Summary
Finishing a game is a great feeling; you get to bask in your accomplishment, watch the credits roll, and move on to the next adventure. But then the analysis paralysis sets in. With so many quality games to buy and even more stuck in your backlog, how do you choose what to play next?
Luckily for you, there are plenty of terrific experiences to jump into after finishingStill Wakes The Deep. These titles share various aspects with The Chinese Room’s project, delivering horror and adventure gameplay in equal measure.
Dear Esther
The Chinese Room’s Beginnings
If you enjoyed your time on the Beira D, you may want to explore The Chinese Room’s other offerings; they’ve produced many similar adventure games. Their first full release, Dear Esther, originated as a mod for Half-Life 2 before being expanded into a complete game.
The narrative is told to you piece by piece as you explore an island, uncovering the story of a man’s relationship with his dead wife. If you were a fan of Still Wake the Deep’s environmental storytelling, you’ll find yourself right at home in Dear Esther.
Alien: Isolation
In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream
Many of Still Wake the Deep’s most memorable set pieces involve running away and hiding from the monstrous presence invading the rig. Alien: Isolation takes this stress-inducing concept and stretches it out across an entire game, keeping players on their toes for hours at a time.
Isolation pits gamers against one of cinema’s fiercest killing machines: the Xenomorph. You’ll have to scavenge for resources, fight androids, and outsmart the creature as you try to find a way to escape the Sevastopol space station. It isconsidered one of the best survival horror gamesin recent years, and a must-play for fans of the Alien franchise.
Dredge
Lovecraft And Fishing
Dredge might seem relaxing on paper, slotting in nicely to the emerging “cozy games” genre. You are an angler, going out into the water on your boat to catch fish and make a living. However, the longer you stay into the night, you’ll find yourself losing your grip on reality, and may even be attacked by creatures from the depths.
Thus, a tense risk-vs-reward dynamic is created, as you try to catch all the fish you need without being killed in the process. Not only does it share Still Wakes the Deep’s maritime setting, but it also challenges the player with its psychological horror and ambiguous storytelling.
What Remains Of Edith Finch
Rediscovering Family
The Chinese Room has delivered some fantastic walking simulators, but they aren’t the only ones delivering well-received narrative adventures. In 2017, Giant Sparrow released What Remains of Edith Finch. The story follows the titular Edith as she returns to her childhood home following the death of her family and learns of their past.
Critical acclaim was heaped on the game, earning it a Game Award for Best Narrative. It’s a great choice for people that are looking to sit back and experience the storytelling power of interactive media, even if it’s not the most involved game when it comes to mechanics.
Soma
A Battle With Consciousness
Of all the games on this list, Soma may have the most similarities to Still Wakes the Deep. Both are horror games set in facilities surrounded by water, seeing the protagonist sneak by creatures to solve puzzles anddeveloping the world through environmental storytelling.
However, they diverge when it comes to what type of horror they’re trying to illustrate for their audience. Soma wants the audience to grapple with the terror of consciousness, as they struggle to understand if the events of the game are even real. Sentient robots add to this quandary, forcing players to wonder if they are taking a life when choosing to kill them.
Subnautica
Exploring The Sea
Subnautica is a game where players explore the ocean’s depths, discovering new plants and animals as they go. It features gameplay similar to Minecraft, letting you toggle between modes that prioritize freedom or action. For the hardcore players, there’s survival mechanics, forcing you to manage aspects of your character like hunger and oxygen.
While not usually attempting to scare its audience, Subnautica does featuresome frightening creature designs. They aren’t all friendly either, forcing you to defend yourself or run away. This frantic survival gameplay keeps players on their toes, and can create tense moments you won’t soon forget.
Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture
“Where’s Everyone Going? Bingo?”
Similar to Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is another adventure game developed by The Chinese Room. When an entire town’s inhabitants disappear, it’s up to you to search for them, and uncovering their stories will help shed light on how the rapture occurred in the first place.
The plot has been praised for its depth and willingness to cover uncomfortable subjects through the lens of interactive entertainment. When it launched in 2015, it received various accolades for its writing, helping to push the “walking simulator” genre further into the public consciousness. If you’re looking for a game that delivers a compelling story, or trying to introduce non-gamers to the power of the medium, this may be the one for you.
Cut Off Their Limbs
The horror of Caz’s situation is heightened by the fact that he’s alone, stranded at a station far from anyone who can help him. Isaac Clarke finds himself in a similar predicament in the sci-fi horror classic Dead Space. Stuck on the spaceship USG Ishimura, Clarke must use his surrounding tools to fend off the violent monsters aboard.
Obvious Alien influences aside, Dead Space brings plenty of unique ideas to the table. Its most iconic contribution to gaming isits enemies, the Necromorphs. Instead of popping heads with conventional firearms like in Resident Evil, Isaac employs his maintenance equipment to sever their limbs before stomping them into a bloody pulp. The game was previously locked to seventh gen consoles, but the 2023 remake revitalized the horror for fans new and old alike.
Until Dawn
Horror And Camp At Their Finest
If you’re looking for a cinematic horror title, it’s hard to go wrong with Until Dawn. You control a handful of friends stuck on a snowy mountain, forced to fend off attacks from monsters and mysterious killers. Supermassive’s 2015 scarefest pays tribute to the tropes of horror films, poking fun at the genre’s inherent schlock.
Gameplay is deemphasized in Until Dawn, mostly relying on quick-time events and decision-making to move the plot forward. This results in various branching story paths, encouraging replays to see what could have happened differently. If you find yourself hooked by the formula, Supermassive has made a bunch of other games in the same style (see The Dark Pictures Anthology and The Quarry), but Until Dawn is considered their greatest achievement.
BioShock
Underwater Masterpiece
The original BioShock is a seminal video game, one that managed to stand out even among the other amazing experiences launched in 2007. Players take a journey underwater and discover Rapture, a “utopia” created by Andrew Ryan for elites to escape the rules of everyday society. Here, you acquire special powers called Plasmids, which you use to fight off hostile citizens and Big Daddies.
BioShockpresents more complex themesthan your typical first-person shooter; its world is filled with allusions to prominent philosophical minds, such as George Orwell and Ayn Rand. You’re encouraged to engage with their ideologies in between firefights, creating a deeper narrative than was common for games at the time. If you haven’t taken a trip to Rapture yet, we can’t recommend it enough.
