User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 246 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 96 out of 246
  2. Negative: 75 out of 246

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  1. May 21, 2023
    2
    this game is terrible. the story was somewhat appealing but the way these developers decided to go with it is so bad and boring, first of all who the hell thought the open world was a good idea?! most of the game is running through the streets and alleys in an empty and doll world, even the idea of fast traveling was terrible.

    i liked the first chapter of the game, but it slowly dragged
    this game is terrible. the story was somewhat appealing but the way these developers decided to go with it is so bad and boring, first of all who the hell thought the open world was a good idea?! most of the game is running through the streets and alleys in an empty and doll world, even the idea of fast traveling was terrible.

    i liked the first chapter of the game, but it slowly dragged without exciting things happening.
    overall i do not recommend it i had to force myself to finish it

    2/10
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  2. Oct 8, 2022
    3
    In The Sinking City, Frogwares attempted to take the point and click mystery gameplay of their second line of Sheclock Holmes games (The Testament Of, Crimes and Punishment, The Devil's Daughter) and merge it into an open-world thrid-person shooter in a Cthullu horror setting. They failed in all respects.

    The first line of Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games consisted of ordinary point &
    In The Sinking City, Frogwares attempted to take the point and click mystery gameplay of their second line of Sheclock Holmes games (The Testament Of, Crimes and Punishment, The Devil's Daughter) and merge it into an open-world thrid-person shooter in a Cthullu horror setting. They failed in all respects.

    The first line of Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games consisted of ordinary point & click gameplay. You search for clues on the screen, you combine items in your inventory to solve puzzles, and you play minigames. In their second line of games, Frogwares added the deduction screen - you now had to take various conjectures and deduce the culprit on your own. They were praised for this innovation and their games received high scores. But Sinking City does away with most of this mystery gameplay. Because it is a third person shooter, you don't have a cursor on the screen - so you don't actually search for clues, you just walk around the crime scene and click on all highlighted prompts. Neither do you have an inventory to solve puzzles, and there are no minigames. The deduction screen returns, but you don't actually deduce anything - it's only purpose is to provide you with different "moral choices" (which, of course, don't impact the story). The only time you actually use your brain is when the game tells you to search an archive - you will have to pick the correct archive to search (out of ~10) and then pick the correct categories to serach (out of ~4). That's it. And this is on the hard "detective mode", mind you.

    The shooting isn't terrible, but it is outdated. It reminded me of the first Mafia game, in that it is very floaty without any snapping onto cover or anything. Occasionally you fight humans, mostly you fight monsters, of which there are 4 enemy types and 2 boss fights. The only challenge will be in conserving your ammunition. There are also aquatic sections where you dive through the depths, these are very short and simple.

    The story is awful. This is a mystery game where half of the mysteries are solved because of a confessional letter conveniently dropped at the scene of the crime. The other half of the mysteries are solved because your character has a superpower that allows him to see what exactly happened in the past. You will examine the scene of the crime, arrive at a dead end, then use your powers to re-construct the scene of the crime where you will see the bad guy say "haha, now that I killed him, I'm going to go to my hideout at 321 Baker St. where no one will find me muahaha". And then you go there and find him, the end. The overall story is about a monster who is trying to destroy the world. You likewise don't have any initiative or figure anything out, you just go along and do whatever people tell you. There are some choices you make that don't affect the plot. At the end you are given 3 endings Mass Effect style.

    The open-world fails because traversing it is boring. To compare Sinking City again with Mafia, in Mafia by the time you finish the game you have pretty much memorized the city because it's that fun to just take time to drive around. Here you only have 1 boat, which is slow to drive, and it can only take you around half the map. The other half you just walk on foot. Nothing interesting happens, no little events pop up like in GTA, you just walk around the empty streets and that's it. As if they realized how awful their design is, the developers added fast travel locations on every few street corners. And the presentation is just as rushed as the design. All characters read their lines without any emotions. Numerous fade-outs where they didn't bother to animate. Just a very cheap game overall, a quick cash-grab.
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  3. Nov 7, 2021
    0
    The more I played, the more it devolved into pandering, progressive woke nonsense. Every checkbox is ticked here and shoved in your face:

    - oppressed illegal immigrants that did nothing wrong? check - rich individuals who wont share their wealth with the poor? check - charitable individuals redistributing the rich one's wealth to the poor? multiple check - secret homo relationship
    The more I played, the more it devolved into pandering, progressive woke nonsense. Every checkbox is ticked here and shoved in your face:

    - oppressed illegal immigrants that did nothing wrong? check
    - rich individuals who wont share their wealth with the poor? check
    - charitable individuals redistributing the rich one's wealth to the poor? multiple check
    - secret homo relationship heavy handedly shoved as an afterthought you discover from a photo and never mentioned again? check
    - women's rights movement? check

    The game also clearly bashes you over the head with what the creators think is the correct moral decision(the PROGRESSIVE one) in each instance. You're given stupid choices like: expose a clearly evil person part of a dark cult by poisoning the food they distribute to the poor in order to gain members or simply leaving her alone. I mean, seriously, what the actual F?

    Oh and the gameplay is pretty clunky and just annoying. You run out of ammo so damn fast then have to scrounge for more. It's not like you can AVOID monsters, most of the time you do have to fight them and they take so many hits to go down. What's the point of giving the player supposedly better and better weapons if those don't 1-shot weaker enemies? 4-5 shotgun blasts to take down a giant, same for rifle rounds.....huh?

    I only gave this a chance because it really did start out very promising and had SOME elements from H.P. Lovecraft done well. I should have suspected the level of wokeness when the game went exclusive to Epic for so long.

    Don't play this, play Eternal Darkness, a perfect adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft themes. Oh how I wish they would just make a remaster of that instead.
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  4. Sep 24, 2021
    9
    A normal game with a good storyline. The combination of many things in the lovecraft genre makes the gameplay truly interesting.
  5. May 26, 2021
    8
    The atmosphere, characters and neat little stories are definintely pretty nice.
    Gameplay is a bit clunky and they unfortunately didn't really tie things together into a satisfying main story finale/ending. More of a collection of good small stories.
  6. Apr 27, 2021
    6
    This game pissed me off very often. The game has an interesting investigation system and a good plot.
    But everything else is pretty bad. Terrible combat system. Constant and annoying running around the dull and boring city. And also bad graphics and animation.
    It would be better if the developers paid attention not to the scale of the city, but to its detail and quality.
  7. Mar 21, 2021
    0
    Developers took Lovecraft's work and spun it into the new cult of "racism bad". Except they did it for the FISH people, who became that way because of their cult devoted to a literal FISH DEMON who is in league with a ELDRICH HORROR. So they try to portray those understandably untrusted and discriminated horrific mutants as oppressed victims of KKK, to make parallels with American blacks.Developers took Lovecraft's work and spun it into the new cult of "racism bad". Except they did it for the FISH people, who became that way because of their cult devoted to a literal FISH DEMON who is in league with a ELDRICH HORROR. So they try to portray those understandably untrusted and discriminated horrific mutants as oppressed victims of KKK, to make parallels with American blacks. Well what happens when KKK are the only ones whos actively fighting a worshipers of the cult to EDRICH HORROR? No matter how you try to humanize the FISH people, the KKK look like the good guys, you absolute pillocks. Developers wanted to be so woke and give Lovecraft's racism a middle finger so badly, they did a full circle and made the KKK look rational. Incredible, just amazing.
    The gameplay is poorly made and boring.
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  8. Mar 2, 2021
    10
    very good game and characters strongly recommend, good atmosphere and graphics
  9. Jan 7, 2021
    7
    I'm not gonna lie, this game has lots of issues : combat gameplay is horrible, menus freezing, bugs, repetitive (houses look like the same) but I give a 7 for the atmosphere; it's not a big budget game, you have to take that in consideration. I enjoyed playing it despite of these big flaws.
  10. Dec 29, 2020
    10
    A really good take on a detective / crime story and lovecrafts mythos.
    The atmosphere is gorgeous (and somewhat fishy), and the game feels like a good mythos story with all the pulp needed. Just as it should be.
  11. Nov 18, 2020
    5
    Grafikleri ve combat'ı 15 yıl öncesinden kalmış gibi. Hikayesi belki iyi olabilir ama bu devride oynanabilirliği çok düşük.
  12. Oct 29, 2020
    6
    Probably it is the best Lovecraftian game. Because, however, game developers are not interested in making Lovecraftian games and there's no AAA game based on Lovecraft's book. So Sinking City is best in its genre so far.
    Before I started playing the game, the thing I was expecting (based on trailers and wallpapers of game) was totally different with game itself. I expected a dark city
    Probably it is the best Lovecraftian game. Because, however, game developers are not interested in making Lovecraftian games and there's no AAA game based on Lovecraft's book. So Sinking City is best in its genre so far.
    Before I started playing the game, the thing I was expecting (based on trailers and wallpapers of game) was totally different with game itself. I expected a dark city with mysterious people and places. However the game couldn't really create the atmosphere I wanted.
    The game is open-world but there are not so many things to do in it except shooting random people in the head, which game does NOT ALLOW! (Oh, I was about to forget...the other fun thing is watching people aimlessly walking into walls and then turning back!)
    It's kind of bad that options in customizing character has been decreased in comparison with Sherlock Holmes Devil's Daughter.
    The only thing I can surely admire is missions in the game. The story itself is...eh...not bad. But cases, including side cases are so intriguing and they're not similar or boring.
    I wish I could tell "the story progresses with choices you make" but making decisions does not affect anything at all and the story is same until last. Game has 3 endings and the last mission is the only mission your choices matter.
    Generally, it was not totally bad or so great but it's definitely worth playing. Specially if one is interested in detective games.
    (October 2020)
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  13. Aug 4, 2020
    7
    Как игра она интересная, но выглядит и играется прям привет из нулевых. глядя на нее нельзя сказать что игра 2019 года. По Скидке можно смело рекомендовать, сюжет тут добротный! А концовка "дно" дно тонущего города)
  14. Jul 1, 2020
    0
    EPIC doesn't care about it's playerbase or anything but money. They scrapped paragon, and now they've scrapped save the world. Don't waste your money buying any of their games - it likely will never be finished, and they will let the playerbase slowly dwindle and die.
  15. Jun 6, 2020
    4
    Solving cases is okay, but the badly made 'open world', clunky gameplay and awful npcs make this game too unimmersive for me to play. Shame, could've been an intriguing game if they developed it properly.
  16. Apr 2, 2020
    9
    Очень не плохая игра с хорошей атмосферой, хоть и не совсем передавающей Лавкрафтианский ужас.
    История и город, а также детективная составляющая очень хороши.
  17. Mar 25, 2020
    8
    i was about to downgrade the game's score for being an Epic exclusive, but the developers got out a very nice physical edition, which was very nice of them (and the only way they convinced me to buy it).

    In any case, I can tell you that, if you're into investigation and games with a horror tone, this game is amazing. It features quite a lot of very good storytelling, enthralling
    i was about to downgrade the game's score for being an Epic exclusive, but the developers got out a very nice physical edition, which was very nice of them (and the only way they convinced me to buy it).

    In any case, I can tell you that, if you're into investigation and games with a horror tone, this game is amazing. It features quite a lot of very good storytelling, enthralling mysteries, and tough moral choices. It is pretty much the only open-world investigation game out there of this quality, and, in my opinion, it deserves support if only because of this.

    The investigation mechanics are, by far, the game's strongest pro. Most cases feel like a genuine mystery, and having to browse through different types of archives to get the next clues is always exciting.

    Combat is not so great most of the time, but the different types of weapons, explosives, and RPG progression do tend to make it somewhat more strategic.

    Graphics is also pretty good for such an indie game, particularly the lighting.

    In the end, the game's biggest problem is that it feels crushed down by its own ambitions. It seems quite clear to me that, with a bigger budget, this could easily have ended up as one of the best games of the century. Like this, however, animations are all pretty clunky, NPCs have little diversity in terms of appearance and unrealistic reactions, and many of the buildings' and streets' templates feel copy/pasted, with only minor modifications here and there. This decreases a lot of the game's exploration fun, but not enough to crush it altogether in my opinion.

    In the end, I definitely recommend the game for people looking for a good Lovecraftian/supernatural investigation game with a good story. Get over the clunkiness and overall lacking open world, and you will be quite surprised and satisfied.
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  18. Mar 18, 2020
    5
    Very good potential and very bad game. The mechanics are very bad. The graphics looks like a very old games.. And you can loose your mind because the travel is very very long and bored. Maybe you can finish this game in 20 hours but minimum half of them is travel. Fast travels are useless too many times.In this game just detective parts and atmosphere good. Other tings are very bad. IVery good potential and very bad game. The mechanics are very bad. The graphics looks like a very old games.. And you can loose your mind because the travel is very very long and bored. Maybe you can finish this game in 20 hours but minimum half of them is travel. Fast travels are useless too many times.In this game just detective parts and atmosphere good. Other tings are very bad. I don't want a write about optimization because it doesn't have. Expand
  19. Jan 29, 2020
    8
    Неплохая игра, затянула! Сюжет имеет свои повороты, но вполне понимаешь, что тебя ждет в конце. Но дойдя до конца, осознаешь, что это провал, концовки как таковой нет. Разработчики просто напросто испоганили игру своими тремя концовками. Игра линейна, но геймплей отличный, полное погружение в игру тут есть. Музыкальное сопровождение средненькое. Графика не блещет изысками, сразу видно, чтоНеплохая игра, затянула! Сюжет имеет свои повороты, но вполне понимаешь, что тебя ждет в конце. Но дойдя до конца, осознаешь, что это провал, концовки как таковой нет. Разработчики просто напросто испоганили игру своими тремя концовками. Игра линейна, но геймплей отличный, полное погружение в игру тут есть. Музыкальное сопровождение средненькое. Графика не блещет изысками, сразу видно, что игра делалась для консолей. В Целом рекомендую пройти, игра стоит потраченного времени! 8/10 Expand
  20. Jan 7, 2020
    7
    Of course the game has many disadvantages, but still when playing it I felt it was one of these games that have a soul. Plus it's one of the few Lovecraft-ian games.
  21. Dec 6, 2019
    7
    Buy this game if you like:
    Lovecraftian horror games.
    Immersive story-telling. Detective games. Do not buy this game if you like: Shooters/action games. Fast-paced games or hand-holding (such as auto-map markers). This is NOT a triple-A game, so be prepared for something that is rough around the edges. The combat is terrible, and traveling the city is tedious, but everything
    Buy this game if you like:
    Lovecraftian horror games.
    Immersive story-telling.
    Detective games.

    Do not buy this game if you like:
    Shooters/action games.
    Fast-paced games or hand-holding (such as auto-map markers).

    This is NOT a triple-A game, so be prepared for something that is rough around the edges. The combat is terrible, and traveling the city is tedious, but everything else is great. The detective work is challenging, but not so hard you get stuck, the writing and characters are A+. It's a visually stunning game. I play on max settings, and it looks basically like a triple-A, but with tons of flavor and style. The environments and characters are bursting with personality and fit the mood and theme of the game perfectly. I'm not scared easily, but playing this game for a few hours in the dark will spook me out.
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  22. Nov 7, 2019
    6
    As a fan of HPL this is a serviceable game; however, the glitches are somewhat unforgivable this long after launch.
  23. Sep 10, 2019
    8
    This is a really great game, and really underrated. The story is pretty good, everything you would want from a Lovecraftian game. The mechanics were also really interesting, with some of the best detective mechanics, and dare i say one of the best detective games I've ever played, yet it is sometimes repetitive, and the combat mechanics aren't anything spectacular, but no as bad asThis is a really great game, and really underrated. The story is pretty good, everything you would want from a Lovecraftian game. The mechanics were also really interesting, with some of the best detective mechanics, and dare i say one of the best detective games I've ever played, yet it is sometimes repetitive, and the combat mechanics aren't anything spectacular, but no as bad as everyone says it is. It is probably the best Lovercarftian game, and if you enjoy good detective mechanics, a great story, amazing atmosphere and a beautiful looking city, then you would enjoy this game 100%. Expand
  24. Sep 2, 2019
    2
    Confusing story line, unnecessarily long gameplay, confusing game mechanics.i rather play call of cthulhu four times in a row then this.game is not optimize properly. I literally have to push my self to play this game.in this vast open World there is absolutely nothing to do.NPC doing funny **** kinda takes away all the seriousness about this game.
  25. Sep 1, 2019
    3
    Ok, You Start the Game with a boring Intro. Then you walk to a Guy who bubbles boring stuff (10 minutes long). Then you walk to another (Ape)Guy who bubbles boring stuff and give you your first Quest. His Apeboy is missing. Then you walk to a Crime Scene, do boring stuff and find out Apeboy was Murdered.
    Now you can go back to Apeguy and tell him what ever you want. BORING!
    - Graphics
    Ok, You Start the Game with a boring Intro. Then you walk to a Guy who bubbles boring stuff (10 minutes long). Then you walk to another (Ape)Guy who bubbles boring stuff and give you your first Quest. His Apeboy is missing. Then you walk to a Crime Scene, do boring stuff and find out Apeboy was Murdered.
    Now you can go back to Apeguy and tell him what ever you want. BORING!

    - Graphics ok
    - Sound (speech, "Music", Weapons) not so good
    - Gameplay, God it's Hell of a F**k

    Don't Play this Game, even you wish to Torture yourself!
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  26. Jul 24, 2019
    1
    This game sucks. Gameplay is complete failure. Try playing with an xbox control in a PC that is running big games (AC Odyssey is an example) and you will cry in pain when you die because you are an imbecile and don't hit a creeping bug with a shovel.
    I took my money and tore up with this game. I could not get a refund. I tried but wasted my time trying to like this piece of trash. Waste
    This game sucks. Gameplay is complete failure. Try playing with an xbox control in a PC that is running big games (AC Odyssey is an example) and you will cry in pain when you die because you are an imbecile and don't hit a creeping bug with a shovel.
    I took my money and tore up with this game. I could not get a refund. I tried but wasted my time trying to like this piece of trash. Waste of money and my time with the download and the game. I gave up and uninstalled after 20h forever lost and headache gained.
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  27. Jul 21, 2019
    6
    Good things:
    - Lovecraftian mythology;
    - Story (more or less); - Detective gameplay. Bad: - Open world. It doesn't work and unnecessary. The world seems dead. And boring. - Used too many contradictory storylines based on Lovecraft mythos. - Combat and healing gameplay. - Cut scenes. Terrible. Predictable and boring. This game I assume is even a bigger failure than CoC 2018,
    Good things:
    - Lovecraftian mythology;
    - Story (more or less);
    - Detective gameplay.

    Bad:
    - Open world. It doesn't work and unnecessary. The world seems dead. And boring.
    - Used too many contradictory storylines based on Lovecraft mythos.
    - Combat and healing gameplay.
    - Cut scenes. Terrible. Predictable and boring.

    This game I assume is even a bigger failure than CoC 2018, because with this one we had more expectations.
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  28. Jul 19, 2019
    7
    Main evaluation criteria:
    -Story: 7
    -Atmosphere: 8 -Characters: 6 -Graphics and design: 7 -Gameplay: 7 -Sound and Music: 7 -Bugs: 7 -Interface: 8 -Completeness of the world: 7 Аdditional evaluation criteria (Do not really affect the assessment): -Freedom of choice: 7 -Coop in Story mode: 0 -Multiplayer: 0 -Mods and the ability to change the game: 0 Scores from 1 to 10,
    Main evaluation criteria:
    -Story: 7
    -Atmosphere: 8
    -Characters: 6
    -Graphics and design: 7
    -Gameplay: 7
    -Sound and Music: 7
    -Bugs: 7
    -Interface: 8
    -Completeness of the world: 7

    Аdditional evaluation criteria (Do not really affect the assessment):
    -Freedom of choice: 7
    -Coop in Story mode: 0
    -Multiplayer: 0
    -Mods and the ability to change the game: 0

    Scores from 1 to 10, the higher the better
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  29. Jul 16, 2019
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As big Lovecraft fan, I waited for this game very much. It's not ideal and has bugs and some moments that could have beeen improved if developers had more time but overall it's very good.

    I liked the open-world city of Oakmont. Every district is different from each others and has some stuff like posters, which add atmosphere or some interesting places like monument in Advent, train station or wheel at the park.

    The most strongest side of this game is detective investigations. Special sight, retrocognition and mind palace make every investigation intriguing and interesting to solve. Even more, you can make different decisions based on the evidence, and sometimes you need to be pretty careful to make the correct choice.

    The monsters are good and can be frightening, but it's a pity that there is basically only 4 monster types. The weapon system, craft and rpg skill tree are fine.

    The other strong part of the game is its well-written scenario and characters, each of whom have its motivation and personality. However, the finale could have been written better and depend more on the past actions.

    So, as Lovecraftian fan I rate this game 9/10, but for people who are not found of Lovecraft books this game can be not so interesting.
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  30. Jul 15, 2019
    8
    Very good game for people enjoying slow tension building, intriguing atmospehere, fascinating stories and lots of reading.
    PROS:
    + great, heavy game aura makes you "sink" into the world very quickly, espacially if you like this kind of creepy, mysterious climates + lots of knowledge from Lovecraft works, if you value getting to know world better not only through NPC talks and action,
    Very good game for people enjoying slow tension building, intriguing atmospehere, fascinating stories and lots of reading.
    PROS:
    + great, heavy game aura makes you "sink" into the world very quickly, espacially if you like this kind of creepy, mysterious climates
    + lots of knowledge from Lovecraft works, if you value getting to know world better not only through NPC talks and action, you will surely enjoy diaries, book pages and souvenirs you will find in the game through the quests
    + hard to make, important decision (not like in telltales, they are smartly designed)
    + nice details in the buildings interiors
    + good soundtrack ( really creepy monsters and not only sounds)
    + requires some thinking in your tasks, for ex you're not given quest location immdeiately, you have to search archives first to find clues
    + open ending that imho indicates that the developers may be thinking about continuation, many threads has been left open

    CONS:
    - kinda PS3 graphic outside the building ( but still atmospheric, not that big thing,but if you value high quality textures, you may be bit disappointed)
    - interiors recycle ( lots of building has same rooms layout and furniture)
    - NPCs and monsters bugs, also textures bugs, but not actively interrupting the gameplay
    - many open threads may be also a disadvantage if you're into the story and not given the answer to "what really happend"
    - bad melee fight design ( not precise at all) , only "ok" shooting
    - small number of monster types
    - technical quests motonny ( "go here from there, kill something, gather some data and return " type (( but they contain some very good stories nevertheless)) )

    If you're into mysterious, atmospheric and story-driven games its definitely 8/10, if you value action , fight and character development more it's 7/10. Worth a try.
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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 47 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 47
  2. Negative: 0 out of 47
  1. Aug 19, 2019
    60
    Creators of the Sherlock franchise have hurled themselves into a watery abyss full of monsters and completely drowned their own brilliant investigative formula. The world is open, but terribly empty, the fights are dull, and the RPG mechanisms are lacking. Only the investigation remains fun - and it is not enough.
  2. Aug 15, 2019
    80
    Despite its shortcomings, the story and the oppressing atmosphere of The Sinking City recommend it as one of the best Lovecraft inspired game to date. If you can get past the clunky combat and technical issues, there's much to like in The Sinking City.
  3. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Aug 2, 2019
    66
    For the entire game you’ll have the feeling that something significant is going to happen soon – but it won’t. Story never takes a sharp turn, every interesting character is introduced in the first third of the game and there are no meaningful rewards to find in Oakmont openworld. [Issue#239, p.56]