Still Wakes the Deep launch trailer sets the scene for a grizzly ship-bound cosmic horror

Best known for meditative narrative games like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture and Dear Esther, The Chinese Room also has some impressive experience with horror games: see 2013's Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, which led the horror genre into a stranger, less overtly violent direction. Still Wakes the Deep sees the British studio returning to horror, and as the new trailer shown at the PC Gaming Show today demonstrates, it's looking extremely tense indeed.

Set in 1975 off the coast of Scotland, Still Wakes the Deep follows the misadventures of an off-shore oil rig worker whose workplace has attracted the attention of unspeakable horrors. Thankfully, everyone on the rig is Scottish, but not-so-thankfully, the protagonist has nothing to defend themselves with. That places it in the Amnesia tradition of weapons-free horror, but I'm also reminded of The Thing (and, inevitably, of Metal Gear Solid 5).

And if you're worried this oil rig will become monotonous, rest assured that it will change dramatically during the course of the game. "In such a small environment, there's a risk that the player will get bored with or overfamiliar with the environment," lead designer Rob McLachlan said last month. "So, to address that, we made sure the rig evolves over time. As the event progresses, the rig starts to shake, crack, and crumble. It starts to sink, it starts to tilt, and it starts to flood. I hope that people still feel after playing the game that they're on that oil rig."

Not long to wait now: Still Wakes the Deep hits Steam on June 18.

Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.