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Kelp and light shafts between station modules on the seabed

The Quiet Below

First-person underwater horror. Coming soon to Steam for Windows PC.

The story

Rowan Vale wakes in a decompression berth at Morva Station, three thousand metres below the surface.

The left hand is crushed. Eleven days are missing. Rowan feels nothing about either, and knows that the nothing is wrong.

The medical chair in the Habitation Ring
The medical chair in the Habitation Ring

A woman's voice on the badge radio knows Rowan's name, and is afraid of something she will not say. The station's treatment records list four dates beside ROWAN VALE.

From the transcript

“Four dates by my name. I remember one.”

Rowan Vale, in the first minutes at Morva Station

Through the workshop glass, a thin figure crouches at the lift charger, pulls the last cable free and drags itself away.

Dock viewport D-2, looking out onto the kelp
Dock viewport D-2, looking out onto the kelp

The Quiet Below is a first-person psychological horror game set in one continuous research station on the ocean floor. Restore what failed, read what was left behind, and decide what to do with what you find.

Three systems, any order

The way to the sealed Witness Core runs through three failing systems. Each one answers part of the question, and each one changes what the others mean.

The Pumpworks gallery, with the Loop C pipes and pump P-2

The Pumpworks

Wet and industrial: flooded galleries, sump corridors, the Loop C pipes and pump P-2.

Work the valves and the bypass until every gauge reads the target on the placard.

Loop C unstable
The Acoustic Relay repair bay: tissue over a body bag, the Attendant in the lamp cone

The Acoustic Relay

Dry and dark: a repair bay where tissue has grown over a body bag.

Tune band, phase and gain until the spectrum matches.

bandphasegainmatch0%

The Memory Archive

Paper and dust, reached through a crawlway.

Set dated records in order on a timeline board, and find where they contradict each other.

earliestlatestrecordsone doesnot fit
A flashlight on a tissue curtain in the Memory Archive crawlway

The station keeps records of everything and speaks only in procedure. A refusal is a continuity fault. A request for help is unauthorized traffic. Treatment logs, signed forms, placards, recordings and the machines themselves tell the rest, if you are willing to read them.

The Attendant against the ocean glass in the Habitation Ring

Something else is awake

The Attendant moves through the lower decks with a purpose of its own. It is not always hunting you. That does not make it safe.

It hears what you do, searches where it last saw you, and cannot be fought. Move quietly, use doors and other routes, and learn what draws it before it learns where you are.

Screenshots

In-engine captures from the current build. Open any frame to see all twelve.

Details

Features

  • One continuous station. Six connected areas and three short seabed crossings in a weighted diving suit. No levels and no chapter select. What you repair stays repaired, and what the Attendant tears out stays torn.
  • Four families of hands-on puzzles. Electrical routing, pressure balancing, acoustic signal matching and evidence reconstruction. No passwords. Every reading is shown in text and shape, never by colour or sound alone.
  • A threat you avoid, not fight. Three encounters built on stealth, noise and escape routes. No weapons. Being caught returns you to a nearby checkpoint with your progress kept.
  • A handheld calibrator. Reveal live circuits and hidden evidence nearby, at the cost of a sound that carries.
  • A story told in what was left behind. Every essential fact is both spoken and written down. Optional records deepen the story for those who look closer.
  • Keyboard and mouse or gamepad. Remappable controls for both.

Accessibility and comfort

  • Subtitles in three sizes, with optional background, speaker names and sound captions.
  • A transcript of every line heard so far, in the pause menu.
  • Optional puzzle hints in three tiers, timed or on request only.
  • Reduced threat and reduced jump scare options, and restart from checkpoint at any time.
  • A flicker-free lighting option, adjustable field of view, and head bob off by default.
  • Toggle crouch and run, and a press-twice option in place of every hold action.
  • Separate master, dialogue, effects and music volume, mono audio and a compressed dynamic range option.

At a glance

Developer
Layton Labs
Publisher
Layton Labs
Genre
Psychological horror, adventure
Platform
Windows PC, on Steam
Players
Single-player
Languages
English interface and subtitles
Engine
Unreal Engine 5

Content note

Contains dead bodies, dried blood, body horror imagery, flickering lights, confined spaces, a creature that pursues the player, memory loss and themes of medical coercion, grief and confinement. Being caught fades the screen to black, with no gore on death. There is no sexual content and no drug use.

System requirements

For Windows. Requirements may change before release.

ComponentMinimumRecommended
OSWindows 10 64-bit (version 22H2) or Windows 11Windows 10 64-bit (version 22H2) or Windows 11
Processor4-core CPU, Intel Core i5-7400 or AMD Ryzen 3 1300X6-core CPU, Intel Core i5-10600 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Memory8 GB RAM16 GB RAM
GraphicsNVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 8 GBNVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700, 8 GB video memory
DirectXVersion 12Version 12
Storage10 GB available space10 GB available space (SSD)
SoundDirectX compatibleDirectX compatible
Notes64-bit processor and operating system required. Intended for 1080p at Low settings.Intended for 1080p at High settings.

Press and questions: [email protected]

Two honest answers

Everything Rowan uncovers leads to one decision at the bottom of the station.

There are two endings. Neither one is the right one.

Coming soon to Steam