Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest Review
Summary: An enjoyable experience for fans of the original Still Wakes the Deep
3
Enjoyable
Siren’s Rest is a nice follow-up for anyone interested in continuing the story of Still Wakes the Deep. The DLC focuses much on the acting and story, a common theme with the developer The Chinese Room, while seemingly sacrificing gameplay and fear to supplement it. While it was nice to see more of the world and learn about the characters, the story accomplishes what it set out to do and therefore I can’t imagine returning to play the game again, despite the ups.
The expansion is set underwater following a saturation diver named Mhairi as she works together with others to help uncover secrets from Still Wakes the Deep. Since the game obviously has you swimming a lot, it naturally has a lot of downtime and sets most of the atmosphere naturally, providing a sense of unfamiliarity and tension in a dark landscape. However, the game has so much downtime that I often found myself somewhat bored. It features slight exploration in a couple sections, but much of the environment and goals when exploring aren’t that interesting or rewarding, so I often find myself going as fast as possible to collect anything and continue on. The game, similar to the original, doesn’t exactly give you much to do or experience, noting its very short completion time, about 1-2 hours. Much of the game was exploring around and following the linear path, maybe doing a simple puzzle here or there, clearly focused on telling a narrative rather than working on the gameplay.
As mentioned before, the atmosphere in this game is incredible, providing me with such thalassophobia that gave me dread simply doing what exploration I could. I personally love dark and unknown environments like the ocean and Siren’s Rest certainly did not disappoint with how they crafted their levels. It also comes with a beautiful soundtrack to help set the tone for a devastating, saddening experience.
The story is very well crafted, mixing realism and Lovecraftian horror themes together. Without spoiling anything, it features themes of abandonment, family and acceptance all while integrating lovely voice acting and a natural feel to how the characters interact with the world and each other. It follows up with the original game very well and ties out how the events of the first story ended with what is currently happening. Considering that this is from the makers of heavy hitters like Dear Esther and Little Orpheus, The Chinese Room never fails when it comes to stories that stick with you.
Most of the experience I had featured very little bugs, and the ones that were there didn’t affect my gameplay too much. (Save for one that forced me to restart my game.) The small ones were mainly sound or collision-based problems where objects might clip or “freak” out when interacting with them in certain ways. The big one, however, happened after I accidentally stuck myself onto a wall and was unable to continue forward despite much struggle, prompting a restart.
Overall, it was an enjoyable experience for fans of the original Still Wakes the Deep. Although I can’t see myself coming back anytime soon, I can say that I will recommend it to others who are looking for a good horror story. A good narrative and atmosphere, but if you’re looking for deeper mechanics or an absolutely terrifying monster, I would look elsewhere.
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