Last year, British game developers The Chinese Room gave us Still Wakes the Deep; a moody, atmospheric horror disaster, set on a Scottish oil rig in 1975 overrun by a Lovecraftian nightmare. I reviewed it, enjoying its finely paced mixture of frights and tension-building. This year, we’re returning to the sea with Siren’s Rest, a DLC expansion to the original game set more than a decade later, in 1986. This DLC is explicitly for people who have finished the original game, and while I will endeavour to avoid any major spoilers, there may be some light ones given the very nature of the plot.
Following the disaster aboard the Beira D oil rig which you played through during the main game, Siren’s Rest picks up years later, focussing the crew of an expedition sent to investigate the wreck site, recover any remains, and learn more about what happened. You play as Mhairi, a Scottish frogwoman leading the dive, accompanied by a couple of others who regularly chat to her over the radio. Your primary mission is to recover the rig’s data logger (similar to an aircraft black box) which might contain more details about how the accident happened. The expedition team are oblivious to the true cause of the disaster, at least initially. However, it’s not long before Mhairi comes face to face with yet more of the unearthly monsters of the deep.
The DLC predominantly takes place underwater, with you wearing a diving suit attached to an umbilical cord providing oxygen and radio. Thankfully, you don’t really have to worry about getting the umbilical caught on objects except in set pre-determined areas, where you’ll detach and have to connect up again later. Some of the underwater zones are fairly sizable and have some trinkets and collectibles to find as well as some more dialogue about what might have happened during the disaster. You need to find personal items belonging to the former crew, as well as photograph the bodies of anyone you come across. You’re also equipped with an arc cutter, useful for removing chunks of rust from doors in order to open up new areas.
The wreck of the oil rig is extremely unstable and various bits will be regularly collapsing around you, necessitating finding different routes through the ruined interiors. There are also some air pockets which are explorable on foot, and occasionally these will be combined with the typical chase/hide and seek monster moments, familiar to anyone who played the original game, as well as other titles which were an inspiration, most prominently Amnesia: The Dark Descent. As this is underwater, I was very much reminded of SOMA, another title from Frictional Games in the Amnesia model. Predominantly though, this is a more story and exploration focussed experience.
The voice acting remains excellent throughout, and the sound design and music continue to excel. I know I’m generally a scaredy-cat when it comes to horror games (I never finished the original Dead Space because it felt like I was having a heart attack after playing for just half an hour), but the ominous groaning, strange bubbling noises and thalassaphobic nature of being deep underwater did ramp up the tension significantly, combined with brief but effective use of the monsters. The pacing is overall slower than the main game, but in a way which I actually think helped to build the atmosphere more, at least for me.
It is a relatively short DLC taking roughly a couple of hours, and anyone hoping this will provide closure on some of the core questions of the main game may be a little disappointed. However, for those who loved Still Wakes the Deep, Siren’s Rest is an appropriate epilogue which should very much be viewed as a continuation of the main game, rather than a standalone experience.
