The Sinking City

The Sinking City bring us Sherlock Holmes' vibes back, with something new. Frogwares takes a step forward with Lovecraftian games, mixing investigations with combat and an open world. Despite not being technically polished, The Sinking City is a game any gamer fond of investigations would enjoy. Let The Sinking City soak us up and take us back to the Mind Palace.

The Sinking City is a fine game that is only brought down by the scale of the world. A smaller, more compact city with more unique assets would have gone a long way to reduce my issues with gameplay and maybe even the technical issues. When the only benefit to exploring an area with monsters and killing them is supplies that I need to shoot more monsters, I question why that is there and why I had to walk four blocks to get there. This is also Frogwares’ first foray into an open world title and maybe their next title will fix these issues. Regardless, The Sinking City is a great game that I am sure will become a cult hit, especially when it makes its way to Steam next year.

For fans of Lovecraftian horror, The Sinking City is filled with... fishy details and lore that is used to enrich the world that Frogwares has created. Private Investigator Charles Reed must voyage through the deepest and most disturbing parts of his mind, as well as Oakmont itself, to find a way to rid the town residents of their visions. Doing what he does best, Reed must investigate and solve crimes while battling the horrors that jump out from the dark. While it lacks a bit of polish, The Sinking City is an otherwise weird and mind-bending journey, bundled with all the ingredients for a great experience.

The Sinking City is an overall good game if you enjoy investigation games with a bit of horror elements in them. This is really not a game that I would recommend to a horror fans since it focuses far more on investigation and the overall story is slow from the start. Once you get deeper into the game, the horror atmosphere gets better, but it never does stray too far from solving cases in order to gain evidence that takes you to your next lead. Basically, it's not up to a Call of Cthulhu type of horror atmosphere, but it does have its moments where it gets a bit freaky in between all the investigation moments.

FacebookPost TwitterTweet EmailEmail CommentComment Frogwares has made a name for itself with wannabe detectives through a run of imperfect-but-entertaining Sherlock Holmes adventure games built around deductive reasoning. However, the developer’s interest in this unique brand of puzzle-solving extends beyond the world-famous consulting detective. The Sinking City is Frogwares’ latest and most ambitious adventure game to date, setting players loose in a Lovecraftian open world with a journal full of twisted cases. The expanded scope and greater emphasis on action introduce issues, but as a whole, The Sinking City still presents a mystery worth unraveling. Players take on the role of Charles Reed, a private detective whose horrific visions have brought him to Oakmont, the titular sinking city ravaged by a mysterious flood and the supernatural terrors it has unleashed on the beleaguered population. As you undertake cases for various influential families and factions, Reed is quickly ensnared in Oakmont’s politics and power struggles. Like everything in Oakmont, no case is ordinary or straightforward, such as helping the rich and strangely simian Robert Throgmorten track down his missing son, or investigating a faction of fish-like Innsmouthers whose generous food donations to starving citizens may hide an ulterior motive. Once again, Frogwares exhibits a deep understanding and appreciation for the source material, touching on many of the tenets of Lovecraftian horror while weaving its own unique tale. You gather clues from various locations and crime scenes, and then piece them together through deductive reasoning to solve each mystery, much like the Sherlock Holmes games. You may find yourself with only a name or a scrap of a letter to go on, and it’s up to you to figure out how to proceed. Perhaps searching through patient records at the hospital will give you another lead, or cross-referencing dates and locations in the local paper might turn up another witness. These player-driven puzzles and deductions are the heart of The Sinking City, and are just as entertaining and rewarding without the deerstalker and calabash pipe. This time around, some of the deductions are also subjective, requiring you to make a call and live with the consequences. Is that character a cold-blooded murderer, or was he possessed by some cosmic horror (a real possibility in Oakmont) and not responsible for his actions? Should you turn him over to the authorities, or let him go free? The consequences of your decisions aren’t particularly far-reaching from a narrative perspective, but they are often memorable, and your inability to get through every case without getting your hands dirty fits with the grim world and themes. While Reed himself remains a bland and forgettable cypher, the evolving mystery behind Oakmont’s curse and its eventual fate kept me engrossed for the long run. While that world-building and atmosphere is where The Sinking City really shines, traveling around said world isn’t as fun. Getting from one area of the city to the next is a time-consuming process, often requiring hopping between roads and boats to get where you’re going. And you always have a lot of places to go; in addition to the aforementioned hospital and newspaper headquarters, you’ll be visiting the police station, city hall, and library to drum up more leads, and it’s not always clear which location you need to visit. Fast travel helps with this process, but it isn’t particularly fast, requiring you to first find and run to a phone booth, then wait through a lengthy load time. As you’re traveling to various locations, eldritch monsters occasionally spring up, leading to survival-horror combat. Simply put, the stiff and sluggish gunplay is not fun, and frustrates more than it excites. However, the grotesque enemy creatures introduce an ever-present threat and tension that heighten the Lovecraftian world you’re exploring. Ultimately, The Sinking City’s combat is a necessary evil that I’m glad Frogwares included, even if its implementation leaves a lot to be desired. The Sinking City also suffers numerous technical problems. In addition to the long load times, screen-tearing is a persistent distraction from exploring Oakmont’s creepy locales on console (Frogwares says it’s working on a patch to correct this), and uneven voice performances and cutscenes also take their tolls on the immersion. The main quest is a little too long for its own good, but those who can overlook the game’s shortcomings will find a wealth of solid side quests to keep them hanging around. The Sinking City shares all of the same problems of Frogwares’ previous games, but it also capitalizes on the same strengths. Reed’s cases offer up surprising twists and memorable moments, and flesh out a twisted world and cast of characters that I enjoyed learning about. The combat and repetition may elicit the wrong kind of madness, but fans of Lovecraftian horror should still consider visiting The Sinking City.

Even if it doesn’t succeed at everything it’s trying, The Sinking City has a lot of personality. The investigation isn’t as free as we were promised it would be, and the fighting are weak. But it’s a strong game with good writing.

The Sinking City is a mixed bag; a riveting mystery that’s far less linear than anything Frogwares has ever done. It’s very rough around the edges however, likely to cause as much frustration as it does enjoyment. Fans of Cthulhu or Frogwares’ past titles will definitely want to go for the ride, while others might want to wait for a week or two — at that point, you’ll at least have some guides to walk you through some of its head-scratchers.

The Sinking City is an intriguing game that is sadly let down by its many glitches and lifeless combat.

The Sinking City is held back by extreme technical issues, weak presentation, and monotonous combat, but the high quality investigation mechanics and incredible worldbuilding make it a one-of-a-kind ride.

A more linear, non-combat story-driven game would certainly have been preferred, but if you are curious and love a bit of Lovecraft then you should always consider a deep dive into The Sinking City.

If you like lateral thinking, great [branching] storytelling and excellent voice-acting, and can look past a drab, repetitive sheen that is less gameplay heavy and more set-dressing, you’ll still find a gem in this H.P. Lovecraft love letter to the sea, left in an old bottle to wash up on your shore.

The Sinking City is easily the best H.P. Lovecraft game yet, throwing players into a well-realised but characteristically melancholy town that’s coming to terms with its cosmic fate. It’s a classic detective game through and through, which rewards smarts and isn’t afraid to let you explore and immerse yourself with no handholding. It’s just a bit of a shame that’s hindered by some rudimentary combat, shoddy technical issues and an open world that’s a little too big for its own good.

Despite the technical disaster that it is, The Sinking City knows how to capture the essence of H.P. Lovecraft's work to create their own story in an interesting place like Oakmont, full of details and mysteries to discover.

The Sinking City offers a captivating Lovecraftian detective adventure, with some good mechanics but hindered by a too repetitive gameplay and a lacklustre technical production.

I wouldn’t describe The Sinking City as a bad game, by any means. Much like its Sherlockian predecessors it’s very much for a niche audience, but if you’re part of that niche — and I think I am — it’ll be a fun way to pass 15-20 hours.

In The Sinking City, combat has no depth or character. You essentially just shoot something a bunch until it dies.

Its supernatural elements aren’t unnerving, its noirish elements rest on characters who are simply shady as opposed to morally complex and its technical shortcomings don’t do it any favors.

A solid but sadly unpolished Lovecraft-inspired detective story, The Sinking City has all of the key ingredients to be something compelling, but it's rough around the edges. Dodgy combat drowns an otherwise robust horror-tinged bout of sleuthing, drenched in intrigue.

The Sinking City is just the latest in a long line of horror games to be delivered via the Lovecraft Express. Because it's not adherent to any one of the author's tales, it manages to feel different from the crowded pack due to the blending of noir storytelling, its big open world full of side quests, and an investigative loop that asks you to put on your thinking fedora. Lousy combat and a low-res, buggy, lifeless land are blemishes for sure, but overall while this may not be the best of the bunch, The Sinking City is certainly the most ambitious of all recent Lovecraftian horror games.

Without the sharply deduced cases or clear focus of Crimes & Punishments, Frogwares’ latest is a damp squib of a detective. Though its open-world city has a grimy appeal, and the odd “ah-hah!” moment satisfies, this snoop is sunk by its own uneven, outstretched ambition. [Issue#180, p.77]

Through solid world design and intelligently structured detective mechanics, The Sinking City provides a commendable basis for its intriguing adventure. The game is every bit as seemingly interesting as it is unique, and makes for a strong story that knows how to toy with perception. It’s a damn shame that it sits in the midst of so many technical drawbacks, so many bugs, and so many poor design choices. This, is squandered potential at its finest.

You'll rise from the murky depths of The Sinking City wondering whether you should have bothered getting wet in the first place.

The Sinking City’s engrossing premise is ultimately betrayed by counterintuitive systems and bleak monotony.