Still Wakes the Deep: Siren's Rest DLC Review - Time to Say Goodbye
Editor’s Note: This review contains information and spoilers for the main game of Still Wakes the Deep.
I was eager to play Still Wakes the Deep when I saw the first trailer for it last year. And then, like many games that I put on my wishlist, the release date came and went and I couldn’t find the time to play it. When I finally did play it (shamefully just this week), I fell in love with the detailed hallways of the Beira D oil rig, its crew and the sinister entities that took over.
Still Wakes the Deep is a first person horror game from developer The Chinese Room (Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Dear Esther) and follows the crew of the Beira D oil rig off the coast of Scotland. When an otherworldly horror begins to take over the rig and threaten to destroy it and cast it into the depths of the ocean, you must navigate the rig as best you can, repairing things in an attempt to save yourself and what’s left of the crew.
The game’s DLC, Siren’s Rest, released last month and I immediately jumped into it as soon as I rolled credits on the main game. In Siren’s Rest you play as Mhairi, the leader of a saturation dive to the wreck of the Beira D, ten years after it’s collapse at the end of Still Wakes the Deep. Your mission is to uncover remains of the crew, take photographs, and collect mementos in order to gather information about what occurred and give the families of the deceased closure.
Based in 1986, what’s left of the Beira D is a creaking, groaning collection of materials that aren’t exactly welcoming to guests and Mhairi and her diving partner Rob’s communication and diving technology isn’t exactly cutting edge. Mhairi is connected to their base called “The Bell” by an “umbilical” cord which allows Mhairi to speak with Rob and also allows Rob to monitor her vitals and location. But, as you can probably figure out, things don’t go exactly as planned for the diving crew.
At first, exploring the Beira D is actually quite relaxing (well, as someone who is deathly afraid of the ocean, not exactly relaxing for me, but I digress). You’ll explore a few rooms of the rig, collecting photographs and other items from the deceased crew. You’ll also take pictures of any remains that you find as you explore. Seeing as I had just finished the main game of Still Wakes the Deep, it was really fun swimming around and piecing together which remains belonged to which crew members that you meet in the main game. I found myself trying to picture what the rooms looked like in the main game, imaging them before the strange monsters took over.
Occasionally, Mhairi is forced to disconnect from her umbilical - the Beira D is difficult to navigate with a large chord following behind you - and that’s when things start to go wrong. The oil rig will start to collapse around you and Mhairi, much like Caz in the main story, will begin to hallucinate, hear things, and panic. The more you explore, the more things escalate and it becomes clear that the Beira D hopes to consume yet another victim.
You’ll have to stay focused as you try to escape the strange entities that live under the water, using stealth to stay in the shadows as best you can and utilizing Mhairi’s underwater equipment to open up closed paths. You’ll also have to swim quickly through tight areas, the only part of the DLC that I disliked. The controls can be a bit difficult and there were a few times I found myself dying multiple times in one area. My only other gripe was that Mhairi sometimes had loud and erratic reactions when nothing was really happening. Falling a few inches to a ledge would have her screaming as if she had fallen from the 4th of a building. It’s a minor grievance that doesn’t take away from how well the rest of the DLC has been crafted.
I loved being able to dive through the wreck of the Beira D. Breathing through my fear of the ocean, I was able to appreciate the effort that went into recreating each location of the oil rig with ten years of rust added on. And Mhairi is a great protagonist that you’ll be rooting for within the first few minutes. Siren’s Rest is a great way to say goodbye to the crew of the Beira D and (hopefully) give their families, and players, some much needed closure.
Breakdown
Game: Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest
Developer: The Chinese Room
Publisher: Secret Mode
Availability: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S
Playtime: 2-3 hours
Accessibility:
Various subtitle options/adjustments
Various interface options/adjustments
Colorblind Mode
Motion sickness Adjustments
Input helpers
Reviewed on PC
Final Thoughts
Siren’s Rest is a great DLC for Still Wakes the Deep. You’ll find yourself excited to explore the ruined depths of the Beira D wreck albeit cautiously as you know what really happened there. Mhairi is an instantly relatable protagonist and, despite how short the DLC is, it makes a huge and memorable impact. It’s a must play for fans of the main game.