Summary

• Still Wakes The Deep excels in atmosphere and storytelling, building relationships amidst horror.
• Smaller plotlines like Addair's hate, ominous events, and Finlay's sacrifice are crucial.
• Rennick is portrayed as the main villain, dismissing warnings that set off tragic events.

The Chinese Room absolutely nailed the atmosphere and storytelling in Still Wakes The Deep. The amount of things that it managed to put into such a small package is, frankly, impressive. In the game, you build a relationship with the rig workers through Caz, and you care for the people he ends up losing, one by one.

The main narrative would be more than enough to justify the four hours you'll spend on an average playthrough, but there are quite a few smaller plotlines that are easily missed. Here are a few that we wanted to highlight.

6 Addair Is A National Front Supporter

The Most Hateful Person On The Rig

The only member of the rig that seems as unanimously hated as Rennick is Addair. When you first meet him, he is the only person sitting alone in the canteen. He is confrontational from the start and doesn’t seem remotely interested in making any friends.

If you visit his room in the introductory part of the game, you get a bit more insight into his backstory. Addair is, quite openly, a National Front supporter. He went so far as to put up a poster on the wall of his room, with the sentences that can be seen in the above image. He later comes back as one of the most persistent monsters in Still Wakes the Deep.

5 The Conspicuous Dart Tournament Finalists

The Omen Given At The Beginning

Still Wakes The Deep’s horror comes from two main things: the fear of the unknown, as the game never ends up telling us what’s taking over the rig, and the fear of isolation. Slowly, but surely, Caz is losing everyone around him. He is in the middle of the ocean away from friends and family, surrounded by nothing but endless darkness.

This is also felt in the progressive loss of everyone at the rig, everyone except for Brodie and Finlay until the bitter end. Guess who made the finals of the darts tournament? Interestingly, no winner is appointed on the sheet, so the finals of the tournament might've been meant to be played on the day on which disaster struck the Beira D rig.

4 Rennick Is The True Villain

The Only One To Blame

Still Wakes The Deep portrays Rennick, the 'king of the rig', as one of the most hateful characters imaginable. That much is obvious. He is an utter prick, and he cares about nothing other than his pay. He is more than that, though. Since the developers left a lot of questions unanswered, we have a bit of wiggle room to explore.

There is no certainty that the entity taking over the rig is aggressive. Instead, it’s more logical to assume that it actually wasn’t. During his phone call with Gibbo, you can hear Rennick dismiss any warnings from his crew and tell them to drill through whatever was down there. This is likely the first domino piece that started all the events of Still Wakes The Deep.

3 Beira D Oil Rig Had Never Been Safe

Yet No One Heeded The Warnings

Even before the disasters that unfolded during Still Wakes The Deep’s short runtime, the signs of it coming were obvious. Trots, the union representative on board, had even gone so far as to send a written letter to Cadal Management And Board warning them that the North Sea Oil Workers Union was planning on taking “industrial action”.

O’Connor’s room had two buckets on the ground and was still filled with water puddles and, as Caz eventually finds out, no lifeboats remain usable after the first explosions. A Lovecraftian-inspired being would take down any oil rig that provoked its wrath, but many a disaster could’ve struck Beira D with how poor Cadal’s management was.

2 FInlay Blames Herself For Brodie's Death

The Moment In Which Finlay Finally Cracked

During your journeys through the Beira D oil rig, you’ll see a lot of your former colleagues transformed into horrific masses of flesh and organs. So will Finlay and Brodie, the two other last survivors on the sinking metal behemoth. These three characters are pushed to the limit of what any human can handle, and, close to the end, we see Finlay finally giving up on any hopes for survival.

She decides to go on a suicide mission, blowing the entire rig up, in hopes of eradicating the entity with it. What caused this sudden change in one of the most optimistic characters in the game? We might have the answer. Finlay is the one who sends you to the Marine Control room, and she's the one who tells you to flood the Pontoons, saying "[Brodie'll] be out of there by now." When you find her by the phone, she had just found out that Brodie had not made it out of the Pontoons, and never would.

1 The Polis Are On The Hunt

Is This The Sequel Angle?

Caz, who is excellently voiced by Alec Newman, made his way to Beira D as a way to avoid the authorities. He had gotten in trouble on the mainland for assaulting Billy Chamberlain, and was hoping the dust would settle while he was away. We quickly find out that this didn't work, because Rennick tells Caz that he's fired for bringing the police to his rig. You'll notice, though, that there are no officers on board.

When you get into Rennick's office, after the helicopter crashed, you can find the note that the Police Station in Glasgow sent him. Mattin O'Hagand, the Chief Superintendent, mentions that the police will make "further inquiries in person" at Cadal's offices. Will they look for the rig once they find out that there's no communication with the rig? And, if so, what will they find?