What made āStill Wakes The Deepā my favourite Lovecraftian horror game. [FULL SPOILERS]
This time last year, I experienced a moment that has permanently cemented itself in my mind.
It comes just before the finale of āStill Wakes the Deepā, and itās a moment of complete hopelessness.
But before I explain the depth of the feelings this brought up in me, I think Iād best explain a lot of the context that works to make this moment work as well as it does.
I wonāt bore anyone here with a play-by-play of the story, so Iāll probably be jumping around a lot as I explain the literary, visual, mechanical and auditory choices that make this game so dear to me.
During the gameās opening act, Rennick commands everyone to stay put: āYouāll all be back to work in fifteen minutes, once I get all this nonsense straightened out.ā
You could read this in a couple of different ways. I personally treat it as a representation of how higher ups like Rennick will neglect to ever see a disaster coming for the workers until itās far too late. (Also - as a side note - Rennick has a birdās eye view of the entire rig. This could either go to show how strong his neglect is, or how the actual problems canāt be someone whoās as high up in management as him, and yet he still decides who does what.)
For almost every character, a denial of reality is present. In Caz, itās his choice to run away after assaulting Billy Chamberlain, and dodging the law.
Rennick, and his aforementioned choice to keep the Beira running, no matter what - before prematurely trying to leave the rig.
The other secondary characters, Finlay and Brodie, engage in increasingly complex and unsafe practices just to keep the oil rig afloat a few minutes more.
Even the setting, the rig just off the shore of Scotland and the period of the mid 70s, reflect a period of economic desperation. This wouldāve been a time where inflation and unemployment rates were at a post-war high - the possibility of ākeep calm and carry onā being on everyone's mind would've been pretty damn high.
All of this is to say, when youāre playing through the game you can feel the struggle thatās baked into the walls of the environments. Itās the perfect cast and location for the genre of cosmic horror.
Youāll probably start the gameās first few chapters with an air of optimism - hoping itāll end with you escaping alongside your coworkers and getting home. However, through your continued exposure to the design of the characters and the events that shape the world, the chances of being weathered into pessimism is all but certain.Ā
The gameās best parlour trick is making you believe thatās possible. Youāre running around constantly, fixing parts of the ship, wading through the least OSHA-compliant environments imaginable. You grimace through it all, for the sake of feeling that tangible progress is being made, that help could arrive soon.
The game has a habit of obscuring most of its horror - leaving much to the player's imagination. I think this is an incredible tool thatās used to its maximum potential. Often, the violence that Caz is witness to is implied; the intense shaking of a diving bell, a cutoff scream on the other end of a radio. Usually exposure is limited to viewing the aftermath of violence. Environmental storytelling that has an element for ambiguity wherein the player can imagine what happened to each unfortunate soul they find on the Beira.
Towards the start of the game, navigating the deck would show you the desaturated palette of metal cleansed by years of sea air and brine scraping away at paint and graphics. Itās representative of 70s Britain, of the sense of normalcy that whilst mundane, seems safe and known.
Nothing about the origin of the contaminant is explained, or at least nothing outside of what the characters personally deduce. This conditions you to think of it in the simplest of terms. All you need to know is that itās dangerous and itās growing. No way to combat or avoid it, you feel as though youāre scrambling around on borrowed time - trying to delude yourself with illusions of agency through making repairs thatāll at best buy you another hour.
A fine line is drawn between false hope and cowardice. Itās a respectable goal that Caz wants to see his family again, to leave the oil rig once itās ātoo far gone.ā That goal is questioned as both the player and Caz realise whatās happening - that the contaminant already has a hold on Cazā mind, possibly even trying to nest inside of him so that it can further spread once it gets to the mainland.Ā
The phone calls late in the game, from āSuzeā, where his insecurity of not caring for his children is preyed on forms a doubt in the back of our minds: that perhaps rescue isnāt worth it. Itās like the trolley problem; where doing whatās easiest for Caz results in the most direct harm to the world around him.
Now weāre back to *this* moment, the one I referenced at the start of this piece of writing.
The crimson that paints the rig far brighter than any still-functioning electrical light.Ā
You realise that youāre both out of time, and that you never had a chance to begin with.Ā
At last, I personally realised that there was absolutely no chance we would ever manage to make it off the Beira. However, Caz remains in a state of unavailed desperation for a while longer.
Itās perfect to me, as a way to represent cosmic horror as a whole, a spectacle of power that is quite literally beyond the comprehension of both character and audience. I felt present in that moment, immersed beyond my wildest belief, stuck in a trance, flipping between a feeling of disbelief and of pure admiration of the beauty that the contaminant had spread across the rig.
I think that is pure cosmic horror, distilled to a T.
After this the game doesnāt hold back on the feeling of hope for survival being lost. What little you can do now to prolong The Beiraās death throes feels impotent.
The number of people left fully human and alive on the rig dwindles to two: Caz and Finlay. Only then, do both the characters finally begin to understand that their fates are sealed - the only thing left is to define the terms of their surrender.Ā
The decision they agree on, to sacrifice themselves *for* the people they love is powerful to me. One of the only things that we know about the contaminant is that they try to encourage the avoidant behaviour that most of the Beira employees exhibit. Keeping both potential hosts and itself alive and preventing them from leaving the rig - using the things they desire and love as motivation.Ā
But that exploit gets reversed, convincing the final two survivors to sacrifice their lives instead.
The ending (and more specifically, its ambiguity) was the flourish that made Still Wakes the Deep go from an incredible experience, to an unforgettable one. Itās another iconic staple of cosmic horror: the unknown extent of tragedy when facing such a powerful force.
Whether or not Caz managed to actually harm the contaminant through the explosion of the rig is ambiguous, as is Suzeās letter that plays over the final moments of the game. I like that a lot. The mutual unknown of what Suze might think of us, and that Suze wonāt ever be able to know what happened to us, itās in knowing that we did all that he could in order to ensure the safety of Cazā family - a truly selfless act. This was the perfect ending to both Cazā arc, and the story as a whole, in my opinion.
Iām writing this now - a year after the game was released - because I know that āStill Wakes the Deep: Sirens Restā will release soon, and Iām worried.
Iām worried that the game will explain the source of the contaminant.
Iām worried that the game will confirm the ambiguous aspects of the game that made it so memorable to me.
Iām worried that Iāll enjoy the base game less as a result.
Iāve been thinking about this game for the last year, the best sort of stories linger in my mind, leaving me to find my own personal interpretation, and I am desperately hoping that the DLC wonāt deprive the game of that value.
The Chinese Room, I trust you.
Please donāt fuck this up.
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