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Still Wakes the Deep fans want the Chinese theater to tackle the Chernobyl disaster next, and for good reason

Still Wakes the Deep fans want the Chinese theater to tackle the Chernobyl disaster next, and for good reason

Always awaken the depths is a game that no one saw coming in 2024. It’s a beautifully shot Lovecraftian tale mixed with 1982 horror. The thing and a little Ken Loach magic thrown in for good measure. In short, it’s one of the best horror games out there, and one of the best games of the year overall.

Now, seeing what developer The Chinese Room has managed to achieve with the game, players seem ready to see them take on the worst nuclear disaster in the history of our civilization and create their own version of it. To be honest, if there’s one developer capable of replicating the horror of the Chernobyl accident, it’s them.

Still Wakes the Deep Fans Want Game Developer to Recreate Chernobyl Incident

A still from Still Wakes the Deep, featuring the protagonist's cabin.
Very few titles can claim to do better in terms of atmosphere than The Chinese Room’s 2024 masterpiece – Image credit: The Chinese Room

In our game reviewOne of our most significant points of praise was the development team’s effort to make the setting, the oil rig taken over by an incomprehensible being, feel like a living character playing his part in the story.

From the outset, it becomes clear that the developers have carried out a spectacular amount of exhaustive research over an equally long period of time to bring the oil rig to life.

That said, it’s perhaps the claustrophobia, confusion and chaos created by such meticulous game design that has now caught the attention of some fans of the HBO series. Chernobyl:

Anyone else think the developers of The Chinese Room would make a great Chernobyl game?
byu/Longjumping8768886 instillwakesthedeep

Of course, only a few developers are capable of taking on the monumental task of recreating the horror of the catastrophe in a video game, and The Chinese Room is clearly one of them.

Given how they’ve always embedded different aspects of what it means to be human in their horrific stories, as well as their insane level of effort in everything they produce, they may very well succeed.

What would a Chernobyl-themed horror game from The Chinese Room look like?

A still from Still Wakes the Deep, showing what happened to the oil rig's kitchen.
A 1:1 scale recreation of the Chernobyl incident might be a little too bland for some – Image credit: The Chinese Room.

Coming to speculations, while it is undoubtedly a great idea to make a real horror game set during the nuclear disaster, Doing the same in the video game realm seems like a pretty daunting task..

Considering this, outside of the initial confusion during the steam explosions and initial fusions, there’s really little that can be translated into gameplay.

Not to mention the fact that, although a similar narrative structure to The depths are awakening again can work effectively for such a title, it is difficult to create a satisfying gameplay loop to keep players captivated.

With that in mind, it’s clear that if The Chinese Room decides to make such a game, it’ll have to take some creative liberties to make it work. So while it certainly won’t be historically accurate, a creatively inspired supernatural tale similar to the one we got this year would undoubtedly be welcomed with open arms.

That said, what do you think about all this? Would you like to see the development team tackle the Chernobyl incident? Let us know in the comments below.