Still Wakes the Deep (PS5, PC, XSX|S, Gamepass).

[Cyan]

I played the game on PC Gamepass and got instantly hooked to the point of completing it --in Story mode, the story is good. I completed the game in less than 3 days-, like when you rented a game for a weekend.

The graphics are something else. I gotta say that I love Unreal Engine 5 which makes games like this one possible.

But the most important thing is that the game is fun and gets you hooked. It lasts what it has to last, without errands and stupid stuff to do. No unnecessary puzzles -I like puzzles, but it makes no sense in this game-, useless collectables.

For all those reasons, I decided to create a thread about this game, it deserves it.

The game has a strong influence from the great Alien Isolation (AI is in my top 5 best games ever), saving the differences.

A 6 minutes review which I like, after having completed the game.

The atmosphere makes you feel you are in an actual oil rig in the middle of the North Sea of Scotland, so pure isolation. These people certainly visited an oil rig to accomplish such great detail.

Ah, and no stuttering!

Had to play it with Lossless Scaling, achieving 123fps (41 base fps. 1/4 of my display's Hz, 165), to have a great mix of graphics quality and performance.

 

[Davros]

Cyan, never passes up an opportunity to remind everyone his monitor has a 165hz refresh rate

 

[cheapchips]

I've had chance to play an hour so far. It really has a fantastic sense of place. The game's been mostly a walking sim so far, and tbh, I don't really want it to become more Alien Isolation. I might bounce off it at point.

The graphics are interesting. It really benefits high poly metal grates and railings that UE5 can support easily. Then there are a few objects that I wish didn't have polygon edges. The life preservers in particular stand out and a few door locking wheels. Don't know why. Storage or time?

There's also a high fidelity imperfection they don't quite capture all the time. I'm not pointing that out to be picky, rather, just think it's interesting how production limitations manifest when you have 'unlimited' geometry.

Also, really hope that we get higher performance, easy for indies to use, clothing sims. Character clothing is really beginning to bug me.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Edited title to remove the content that's supposed to appear in the discussion.

 

[BoardBonobo]

Picked this up on Steam the other day. So far so Chinese Room, the graphics are really well done. You can almost smell the musty funk from the tartan carpets and the authentic scottish voice acting is really in character. It also has a great sense of foreboding when you are on the move. The only downside was the introduction of the enemy, that would have always been much scarier if they were just on the fringes of your vision, just screams and growls in the dark.

I enjoyed Everyones Gone to the Rapture and this is a way moodier version of that.

 

[ZebMacahan]

I finished this this weekend. I liked it quite a bit. Looks gorgeous.

After the

Spoiler

first encounter

it was clear that this is a walking simulator more than a traditional game.

Spoiler

The first monster seem to spot you when you´re leaving the room no matter what

, and sometimes the run button dont seem to work, so that first encounter was a little frustrating and got me worried. I didnt have any problems the rest of the game however, maybe because I understood the rules better. The fact the gameplay is pretty much on rails and not very dynamic made the game less tense which I appriciated, i dont know if was ready to handle another alien isolation. I appriciated a shorter, beautiful, eldrich horror narative experience.

I switched to performance mode, turned off almost all of the headbobing, weird head movement, and turned of the motion blution blur (which is way to strong if your playing at 60 fps). That made the game much more immerive for me. I dont get how a bouncing camera is supposed to make the game more immersive.

 

[cheapchips]

I dont get how a bouncing camera is supposed to make the game more immersive.

It's an odd effect. Our eyes/brain filter that out IRL. You never run along thinking "hell yeah! I'm really bobbing now!"

 

[ZebMacahan]

It's an odd effect. Our eyes/brain filter that out IRL. You never run along thinking "hell yeah! I'm really bobbing now!"

Yeah, its a weird decision. I dont really get having too narrow FOV either, feels like your walking in a tunnel or something.
When your interaction with the game world is as seamless and unintrusive as possible I find that makes the experience the most immersive, thats when you forget you´re playing a game.

I liked the fact that you climb with RT, felt really intuitive.