It's a scientifically proven fact that nothing good ever happens underwater, and that's especially true in videogames. Subnautica, SOMA, Barotrauma, Iron Lung, the list goes on: Basically, if you're in a videogame and you're underwater, you're in for a bad time. Which brings us to Siren's Rest, the newly announced DLC for The Chinese Room's oil rig horror game Still Wakes the Deep: That's right, it's going underwater.
First, a brief recap: Still Wakes the Deep takes place on the Beira D oil rig off the coast of Scotland, which is struck by disaster in 1975—the sort of disaster that includes an "unknowable horror" that's somehow made its way onboard. It's a very good game: PC Gamer's Elie Gould said it's "one of the best stories I've played through in a very long time" in their 86% review, built on "the most traumatic dialogue and voice acting I've ever heard in a horror game."
"If you can bear with the emotional toll and terrifying moments, then Still Wakes the Deep is an experience that I couldn't recommend more highly," Elie wrote. "Its unsettling monster and horrific setting are elevated by something that's rare in horror games: meaningful relationships with other characters."
Siren's Rest follows 10 years after the events of the main game. The Beira D lies at the bottom of the North Sea, and the mystery of its disappearance remains unsolved. Which is where you come in: As the leader of a saturation dive to the rig's wreckage, you are "a fragile light in the [[link]] crushing dark," sent to "uncover the fate of the crew and recover what remains of their passing." As the trailer makes abundantly clear, the [[link]] mission does not go smoothly.
It's great to see Still Wakes the Deep getting some post-launch love: The game was critically well received and won a few BAFTAs, but I don't think it was a huge seller, and [[link]] all too often games that aren't immediate big hits tend to be quickly abandoned. It's also interesting because The Chinese Room, not an especially large studio, is developing Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, a much more high-profile project that's currently set to come out in October but still doesn't have a solid release date—and, notably, has been delayed multiple times previously, although most of that happened before TCR took over.
Still Wakes the Deep: Siren's Rest does have a release date, though, and it's very close: It's set to arrive on June 18 and is available for pre-purchase now on Steam.
