There’s very little that my husband and I enjoy more than spending an evening playing horror games together. Last year our favourite horror experience was probably Still Wakes the Deep, thanks to its fantastic setting, horrific monsters and surprisingly touching story. Now exactly a year on from the initial release, some new content is coming onto the oil rig. Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest takes place ten years after the Beira D incident, and is here to provide a final poignant farewell to the game.
Over a decade after the events of the main game, those left behind are still none the wiser about what really happened on the rig in the winter of 1975. One person who wants to find out more about this mysterious incident is Mhairi, a deep sea diver who you’ll be playing as in this DLC. With the help of her team, her diving bell, and some concerningly fragile eighties kit, she’s heading deep into the North sea to the wreckage of the Beira D. She’s hoping to find answers for the families of those who died there, but might be biting off more than she can chew with this expedition.
While it’d probably be fair to call Still Wakes the Deep a Walking Simulator, Siren’s Rest is a full shift into diving. You’ll spend the vast majority of your time with Mhairi swimming in the deep blue, and thankfully it’s much less clunky than the swimming in the main game. With a vast seabed of wreckage to explore you’d think it’d be easy to get lost, but thanks to a whole lot of flares scattered by your buddy Rob and the umbilical cord trailing behind you it’s actually fairly easy to keep track of where you’ve already looked for belongings and bodies.
In the early minutes of Siren’s Rest you’ll be scouring familiar rooms for anything that could provide closure to the families of those who were lost, and chatting to Rob about what you encounter. The first item I found was a Hindu statue belonging to the crewmate Sunil, which Mhairi remarked was part of a pair that his widow always keeps on her dashboard in his memory. There are numerous sombre and somewhat touching moments where you’ll find out more about those grieving the characters you loved from the main game, and they’re almost all incredibly missable so it’s worth checking every locker and drawer you find.
Alongside your diving suit, you also have access to a number of helpful gadgets to help you explore the Beira D to the fullest. The most useful of these is your cutting tool, which you can use to carve through metal and access new areas. This is satisfying every time you get to use it, which is thankfully very often. You also have a camera to take photos of any of the dead crew you encounter, which is admittedly less fun of an activity but an important one nonetheless.
The slow-paced nostalgia trip around the sunken oil rig doesn’t last particularly long, because things start to go wrong fast in Siren’s Rest. These aren’t necessarily all horror based issues though, and instead are perils of diving thousands of leagues under the sea into a crumbling wreckage with outdated gear. The first time you have to unplug the umbilical cord and lose access to your air supply and communications is seriously unnerving, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you have any fear of being in deep waters then this game will absolutely break you.
I’d love to talk all about some of the most horrific moments in Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest, but it would absolutely spoil this wonderful additional content. Alongside the most blood pumping and spine chilling of moments, there’s also a really impactful narrative about Mhairi and her reason for going on this underwater adventure that will really carry you through the game. The emotional gut punches will leave you just as psychically bruised as they did in the main game, so bring a box of waterproof tissues.
Fans of Still Wakes the Deep will find so much to love about Siren’s Rest, but it also has some issues. There are some frantic sections which require some very specific swimming to survive, and if you’re anything like me you’ll die over and over again to these and end up pretty frustrated. Siren’s Rest also suffers from losing the gorgeous setting that the main game had, and replacing it with murky deep sea wreckage that is so much less visually appealing. Some will wish it was longer too, with a few hours just feeling a bit short for those starving for more oil rig horror.
Despite some small issues, Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest is the perfect eulogy for the main game and the events of the Beira D as a whole. It’ll make you cry and then moments later make you scream, all in aid of learning more about the far reaching effects of that fateful incident. Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest is no relaxing picnic in the park, but fans of the original story will love every minute.
