Siren’s Rest is a pseudo-sequel to 2024’s Still Wakes The Deep. You play as the daughter of one of the first game’s major characters. She’s looking for answers, finding Lovecraftian horrors, and dealing with lots of claustrophobia-inducing situations in this roughly 2-hour-long DLC.
You play as Mhairi (pronounced Mary), and it’s impossible to talk about the plot without spoiling the first game. This takes place over a decade after the events of Still Wakes the Deep, so go play that before reading this if you haven’t already. Mhairi is lookin for her da, who has been missing and presumed dead since the oil rig he worked on sank over a decade before this game.
Her da, and I do recommend using the UK English and getting the full Scottish experience, is not the main game’s protagonist Caz. Brodie was her parent, and his presumed death is why she’s taking a diving bell to the bottom of the ocean. You have a few tools, namely a cutting torch for breaking rust off hinges and a camera for taking photos.
Much like the main game, there’s no combat to speak of, just light platforming and some chase sequences. If you are playing this, then you’ll remember the horrific nightmare that the crew of the Vera D unearthed. It’s still around, and the terror it causes is at the heart of this short slice of hell.
Mhairi is joined by Rob in the diving bell, and through the game’s three sections, she’ll venture into the Vera D’s wreckage looking for answers and taking photos of the deceased. As morbid as it sounds, it’s the only way left to give their family closure. PR told me the experience should take 2 to 3 hours, which I immediately halved in my head and found out I was right.
I explored every little nook and cranny of this rusted, hulking wreck and finished up in just a hair under 90 minutes. I beat the main game in around 4 hours, so take that as you will. It’s a short, sweet, disturbing DLC that is smartly paced as it tells its story of grief and the unknown. The voice acting was of high quality, like in the first title. I played the game on “UK English” and highly recommend it. The game takes place off the northern Scottish coast. Hearing those accents adds to the blessed immersion that only video games can give us.
While I had a few visual bugs, like the camera moving into the walls during a cutscene, nothing broke gameplay-wise. I did have one crash while playing on Series X, but that was the only technical/gameplay issue I ran into. The ending was a bit sudden, but emotionally heavy and a satisfying conclusion for the first game’s characters.
Still Wakes the Deep was an incredible game. Siren’s Rest shows the aftermath and how it affected at least one family. For $13, I think it’s well worth checking out for anyone who’s beaten the main game.
Still Wakes The Deep: Siren's Rest
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Disturbing
- Well-paced
- Great voice acting
- Reasonably Priced
CONS
- A tad short
