Mini Review: Still Wakes the Deep: Siren’s Rest (PS5)

It dinny be the same

Version Reviewed: PS5 Pro / European

review by Aaron Bayne 10am

Still Wakes the Deep was one of our favourite releases of 2024, so the news of a slice of DLC dropping in the form of Siren’s Rest was music to our ears.

This paid expansion, which picks up a decade after the events of the main game, sees diver Mhairi swim to the depths of the ocean to uncover the truth of the Beira D oil rig. It’s a great premise, and one filled once more with the authentic Scottish accents we loved so much in the base game.

Sadly, a lot of what made Still Wakes The Deep special is missing here. Where that game crafted a meticulous setting in its oil rig with time-authentic details and melded it with The Thing inspired body horror, Siren’s Rest by comparison feels characterless.

A lot of that is down to the setting: the rusted remains of the Beira D. You’ll spend almost the entire game swimming through indistinguishable corridors, and working out simplistic gameplay obstacles, which are a pain due to the clunky controls.

The base game was never mechanically deep, but it always had that cinematic appeal. Siren’s Rest does not, and what makes it worse is that, at least pre-launch, the game is riddled with glitches and bugs.

On numerous occasions, the character would put on a helmet that was invisible, voice lines would double up and play over each other, and the life-saving air-tether that the DLC tries to ramp up the tension with, kept either clipping through walls, catching on the main character’s arms and obstructing our view, or even just completely disappearing.

It’s a shame too because we loved the story the DLC was teeing up, and the pacing was brilliant as it steadily teased the spookier stuff — even if it sort of fell flat for us come the credits.

We’re sure that if you’re a fan of the base game, you’ll likely get some enjoyment here, as there are some genuine moments of tension, and we loved getting to hear wee tidbits about the Beira D disaster. However, what it does more than anything else is make us want to go back and play the base game.

Swearing an oath of loyalty to PlayStation with the arrival of the PS4, our resident video-maker and Irn-Bru loving Scot prides himself as an expert in modern-day Sony. However, eight playthroughs of The Last Of Us later, and no Platinum to show for it, will forever be his greatest shame.

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