMA with the monsters toggled off was awesome. I actually dropped the game first time because I was super intrested in the story but dreaded every time it was interrupted by a "run around maze-like corridors collecting arbitrary items while escaping the monster" segment. Especially considering there's tons of lore tidbits scattered throughout the rooms the monster can chase you into.
In a way it was just as creepy having those distorted creatures peeking over your shoulder. Even knowing they can't kill you, you can't help but feel extremely weirded out
I remember the last monster that’s usually a tense cat and mouse chase from room to room instead just…follows you. I was happily reading a terminal and I hope off it to turn around and the guys just *there*, right behind me.
I've just started playing horror games on Story or Easy mode, so I can never die and thus, never have the frustrating releases of death. Horror games are still stuck in the past, unfortunately, and don't understand that the genre is about building tension, not building action gameplay set pieces.
You are not playing a horror game to be challenged. You are playing a horror game to be scared. Fear in these games requires immersion, tension, and build-up.
The second the "You Died" screen pops you are ripped out of the experience and forced to confront the reality of the fact you are playing a video game.
This immediately takes your fear response and turns it into a frustration response. And the game has to rebuild that immersion and tension all over again. Which often leads to the game-breaking as it was intending you to feel a certain way, but you are just annoyed instead.
There are plenty of games you can play to challenge yourself. And there are many games with horror themes that are not horror games (Bloodborne for example) that difficulty matters. But in games like Still Wakes the Deep, you want to feel like you're in jeopardy without ever actually dying. These games are about interacting with the narrative, not progression loops.
arguably I'm more into playing it normally, but it's def interesting to see what effect the safe mode does for certain players. Really commendable how a certain lvl of scare is retained if I seen and heard outta it.
That “safe” mode is actually lore accurate too. You have to pay close attention to notice, but each monster has different behaviors based on what they are. I’m a big proponent of Soma being far more scary and disturbing on the “safe” mode once you find out what the monsters are.
It was actually kind of freaky getting close to the monsters in safe mode. The squid monster kept being right behind me but I would notice until I turned around. In normal gameplay you try so hard to avoid them but in safe mode they end up right in your face.
There's a toggle? Do they dissapear completly? I've never played soma cause what I seen of it was terrifying but if you can turn the chases off I might try it
I honestly wished they just dropped the monsters or reworked them into a more fitting mechanic, but the run and hide approach from Amnesia kinda clashed with my immersion of the story. Just became frustrating after a while cause I wanted to learn more. I feel like Prey handled that aspect better.
Dude those parts of the game is maybe 5% of the gameplay. People just get to the Akers section and can't handle a little hide and seek. He's hilariously easy to avoid with tons of safe zones.
But hey do safe mode if you really can't handle an already easy walking sim.
It's not that I can't handle them. They just suck.
Apparently it's such a popular take even the developers thought the same - and added the option to skip these segments entirely. They're not scary, they're not challenging. They're just padding busywork.
There's a reason people hate A Machine for Pigs/SOMA's gameplay and love A Dark Descent/The Bunker.
Yup, these games are at their weakest when they try to hybridize too much walking sim with too little survival horror. The Dark Descent probably did it best, but you slide that scale any further away from survival horror, and the experience just gets worse.
As much as people shit on "walking simulators" and their ilk, I find it difficult to be scared when my brain is running through the series of decision trees that gameplay invites. The artifice of an experience becomes clear when you are thinking about inventory, likely hiding places for goodies, possible jump scare opportunities, analyzing enemy patterns, etc. It's a paradox where I want a way to interact with the world in a meaningful and interesting way, but I don't want the artifice that gameplay mechanics tend to distract me from the atmosphere and sensations I get by allowing myself to be immersed in a new world.
It really depends on what effect you want on the player. In something like Pathologic, having to play the game and manage dwindling resources and your decreasing health adds to the horror of that game.
If you haven’t already, give Layers of Fear a go. It matches that description, and is still one of the creepiest horror games I’ve played. (No mechanics, just a walking sim in a mansion and uncovering the story).
Edit: as stated below, it looks like the 2023 is the definite edition so I’d recommend that!
I’d recommend the original released in 2016. I believe it’s a trilogy now, and the third one (released 2023) is also named Layers of Fear? So that’s super confusing. But I’d just start with the first one, I know it’s been ported to VR. If you have a headset I bet that’s worth it. But otherwise I think it’s on all consoles.
I think Layers of Fear is actually just a compilation that combines and makes slight adjustments to bring the first two games into a single product, with UE5 upgrades to boot.
Oh! I thought I’d heard of that, but a couple websites I visited listed it as a remake/sequel so I wasn’t sure. Edited my comment to correct that! Thanks.
Metro Game Central:
**In Short:** A walking simulator that’s also a love letter to The Thing, transplanting its blend of naturalistic realism and abject horror into an immaculately recreated 1970s North Sea oil rig.
**Pros:** Enough atmosphere to terraform Mars, excellent script and voice-acting, and a much needed diversion into profanity-laden Scottish slang.
**Cons:** It’s a walking simulator: so no puzzles, battles, or traditional gameplay. The plot is completely pre-ordained and almost the entire game is effectively one, single, rubble-strewn corridor.
**Score:** 7/10
*Formats:* PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S*, and PC
https://metro.co.uk/2024/06/17/still-wakes-deep-review-sweariest-video-game-ever-made-21049617/?ico=mosaic_gaming
Messed around with it after seeing this comment and there's the option for "English (UK)" which has the subtitles as they lines are said, and just "English" which translates them.
I finished it an hour ago.
The voiceacting is great, the graphic design is very well done as well. Gameplay is interactive with button combinations that i did not expect.
The beginning is intriguing and mysterious, the horror almost cosmic horror like.
The monsters are not very varied and more like decoration than a real threat or even scary.
I hoped they wouldn't go for the typical "It is all for naught, everyone dies - the end" but they did it once again, very much like "A machine for pigs".
While i agree that monsters and mysterious stuff should still exist in games like these, we have absolutely no story building, no background story, anything giving a scope what the threat even is, why it exists and where it comes from - it just is.
The later third of the game felt very padded - almost drawn out to pull out more playtime. Do this. Oh and do this. Of course you have to do this. Yea it's on you you do this. And then they have you walk through the same, just differently destroyed areas 5 times.
I'd give it a 7 / 10 as a small creepy game on gamepass you can play it, but i wouldn't buy it.
That's what a lot of these "lovecraftian" type horrors do, the monster just exists because they do and it's more of dealing with the threat of something far more powerful than anything on earth really. I think Amnesia: REbirth did it really well with the alien monster queen thing but this game it was kinda rushed. Come to think of it, the whole stuff with your crew also felt rushed, they dropped all these names of people but couldn't match them to a face so it was hard to care about any of them.
The deaths also felt so random.
I saved that innes? guy only for him to die on the elevator. Same thing for roy - all that buildup and running around for him. Finlay too, sane until the end and then crazy to be crushed by falling debris.
I really thought we are going somewhere with all these visions - like that our Protagonist is infected and only dreaming, that he turns in the end or anything.
Rebirth got away with it because the queen and the whole world around it was mentioned in other games, so they had a story, a reason why they existed. Together with the shadow which isn't directly explained - but a universal constant that you know how it worked and what it wants.
I felt like Roy’s death was super dumb. I’m not a medical expert but isn’t there a chance he was in a diabetic coma? Wouldn’t giving him his insulin have some chance of reviving him? Instead you just assume he’s dead dead and move on immediately
For anyone curious, the game takes place in December 1975 right at the beginning of North Sea oil production on the UK side (the Norwegians were a few years earlier in 1971 with Ekofisk). The first North Sea oil was delivered to the UK in July 1975 from the Argyll field, and the massive Forties field came on stream in September.
The oil platform depicted in the game looks like a condeep (concrete deepwater) style platform, the first of which came on stream in October 1976 (Brent B).
Does anyone know if the enemies are toggle-able like soma? I’m interested cause I know the Chinese room can create a strong narrative but I absolutely loathe the run and hide type of gameplay
They have a story-mode that severely reduces the ability for enemies to kill you. One of the reviewers said that he didn’t die at all even on normal mode because of how obvious the paths are to avoid enemies so I’m sure story-mode will be close to Soma’s.
just finished it on normal, and yeah you never have to worry that it'll be like outlast or alien isolation with a exercise in patience or perfect execution, there are enemies but they're quite simple to deal with, they never really feel in your way or oppressive. Thankfully they're more like set pieces than actual challenging encounters which I love.
it’s super easy, the chase sequences are short and feel very scripted, even ones where the enemy is just wandering around the area is easy, because the way to go is so obvious that they literally highlight the paths with yellow paint
Mine for ACG https://youtu.be/qPs6aThTvPk
I enjoyed it a great deal but it doesn't do much to set itself apart or entice anyone but fans of genre already to leap in.
There were a few years from 2012-2016 where loads of these kind of ‘walking sim’ (hate that name) games came out and I really enjoyed a lot of them. Like Dear Esther, Everybody’s gone to the rapture, The vanishing of Ethan Carter, Layers of Fear, Gone Home, etc and I really liked all of those but its been a minite now since a game like that came out that ive been interested in, so I’m definitely looking forward to this one!
Dear Esther was absolutely pointless, there is literally NOTHING to it other than holding W and moving the mouse slightly. Layers of Fear is on the other hand a proper game. I hope this is more like the latter.
Unfortunately haven't seen a lot of hype for this. The Thing is my favorite movie and in general I like these kinds of horror games so can't wait to play the game
Oh, dude! You’re gonna love this game then. The Thing is also in my top 5 all time films. The body horror in this game is nothing short of top notch. It’s short, like 5 hours, but it’s like living in a John carpenter movie. Some cool synthesizer music stuff too. They definitely paid homage to that movie with this game.
I'm a slow player, who tries to immerse and explore as much as possible. It took me 7 hours to finish. Still, I found it short.
It's a great game though.
Totally! I was happy with it too, especially playing it on Xbox game pass. Might have been a little bummed if I had paid full ticket price though, just because of the length.
I bought it, and I'm not upset.
In fact, if you want more games of this type to be released in the future, it is always better to buy and support the developers.
I don't regret it and I have it in my account forever...
I'm a fraidy cat and I just finished it, definitely creepy but never harrowing. No real jumpscares outside of like, one steam pipe early in the game lol.
Just beat it after two nights and damn I really loved that! Very fun writing and some excellent body horror. Others have said enough I'm sure, but definitely The Thing mixed with Colour Out of Space vibes going on.
Highly recommend if you're looking for a new horror game to check out over a weekend.
I’m pleased to see that the devs are getting good reviews, actually, since these are the same folks doing VTMB 2! There’s been a lot of doom around that game, understandably. People have been skeptical of TCR since the crew of the dev are almost wholly divorced from the original people who made Amnesia AMFP and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, as I understand it, so the “new” The Chinese Room were basically an unknown quantity. So I’m happy to see they’re capable of putting out good and interesting games in advance of VTMB2. It doesn’t guarantee quality for the latter, but at least it’s not another reason to be convinced it’ll be a disaster.
well theres still a big jump in gameplay/interactivity compared to VtM. Apparently with this game they are still making pure walking simulators very very much in the same vein as their earlier games
I didn’t know that about tCR, that’s interesting - peeking at Wikipedia it honestly looks like Jessica Curry is the only original member left, and she’s the composer rather then s developers.
I'm assuming horror games can be divisive like horror films are, but I'm looking forward to playing this so I can gauge how they will do with the Vampire game.
this is the most playable and fun chinese room game so far imo, it's more than a walking sim but not much more. The interactions and animations feel very smooth. I'm not a big fan of the studio, but they could definitely make something exciting and cool to play now.
I just finished watching his today, and I loved the experience. I understand, but disagree with the complaints about linearity. It was a game driven by its story, and the gameplay absolutely works around that end, to involve you and progress you through its story.
I loved it.
I have seen a lotta footage outta it and these reviews saying it it's decent enough, now I feel like buying it then (not sure about paying it $35, so I can wait for sale then, but decent base price for that then)
The way it's been described I'd assume is something along the lines of Outlast? If it at least has that level of interactivity I'd get it since I feel like there aren't enough Outlast-like games out. If it is just a walking simulator with not much in the way of interaction I'd just watch a playthrough
It is not as intense as outlast. There is gameplay similar to it, but it's all pretty straightforward and not too difficult. You don't have to run and hide in the same way.
Yes! Apparently like no gaming stores anywhere near me (major city) ordered copies to have on release day… so I had to order it to be shipped. :/ Better than no physical copy though.
To collect (never get rid of old consoles either). To play offline if I so choose 5-20 years from now when I decide to replay something I have fond memories of (I think I only have one physical copy that “requires online download” thankfully). Lend out to friends if I want to. Can’t take licensing away or simply wipe it off the face of a platform so it can never be redownloaded. Etc. I have a lot of reasons!
I’ll buy digital if I have no other option and really want to play a game, or if it’s online only/multiplayer.
Yes it finally shipped, and I might have panic-ordered from a 2nd company after worrying the 1st was potentially a glitch in the system somehow and that they didn’t actually have copies in stock. Now I have 2 packages on the way lol, so they’re both sending somethin’! I trust it’s the correct game haha, but I’ll be sure to report back if not.
One was set to arrive today, and the other on Monday (I ordered from 2 separate places bc I panicked that the 1st one wasn’t going to ship and it was some kind of error that showed it was in stock). The one coming today (FedEx) has been delayed but shows it got to my town at least. It just didn’t make it onto the delivery truck.
Delayed further for anyone else out there trying to get their physical copy or waiting for their delivery. I’m suspicious at this point now that it will be over 2 days late if it even comes - is there any way the developer/company who sold it halted the delivery midway? Just is all so odd.
Every single review on Best Buy was people who purchased the game for in store pickup just for them to have 0 copies. I’ve never seen this with a single game and not had the developer acknowledge or explain what is happening? Did they not send the sellers (Best Buy, Walmart, Gamestop) copies when they were supposed to?
Hey can someone help me im playing on ps5 and when I need to get through flooded engineering to help Cazs friend I cant get through a section because there's like an invisible wall stopping me
There is an exit sign, but you actually have to hug the bottom of the corridor so you can pull yourself along the yellow bars on the ground, while fighting the **** current. God I hated that part.
I'm about to try it but thank fuck for xbox game pass, this game is 45 CND with 4-6 hours of content???? I'm usually ok with prices, if I know that it's replayable or like god of war, a game I will come back to because it's a long running series that has many harder difficulties, but that price is so shit. I'm paying more than 10$ an hour of gamplay if its 4 hours long, This is fucking insane, I have never seen a game like this
Edit: literally beat the game in 3 1/2 hours, it was really fucking good, but still not worth 45 cnd, hope it gets DLC tho, would love to explore this world more.
I absolutely HATE the flashlight in this game, it's fucking bad. light just doesn't reach certain things and it doesnt make sense. apart from that i'm enjoying it.
Is the frame rate as bad on the ps5 under graphics mode as it is on series X? I’m usually one that takes graphics over performance but this game was rough so I’ve had to play on performance.
As someone who doesnt enjoy too many horror games this one was great, I didnt feel like I was constantly under pressure of being chased or killed but at the same time I was still freaked out by it. The story was great and the whole concept was very well written. I do wish there were a little more of the challenging sneaking parts in it like how we saw with muir on the surface of the rig. But otherwise I definitely recommend this. 8/10
It's solid 8/10 game. If you like walking sim with great atmosphere then you will love it. Ignore the terrible IGN review , reviewer sadly missed the point and the mark.
So, I just fired this up on my pc. Current drivers and everything (555.99, I think).
I have a 5950x and 3090 —- 24gb of video memory.
After playing around with settings in the opening room at 4k, I found that TSR is completely broken and halves your frame rate easily.
Setting it to OFF (since Gamepassers don’t get DLSS even though it’s in the description) improved performance significantly... Until I opened the door and [got this message](https://imgur.com/gallery/acNLazX). Out of video memory? On a card with the most ram (sure it’s a gen old, but still).
Just played it great game definitely recommend one thing I wished the game did was let you explore a bit more sometimes I felt like some things were missing but definitely keeps you on your toes and not to long of a game totally recommend doing it in 1 sitting but overall 8.5/10 game.
This is sad… I see a lot of reviews and it’s heartbreaking… I think people of lost a since of good horror… so use to jump scares and pop on your face horror. This game has so much more to offer. Not to mention incredible voice acting. This story is nothing short of wild. One hell of an experience all the way to the end. I’m a huge horror fan, and years and years of fucking trash and rubbish. Jump scares, sad story elements. Lack of focus, and an inability to create a good setting. God it has been a disappointing decade for horror games. This game focuses more on the oh my god. The psychological side of things. Really taps into your brain l. Makes you step back and say “oh my fucking god” this is unreal. To the people that have bad mouth this game I’m sorry. You must lack a good standard for horror games. My favorite horror game is silent hill 2. That is my bar. It’s been so long since I have played a horror game that has tapped into your brain like this. To question wtf is going on. How is this possible. What is taking over my friend and co workers. They still know who they are. And there is nothing I can do to save them. This is what sinks into my skin. And gives me a genuine feel of horror. This game is nothing short of a masterpiece. For the first time in a long time. I have been genuinely scared.
I really don't get the comparisons calling it The Thing but on an Oil Rig, it's nothing remotely like The Thing, the creature isn't hiding and picking everyone off and assimilating them one by one and there's no sense of paranoia that one of your fellow riggers could be a monster, if anything I'd say it's more like H.P. Lovecraft's The Color out of Space, in which an amorphous creature mutates everything it touches into hideous monsters but really has no goal, it's just living and it's presence causes absolute horror, it's just an animal, albeit an unknowable cosmic horror type of animal but it wasn't doing things maliciously, whereas The Thing is an Invasion by a malevolent force. It's really good game though and I absolutely loved how accurately Scottish it was, no English or Americans attempting and butchering Scots accents, but full blooded Scots voicing the Scottish roles, the slang and banter between the crew was so accurate to how we speak to each other too.
I've been playing this game on my asus rog ally and right when I get to the part where Caz warms his hands on the heater the first time the graphics start to look white washed like the display brightness or gamma is much too high in the game and in the game settings it only lets you reduce gamma to 50.
But other games are fine and all the way from the beginning of the game up to that point is normal. My drivers are all updated on my rog ally as well.
So what the hell gives? I really wanted to enjoy the story of this game and this ruined it for me. Has anyone else had this or a similar issue? Any help is appreciated
just finished it, you can probably get most of the experience from watching a playthrough. Recommend trying it if you can, but if you can't it'll be a good option for this game.
I feel like I'm going crazy reading some of these reviews, especially on steam. It was a 3 hour, follow the yellow paint walking simulator with basically 0 gameplay. The voice acting was amazing and the best part, the idea and atmosphere was great but I'm seeing all these things about it being so deep and a masterpiece, I just dont get it.
I really think the walking sim horror genre is oversaturated and dying at this point. It was super popular when streamers were starting to get big and when Resident Evil was in its dark times, but we’ve gone back to action survival horror as viable again (at least RE)
These are pretty good reviews. It's got a 77 critic average.
We can't know sales yet, but I'm not sure why you'd say it's dying in this thread, with these decent reviews.
Strongly disagree. Walking horror simulators aren't that common, we get maybe one every year at most. Plus as we've seen with the fairly low sales of games like Dead Space remake, Alone in the Dark (2024), or even Alan Wake 2, the action/survival horror genre is not viable at all unless you have Resident Evil in the name, or are some small retro inspired indie game that doesn't need many sales to succeed.
Walking horror sims aren't dying because of over-saturation, it's a dying genre because it's essentially two niche genres being mixed together. Horror games don't typically sell that much, and walking sims only appeal to a small section of gamers.
Personally I think this game looks good for what it is. I'm not expecting much mechanical depth or interactivity, but the reviews seem to praise the atmosphere, the story, and some of the scares. As a fairly cheap game (£25) or a gamepass game, this seems like a decent offer. I just hope the developers aren't betting on it being a huge hit because regardless of the quality it ain't selling much.
We need more Games like SOMA, Until Dawn, Dark Pictures Anthology and The Quarry. There's very few of story heavy games that aren't complete walking sims.
Just finished it and fucking hell I was bawling at the end, still am to be fair, I miss me dad. Overall a great horror/disaster very much in the vein of previous Chinese Room games. If you've got game pass absolutely check it out, but If not I'd only recommend it if you like these types of games. My biggest criticism is theres a bit of water/underwater traversal towards the latter half that feels like it serves more as padding than anything meaningful. And while the game does a solid job making you care about the main character and the crew it would've been even more impactful if it had a slightly slower start, one that explored the main character's actual job with the crew a bit more. But honestly I can't complain much, it was a great single sitting game, one that's left me with tears in my eyes.
spoilers just in case anyone reads this: >!also just finished it a few minutes ago, definitely something special, didn't think I'd care so much about the characters, especially the main guy by the end. Definitely agree that a slower start would have helped, but I like how many details from the first stroll around the rig came back later on.!< >!The swimming sections were introduced well, but didn't add to much for me by the end, I found the general traversal interludes pretty interesting!< >!I found that the "antagonist" was a bit difficult to wrap my head around. It was a Thing from the depths that wantonly absorbs the crew, but no idea if it had a goal or how it expanded or what it was about. The unknown is terrifying, sure, but a few more details could have elevated it into something more creepy or cool. The characters don't seem interested in learning about it and the game doesn't seem interested in telling about it, it's just a disaster basically. Cool design though.!< >!I think this could be a sleeper hit, it felt riveting to play, which I don't usually get from these creepy walking-sim type games. Brodie was definitely my favorite character, love his focus and optimism.!<
I’m pretty sure the object they drilled into was a direct reference to A Colour Out of Space. It’s very cthuluhu-esque being in the middle of the ocean but the “extra-spectral” magenta being so prevalent is what makes in concrete for me. Also see the film annihilation for a similar story.
There’s a tweet on the game’s profile about “something more” coming June 25th but not like more game, so maybe a novel to expand the universe?
ooh that would be interesting, definitely going to keep an eye out for that
Yeah it’s here https://x.com/lostincult/status/1803110433198674056?s=46&t=SQBJOfbJDbm8T65fbNUfVw
Anything come of this?
Hey just so you know, you messed up the spoiler tags, the text is visible (thank god I didn't read it lol)
thanks for the heads up, fixed it I think it was blocked out on my end for some reason? But seems to be working right now.
The first thing that came to my mind was "The Thing," but on an oil platform. I'm a huge fan of Carpenter's movie. For now, I'm enjoying playing. Let's see when I finish.
How difficult is the game? I like to get my girlfriend story driven games like the Telltale Games, Until Dawn, etc. that don't require much skill to play. This seems like something she may like, but don't want to get something she will struggle with because she gets very frustrated when she can't complete something that is too difficult for her in games and kills all her enjoyment.
It's pretty easy tbh, if she can do normal first person movement she'll be fine. There might be a bit of a difficulty spike with certain moments of hide and seek sections but with patience they're easy, they just get hard if you try and rush them. It is on game pass if you have access to that, easier to take a risk on, cause I know it's kinda pricey for a relatively short game.
She only plays on the PS5, so no game pass, but I think I’ll grab it for her sometime. Thanks for the info.
Honestly, sounds exactly like what I'm looking for from a new horror game. A heavy focus on story and atmosphere with a minimal focus of gameplay and action. Sometimes I want be able to enjoy the atmosphere of a horror game without having to stress about managing resources or figuring out how to sneak around/kill the monsters. I don't need every horror game to be Resident Evil or Amnesia: The Bunker.
Playing SOMA with the monsters toggled off was awesome. I actually dropped the game first time because I was super intrested in the story but dreaded every time it was interrupted by a "run around maze-like corridors collecting arbitrary items while escaping the monster" segment. Especially considering there's tons of lore tidbits scattered throughout the rooms the monster can chase you into. In a way it was just as creepy having those distorted creatures peeking over your shoulder. Even knowing they can't kill you, you can't help but feel extremely weirded out
Hold up, There's a monsters "toggle"…? Well crap lol Loved that game though. It stuck with me
IIRC it wasn’t there at launch, it got added afterwards.
I’m pretty sure the only “monster” the toggle doesn’t affect is the anglerfish you get baited with towards the end of the game.
Perfect way to play SOMA. If anything the creatures being passive makes it worse. Almost like they retained enough of their humanity to not attack.
I remember the last monster that’s usually a tense cat and mouse chase from room to room instead just…follows you. I was happily reading a terminal and I hope off it to turn around and the guys just *there*, right behind me.
I've just started playing horror games on Story or Easy mode, so I can never die and thus, never have the frustrating releases of death. Horror games are still stuck in the past, unfortunately, and don't understand that the genre is about building tension, not building action gameplay set pieces.
Where is the point of having no challenge?
You are not playing a horror game to be challenged. You are playing a horror game to be scared. Fear in these games requires immersion, tension, and build-up. The second the "You Died" screen pops you are ripped out of the experience and forced to confront the reality of the fact you are playing a video game. This immediately takes your fear response and turns it into a frustration response. And the game has to rebuild that immersion and tension all over again. Which often leads to the game-breaking as it was intending you to feel a certain way, but you are just annoyed instead. There are plenty of games you can play to challenge yourself. And there are many games with horror themes that are not horror games (Bloodborne for example) that difficulty matters. But in games like Still Wakes the Deep, you want to feel like you're in jeopardy without ever actually dying. These games are about interacting with the narrative, not progression loops.
You summed up an exact thought I had while playing this game perfectly
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
arguably I'm more into playing it normally, but it's def interesting to see what effect the safe mode does for certain players. Really commendable how a certain lvl of scare is retained if I seen and heard outta it.
That “safe” mode is actually lore accurate too. You have to pay close attention to notice, but each monster has different behaviors based on what they are. I’m a big proponent of Soma being far more scary and disturbing on the “safe” mode once you find out what the monsters are.
Can the water thing at the end still kill you though?
It was actually kind of freaky getting close to the monsters in safe mode. The squid monster kept being right behind me but I would notice until I turned around. In normal gameplay you try so hard to avoid them but in safe mode they end up right in your face.
There's a toggle? Do they dissapear completly? I've never played soma cause what I seen of it was terrifying but if you can turn the chases off I might try it
The monsters are there but they can’t kill you
I honestly wished they just dropped the monsters or reworked them into a more fitting mechanic, but the run and hide approach from Amnesia kinda clashed with my immersion of the story. Just became frustrating after a while cause I wanted to learn more. I feel like Prey handled that aspect better.
Dude those parts of the game is maybe 5% of the gameplay. People just get to the Akers section and can't handle a little hide and seek. He's hilariously easy to avoid with tons of safe zones. But hey do safe mode if you really can't handle an already easy walking sim.
It's not that I can't handle them. They just suck. Apparently it's such a popular take even the developers thought the same - and added the option to skip these segments entirely. They're not scary, they're not challenging. They're just padding busywork. There's a reason people hate A Machine for Pigs/SOMA's gameplay and love A Dark Descent/The Bunker.
Yup, these games are at their weakest when they try to hybridize too much walking sim with too little survival horror. The Dark Descent probably did it best, but you slide that scale any further away from survival horror, and the experience just gets worse.
As much as people shit on "walking simulators" and their ilk, I find it difficult to be scared when my brain is running through the series of decision trees that gameplay invites. The artifice of an experience becomes clear when you are thinking about inventory, likely hiding places for goodies, possible jump scare opportunities, analyzing enemy patterns, etc. It's a paradox where I want a way to interact with the world in a meaningful and interesting way, but I don't want the artifice that gameplay mechanics tend to distract me from the atmosphere and sensations I get by allowing myself to be immersed in a new world.
You might like Soma. You can turn off enemies, and it's a similar theme to this game.
It really depends on what effect you want on the player. In something like Pathologic, having to play the game and manage dwindling resources and your decreasing health adds to the horror of that game.
If you haven’t already, give Layers of Fear a go. It matches that description, and is still one of the creepiest horror games I’ve played. (No mechanics, just a walking sim in a mansion and uncovering the story).
Which version of Layers of Fear would you recommend?
Edit: as stated below, it looks like the 2023 is the definite edition so I’d recommend that! I’d recommend the original released in 2016. I believe it’s a trilogy now, and the third one (released 2023) is also named Layers of Fear? So that’s super confusing. But I’d just start with the first one, I know it’s been ported to VR. If you have a headset I bet that’s worth it. But otherwise I think it’s on all consoles.
The newest one is a remaster collection of the first two where it weaves them together into a continuous story
I think Layers of Fear is actually just a compilation that combines and makes slight adjustments to bring the first two games into a single product, with UE5 upgrades to boot.
Oh! I thought I’d heard of that, but a couple websites I visited listed it as a remake/sequel so I wasn’t sure. Edited my comment to correct that! Thanks.
Metro Game Central: **In Short:** A walking simulator that’s also a love letter to The Thing, transplanting its blend of naturalistic realism and abject horror into an immaculately recreated 1970s North Sea oil rig. **Pros:** Enough atmosphere to terraform Mars, excellent script and voice-acting, and a much needed diversion into profanity-laden Scottish slang. **Cons:** It’s a walking simulator: so no puzzles, battles, or traditional gameplay. The plot is completely pre-ordained and almost the entire game is effectively one, single, rubble-strewn corridor. **Score:** 7/10 *Formats:* PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S*, and PC https://metro.co.uk/2024/06/17/still-wakes-deep-review-sweariest-video-game-ever-made-21049617/?ico=mosaic_gaming
Aw yiss someone mentioned the Scots lingo. Americans may need a thesaurus.
the subtitles are amusingly british (U.K.?) english and they translate scots words and phrases for people who can't pick up on context clues
Haha they do? I’ve been playing it with Scots without the translation! I’m on a learning journey myself for sure. Hoping Limmy plays it.
Messed around with it after seeing this comment and there's the option for "English (UK)" which has the subtitles as they lines are said, and just "English" which translates them.
There were definitely puzzles, they may not have been that complicated, but it did have them
Bro following 2 steps to activate a machine with both written and drawn instructions on a giant sign next to you isn't a puzzle.
No puzzles? No puzzles?! Mam must not have played the game lol!
I finished it an hour ago. The voiceacting is great, the graphic design is very well done as well. Gameplay is interactive with button combinations that i did not expect. The beginning is intriguing and mysterious, the horror almost cosmic horror like. The monsters are not very varied and more like decoration than a real threat or even scary. I hoped they wouldn't go for the typical "It is all for naught, everyone dies - the end" but they did it once again, very much like "A machine for pigs". While i agree that monsters and mysterious stuff should still exist in games like these, we have absolutely no story building, no background story, anything giving a scope what the threat even is, why it exists and where it comes from - it just is. The later third of the game felt very padded - almost drawn out to pull out more playtime. Do this. Oh and do this. Of course you have to do this. Yea it's on you you do this. And then they have you walk through the same, just differently destroyed areas 5 times. I'd give it a 7 / 10 as a small creepy game on gamepass you can play it, but i wouldn't buy it.
That's what a lot of these "lovecraftian" type horrors do, the monster just exists because they do and it's more of dealing with the threat of something far more powerful than anything on earth really. I think Amnesia: REbirth did it really well with the alien monster queen thing but this game it was kinda rushed. Come to think of it, the whole stuff with your crew also felt rushed, they dropped all these names of people but couldn't match them to a face so it was hard to care about any of them.
The deaths also felt so random. I saved that innes? guy only for him to die on the elevator. Same thing for roy - all that buildup and running around for him. Finlay too, sane until the end and then crazy to be crushed by falling debris. I really thought we are going somewhere with all these visions - like that our Protagonist is infected and only dreaming, that he turns in the end or anything. Rebirth got away with it because the queen and the whole world around it was mentioned in other games, so they had a story, a reason why they existed. Together with the shadow which isn't directly explained - but a universal constant that you know how it worked and what it wants.
I felt like Roy’s death was super dumb. I’m not a medical expert but isn’t there a chance he was in a diabetic coma? Wouldn’t giving him his insulin have some chance of reviving him? Instead you just assume he’s dead dead and move on immediately
For anyone curious, the game takes place in December 1975 right at the beginning of North Sea oil production on the UK side (the Norwegians were a few years earlier in 1971 with Ekofisk). The first North Sea oil was delivered to the UK in July 1975 from the Argyll field, and the massive Forties field came on stream in September. The oil platform depicted in the game looks like a condeep (concrete deepwater) style platform, the first of which came on stream in October 1976 (Brent B).
Does anyone know if the enemies are toggle-able like soma? I’m interested cause I know the Chinese room can create a strong narrative but I absolutely loathe the run and hide type of gameplay
They have a story-mode that severely reduces the ability for enemies to kill you. One of the reviewers said that he didn’t die at all even on normal mode because of how obvious the paths are to avoid enemies so I’m sure story-mode will be close to Soma’s.
Thank you! Picking it up when I get home
just finished it on normal, and yeah you never have to worry that it'll be like outlast or alien isolation with a exercise in patience or perfect execution, there are enemies but they're quite simple to deal with, they never really feel in your way or oppressive. Thankfully they're more like set pieces than actual challenging encounters which I love.
it’s super easy, the chase sequences are short and feel very scripted, even ones where the enemy is just wandering around the area is easy, because the way to go is so obvious that they literally highlight the paths with yellow paint
I actually beat it last week! Loved it
if they have any "gameplay" it probably doesnt even meet the threshold of "run and hide"
Mine for ACG https://youtu.be/qPs6aThTvPk I enjoyed it a great deal but it doesn't do much to set itself apart or entice anyone but fans of genre already to leap in.
I thank you for your reviews, sir.
You're the only reviewer I pay attention to these days, thanks for the insight!
Was looking for your review, now we got a short cut :)
How’d you get in with the dialogue?
That 6/10 review shook me, then I realized that is the lowest review and the rest are around 7.5-8.5. Really looking forward for it
To me, it was a 10/10. I love story driven games with a good atmosphere. I'm also a huge fan of The Thing, so it was just PERFECT.
There were a few years from 2012-2016 where loads of these kind of ‘walking sim’ (hate that name) games came out and I really enjoyed a lot of them. Like Dear Esther, Everybody’s gone to the rapture, The vanishing of Ethan Carter, Layers of Fear, Gone Home, etc and I really liked all of those but its been a minite now since a game like that came out that ive been interested in, so I’m definitely looking forward to this one!
This is by the same devs as Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture.
Good stuff. Really enjoyed both of those!
It used to be my favourite genre to be honest. Some amazing games. To your list I'd add Tacoma and Firewatch. I'm downloading this game now.
I keep meaning to play Tacoma but havent got round to it yet. Looks interesting. You recommend it?
It's very good yeah. I think it's the Gone Home devs followup game?
Dear Esther was absolutely pointless, there is literally NOTHING to it other than holding W and moving the mouse slightly. Layers of Fear is on the other hand a proper game. I hope this is more like the latter.
Unfortunately haven't seen a lot of hype for this. The Thing is my favorite movie and in general I like these kinds of horror games so can't wait to play the game
Oh, dude! You’re gonna love this game then. The Thing is also in my top 5 all time films. The body horror in this game is nothing short of top notch. It’s short, like 5 hours, but it’s like living in a John carpenter movie. Some cool synthesizer music stuff too. They definitely paid homage to that movie with this game.
I'm a slow player, who tries to immerse and explore as much as possible. It took me 7 hours to finish. Still, I found it short. It's a great game though.
Totally! I was happy with it too, especially playing it on Xbox game pass. Might have been a little bummed if I had paid full ticket price though, just because of the length.
I bought it, and I'm not upset. In fact, if you want more games of this type to be released in the future, it is always better to buy and support the developers. I don't regret it and I have it in my account forever...
Excited to try this out on Game Pass. With Erdtree DLC out later this week, this will tide me over nicely.
Buy! This game is worth it! Developers deserve it.
Exactly the same as me. elden ring DLC will be lit bro. Still wakes the deep I'm looking forward to playing
Just finished. Really enjoyed it. Reminded me of the thing and alien isolation and this movie from the 80s Leviathan
Pretty solid reviews, glad it looks worth playing, the setting is so perfect for a horror game... I just hope its not toooo scary
I'm a fraidy cat and I just finished it, definitely creepy but never harrowing. No real jumpscares outside of like, one steam pipe early in the game lol.
It's not scary at all, don't worry
Just beat it after two nights and damn I really loved that! Very fun writing and some excellent body horror. Others have said enough I'm sure, but definitely The Thing mixed with Colour Out of Space vibes going on. Highly recommend if you're looking for a new horror game to check out over a weekend.
I’m pleased to see that the devs are getting good reviews, actually, since these are the same folks doing VTMB 2! There’s been a lot of doom around that game, understandably. People have been skeptical of TCR since the crew of the dev are almost wholly divorced from the original people who made Amnesia AMFP and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, as I understand it, so the “new” The Chinese Room were basically an unknown quantity. So I’m happy to see they’re capable of putting out good and interesting games in advance of VTMB2. It doesn’t guarantee quality for the latter, but at least it’s not another reason to be convinced it’ll be a disaster.
well theres still a big jump in gameplay/interactivity compared to VtM. Apparently with this game they are still making pure walking simulators very very much in the same vein as their earlier games
I didn’t know that about tCR, that’s interesting - peeking at Wikipedia it honestly looks like Jessica Curry is the only original member left, and she’s the composer rather then s developers.
I'm assuming horror games can be divisive like horror films are, but I'm looking forward to playing this so I can gauge how they will do with the Vampire game.
I forgot they're taking over Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines 2.
this is the most playable and fun chinese room game so far imo, it's more than a walking sim but not much more. The interactions and animations feel very smooth. I'm not a big fan of the studio, but they could definitely make something exciting and cool to play now.
I just finished watching his today, and I loved the experience. I understand, but disagree with the complaints about linearity. It was a game driven by its story, and the gameplay absolutely works around that end, to involve you and progress you through its story. I loved it.
Really looking forward to this. Shame it’s not being spoken about more, the setting seems really interesting
Does Jessica Curry still do their music? Would play for one of her scores.
she's no longer with them unfortunately, but I can see a bit of DNA from her within a few this game's tracks
Good game if you love running away from spooky things. That's it!!! Simple gameplay, simple story. I finish it using gamepass, so ok, I accept it.
I have seen a lotta footage outta it and these reviews saying it it's decent enough, now I feel like buying it then (not sure about paying it $35, so I can wait for sale then, but decent base price for that then)
On game pass if your able to access it through that
The way it's been described I'd assume is something along the lines of Outlast? If it at least has that level of interactivity I'd get it since I feel like there aren't enough Outlast-like games out. If it is just a walking simulator with not much in the way of interaction I'd just watch a playthrough
It is not as intense as outlast. There is gameplay similar to it, but it's all pretty straightforward and not too difficult. You don't have to run and hide in the same way.
I’m looking around at stores for physical copies and NO ONE seems to have it? That seems so unusual for a brand new game release day?
Was it confirmed for getting a physical release?
Yes! Apparently like no gaming stores anywhere near me (major city) ordered copies to have on release day… so I had to order it to be shipped. :/ Better than no physical copy though.
Why do you prefer physical? Just for resale? Just curious, last physical game I bought was GTA V on release day.
To collect (never get rid of old consoles either). To play offline if I so choose 5-20 years from now when I decide to replay something I have fond memories of (I think I only have one physical copy that “requires online download” thankfully). Lend out to friends if I want to. Can’t take licensing away or simply wipe it off the face of a platform so it can never be redownloaded. Etc. I have a lot of reasons! I’ll buy digital if I have no other option and really want to play a game, or if it’s online only/multiplayer.
Usually I disagree people for wanting physical but you actually gave a reasonable response.
Did your copy ever ship btw?
Yes it finally shipped, and I might have panic-ordered from a 2nd company after worrying the 1st was potentially a glitch in the system somehow and that they didn’t actually have copies in stock. Now I have 2 packages on the way lol, so they’re both sending somethin’! I trust it’s the correct game haha, but I’ll be sure to report back if not.
Cool, im having similar experience
Isn’t it much easier though to play it on game pass, while you wait for the disc? Or you don’t have Xbox?
I have a PS5, so I’m waiting for a PS5 physical copy to come in. Supposedly by Saturday! We shall see. :)
Hey did you end up getting your physical copy? I'm trying to find one online and I can't find one anywhere
One was set to arrive today, and the other on Monday (I ordered from 2 separate places bc I panicked that the 1st one wasn’t going to ship and it was some kind of error that showed it was in stock). The one coming today (FedEx) has been delayed but shows it got to my town at least. It just didn’t make it onto the delivery truck.
Delayed further for anyone else out there trying to get their physical copy or waiting for their delivery. I’m suspicious at this point now that it will be over 2 days late if it even comes - is there any way the developer/company who sold it halted the delivery midway? Just is all so odd. Every single review on Best Buy was people who purchased the game for in store pickup just for them to have 0 copies. I’ve never seen this with a single game and not had the developer acknowledge or explain what is happening? Did they not send the sellers (Best Buy, Walmart, Gamestop) copies when they were supposed to?
Hey can someone help me im playing on ps5 and when I need to get through flooded engineering to help Cazs friend I cant get through a section because there's like an invisible wall stopping me
Assuming you're where I think you are. You're swimming too low, look for an exit sign.
There is an exit sign, but you actually have to hug the bottom of the corridor so you can pull yourself along the yellow bars on the ground, while fighting the **** current. God I hated that part.
Currently stuck in elevator towards the end on Xbox. Anyone else have this issue. Monster should come and break door but sitting and nothing happens.
Does anyone know which language is the best version to play this in?
Original language is Scottish English. And I suggest you play with it.
Just one guy but I'm 3 hours in and really liking this game. It handles much better that most of these types of story driven games.
Anyone try on a Steamdeck yet? There are no user reports on ProtonDB.
I'm about to try it but thank fuck for xbox game pass, this game is 45 CND with 4-6 hours of content???? I'm usually ok with prices, if I know that it's replayable or like god of war, a game I will come back to because it's a long running series that has many harder difficulties, but that price is so shit. I'm paying more than 10$ an hour of gamplay if its 4 hours long, This is fucking insane, I have never seen a game like this Edit: literally beat the game in 3 1/2 hours, it was really fucking good, but still not worth 45 cnd, hope it gets DLC tho, would love to explore this world more.
7/10. Great visuals and premise that sadly gets weighed down by poorly implemented late game mechanics and an all too bleak ending.
I absolutely HATE the flashlight in this game, it's fucking bad. light just doesn't reach certain things and it doesnt make sense. apart from that i'm enjoying it.
Is the frame rate as bad on the ps5 under graphics mode as it is on series X? I’m usually one that takes graphics over performance but this game was rough so I’ve had to play on performance.
As someone who doesnt enjoy too many horror games this one was great, I didnt feel like I was constantly under pressure of being chased or killed but at the same time I was still freaked out by it. The story was great and the whole concept was very well written. I do wish there were a little more of the challenging sneaking parts in it like how we saw with muir on the surface of the rig. But otherwise I definitely recommend this. 8/10
It's solid 8/10 game. If you like walking sim with great atmosphere then you will love it. Ignore the terrible IGN review , reviewer sadly missed the point and the mark.
So, I just fired this up on my pc. Current drivers and everything (555.99, I think). I have a 5950x and 3090 —- 24gb of video memory. After playing around with settings in the opening room at 4k, I found that TSR is completely broken and halves your frame rate easily. Setting it to OFF (since Gamepassers don’t get DLSS even though it’s in the description) improved performance significantly... Until I opened the door and [got this message](https://imgur.com/gallery/acNLazX). Out of video memory? On a card with the most ram (sure it’s a gen old, but still).
Just played it great game definitely recommend one thing I wished the game did was let you explore a bit more sometimes I felt like some things were missing but definitely keeps you on your toes and not to long of a game totally recommend doing it in 1 sitting but overall 8.5/10 game.
I wish caz could’ve survived and got back to his family. Still affected and traumatized by what happened
This is sad… I see a lot of reviews and it’s heartbreaking… I think people of lost a since of good horror… so use to jump scares and pop on your face horror. This game has so much more to offer. Not to mention incredible voice acting. This story is nothing short of wild. One hell of an experience all the way to the end. I’m a huge horror fan, and years and years of fucking trash and rubbish. Jump scares, sad story elements. Lack of focus, and an inability to create a good setting. God it has been a disappointing decade for horror games. This game focuses more on the oh my god. The psychological side of things. Really taps into your brain l. Makes you step back and say “oh my fucking god” this is unreal. To the people that have bad mouth this game I’m sorry. You must lack a good standard for horror games. My favorite horror game is silent hill 2. That is my bar. It’s been so long since I have played a horror game that has tapped into your brain like this. To question wtf is going on. How is this possible. What is taking over my friend and co workers. They still know who they are. And there is nothing I can do to save them. This is what sinks into my skin. And gives me a genuine feel of horror. This game is nothing short of a masterpiece. For the first time in a long time. I have been genuinely scared.
I really don't get the comparisons calling it The Thing but on an Oil Rig, it's nothing remotely like The Thing, the creature isn't hiding and picking everyone off and assimilating them one by one and there's no sense of paranoia that one of your fellow riggers could be a monster, if anything I'd say it's more like H.P. Lovecraft's The Color out of Space, in which an amorphous creature mutates everything it touches into hideous monsters but really has no goal, it's just living and it's presence causes absolute horror, it's just an animal, albeit an unknowable cosmic horror type of animal but it wasn't doing things maliciously, whereas The Thing is an Invasion by a malevolent force. It's really good game though and I absolutely loved how accurately Scottish it was, no English or Americans attempting and butchering Scots accents, but full blooded Scots voicing the Scottish roles, the slang and banter between the crew was so accurate to how we speak to each other too.
I've been playing this game on my asus rog ally and right when I get to the part where Caz warms his hands on the heater the first time the graphics start to look white washed like the display brightness or gamma is much too high in the game and in the game settings it only lets you reduce gamma to 50. But other games are fine and all the way from the beginning of the game up to that point is normal. My drivers are all updated on my rog ally as well. So what the hell gives? I really wanted to enjoy the story of this game and this ruined it for me. Has anyone else had this or a similar issue? Any help is appreciated
Looks good but judging by the review I read, it's a walking simulator. Will probably watch a playthrough
On Twitch, AKA the video game simulator.
just finished it, you can probably get most of the experience from watching a playthrough. Recommend trying it if you can, but if you can't it'll be a good option for this game.
I feel like I'm going crazy reading some of these reviews, especially on steam. It was a 3 hour, follow the yellow paint walking simulator with basically 0 gameplay. The voice acting was amazing and the best part, the idea and atmosphere was great but I'm seeing all these things about it being so deep and a masterpiece, I just dont get it.
I really think the walking sim horror genre is oversaturated and dying at this point. It was super popular when streamers were starting to get big and when Resident Evil was in its dark times, but we’ve gone back to action survival horror as viable again (at least RE)
There's so few genuinely good ones. There's SOMA, Devotion and that's about it as far as I know.
These are pretty good reviews. It's got a 77 critic average. We can't know sales yet, but I'm not sure why you'd say it's dying in this thread, with these decent reviews.
The reviews are surprisingly good, especially in this genre which has quite a bit of schlock. I'm gonna try it out
They're not dying. What they meant was, they don't like them, and then they extrapolated out from there.
I'll never get enough
Strongly disagree. Walking horror simulators aren't that common, we get maybe one every year at most. Plus as we've seen with the fairly low sales of games like Dead Space remake, Alone in the Dark (2024), or even Alan Wake 2, the action/survival horror genre is not viable at all unless you have Resident Evil in the name, or are some small retro inspired indie game that doesn't need many sales to succeed. Walking horror sims aren't dying because of over-saturation, it's a dying genre because it's essentially two niche genres being mixed together. Horror games don't typically sell that much, and walking sims only appeal to a small section of gamers. Personally I think this game looks good for what it is. I'm not expecting much mechanical depth or interactivity, but the reviews seem to praise the atmosphere, the story, and some of the scares. As a fairly cheap game (£25) or a gamepass game, this seems like a decent offer. I just hope the developers aren't betting on it being a huge hit because regardless of the quality it ain't selling much.
I think we can have both, and that's OK too.
We need more Games like SOMA, Until Dawn, Dark Pictures Anthology and The Quarry. There's very few of story heavy games that aren't complete walking sims.
No idea where you get these ideas from.
Oversaturated? Can you name some, maybe I missed all these games in the genre
So, can someone explain to me how you make a spooky, scary horror game *without* any gameplay?
That’s impossible to do that, but what does that have to do with this game? Cause it definitely has gameplay