Most people who know me personally, are aware of a fact that I circle back to often. When it comes to horror, I am both incredibly picky and a colossal chicken. I am not fond of Jump-Scares, as I find them to be low-hanging fruit on the horror scale. However, despite my aversion to most horror-related things, I enjoy psychological horror and some “existential” horror, fairly well. The Sinking City piqued my interest, and in the spirit of breaking out of my comfort zone a bit, I decided to review it. 

Now, I need to preface this review with a disclaimer, much as the developers of The Sinking City have done. H.P Lovecraft was a racist, bigoted man. Many of his stories came from his own xenophobia and fear of that which was not like him. Because of this, adapting Lovecraftian works has a certain…pitfall. How do you adapt a mythos steeped in bigotry, racism, and overall existential fear, without leaning into some of those ideas? 

Surprisingly, Frogwares does it in a way that is respectful, timely, and not any more offensive than that which you would see in a period drama, or a piece examining the harsher realities of our not so kind history. The Sinking City takes place in a fictional town in Massachusetts called Oakmont. I had played the Sherlock Holmes games by Frogwares, so I knew some of what to expect. However, I was very impressed by the world-building and detail put into Oakmont and its’ lore. 

You play as Charles Reed, a former Navy diver who experienced a strange supernatural event and began to manifest unique supernatural abilities. He also began to experience visions, of creatures in the deep, a city underwater, and more. After a stint in a psychiatric hospital, Charles began to discover that he was not alone in the visions and finds his way to Oakmont, where nothing is as it seems. 

It turns out that shortly before Charles arrives in Oakmont, there came a great and terrible flood, which sunk part of the city underwater. Since then, dark creatures and bouts of hysteria have appeared in the city, bringing it back to something similar to a dark age. 

The brilliance of Frogwares’ interpretation of the Lovecraft mythos, is that they have taken many different Lovecraft stories and used them as fuel for the living and breathing world of Oakmont. From the fishlike Innsmouthers to the Ape-esque Throgmorton family, Lovecraft’s creations live and breathe in the town of Oakmont. Interestingly enough though, the racist overtones tend to be directed at the Innsmouthers and other townsfolk, not the African-American people or other ethnicities in Oakmont.

In fact, I found myself greatly amused by the fact that Lovecraft most definitely is rolling in his grave at this game, due to the fact that African-American characters feature in prominent parts of the town. A young black woman runs the Oakmont newspaper, and a black man participates as a researcher at Oakmont University. These are just two examples of how Frogwares has flipped the script with The Sinking City, and I for one find it refreshing and interesting. 

The gameplay of The Sinking City is in two (ish) phases. You talk to NPC’s and explore the town of Oakmont, investigating cases, and exploring. When investigating cases, however, you collect evidence, use reference materials from either the police station, the hospital, the university, or the newspaper, and slowly track down clues as to what is really going on. 

Here’s where things get more muddy though. After you collect all the evidence or clues for a given area, you usually have to do one of two things. You either use Reed’s powers to see what happened via something called “Retrocognition” or you put the evidence together in Reed’s Mind Palace, to come to your final conclusion. Most quests have multiple conclusions, and each conclusion has far reaching consequences.

For example, you may give someone information (by telling the truth) that causes a lot of innocents to die. Or you may lie, only to discover that it was better for everyone involved. Nothing is cut and dry in The Sinking City, and sometimes you may think you know what is going on, only to discover that the truth is far more bizarre. 

Now the other side of the gameplay is the actual exploration and combat side of things. You have two major resources in The Sinking City, Health and Sanity. Health is exactly what it sounds like, and you can replenish it via first-aid kits, which control exactly as your guns do (more about that in a minute.)

Sanity is another animal entirely. Using Reed’s powers too much, (such as revealing walls with his mind’s eye, or spending too much time using his abilities) or confronting Reed with horrific sights (such as sea creatures beneath the depths) will cause your sanity to drop. Sanity can be replenished with Antipsychotics, and that is a good thing, since losing sanity can have a variety of effects that will make your work much harder. 

For example, a small reduction in sanity may cause hallucinations that are…mostly benign. However, further reduction in sanity can cause monsters to appear that you cannot kill, but they can definitely harm you. The loss of sanity also makes it more difficult to see things around you, which can just be problematic all the way around.

You are probably wondering at this point where you acquire antipsychotics and first-aid kits. The answer is threefold. You can either find them in boxes, get them as quest rewards, or craft them. Much like your ammo, traps, and other necessary items, crafting first-aid kits and antipsychotics is important. 

Crafting ammo serves two purposes, because not only will you need ammo to kill enemies, but ammo also serves as currency. Oakmont has reverted back to a bartering system, so the typical forms of currency are no longer relevant. As you can probably imagine, having ammo also serve as your currency makes resource management vital since you may need to purchase information from someone but you also need to have plenty of ammo to survive.

The solution to this, is that you can find crafting materials all over Oakmont, the trick is though, that exploration is often dangerous. You traverse Oakmont either on foot or by boat. Traversing the sunken areas by boat is important, because carnivorous eels are all over the water, and can kill you if you swim too long. 

Additionally, there are infested areas of the city that are incredibly dangerous. These areas may have creatures that are far more difficult to kill than your run of the mill Wylebeast. This means that traveling through the city is not always an easy affair. You may have to avoid infested areas, or you might need to quickly move through a dangerous area to get to a destination for a case. 

The brilliant thing about exploration in The Sinking City is that it completely twists what most gamers know to be true. Normally being indoors means you are safe, and being outdoors means that whatever bumps in the night can attack you. In The Sinking City, it is the exact opposite. Being indoors is a dangerous thing, as Wylebeasts and all manner of creatures could be hiding inside. 

On the opposite side of that coin, being outdoors is fairly secure. People patrol the streets fighting monsters to ensure they are safe for people to travel. However, this means that you frequently have no idea if going inside to investigate a building will be a simple, quick encounter, or if you’ll have a heavy fight on your hands.

Now I should take the time to mention that I’ve praised The Sinking City, and Frogwares’ work throughout this article, but there are some problems. For example, it can be jarring at times when you are exploring, to see details and even buildings load in as you approach. Also, the combat has a tendency to be somewhat clunky. Response times aren’t what I’d like them to be, and damage numbers can sometimes be less than ideal when you’re fighting five or more enemies.

I understand that the game is trying to discourage you from fighting unnecessarily, yet it is frustrating when you get into an area for a quest and have to fight everything before you can search the crime scene. Sometimes combat is unavoidable, and it would be nice to make combat a little more user-friendly during those times. 

Granted, they do give you a wide variety of options in The Sinking City. You get multiple guns, with craftable ammo, as well as traps and grenades. The options are there, they just aren’t polished very well. Another issue I found was that you have a limit to how many items and crafting materials you can carry. 

The frustrating part of this is that if you are full on crafting materials when you complete a quest, if you got any materials as a quest reward, they are simply lost. You do not have a chance to reclaim them. Then, you may find yourself later on at a deficit, unable to progress until you scrounge for materials to make ammo. 

A lot of reviewers have given The Sinking City a lot of crap, but I personally think it is one of the better detective/survival horror games I’ve played in recent years. There aren’t large amounts of Jump Scares, or cheap, contrived plots. This game is exactly what I’d want out of a Lovecraftian experience. Sure, it has some bugs, it has some issues, but what game doesn’t?

I really hope to see Frogwares continue to make more games like this. They are at their best when creating intriguing mysteries and great stories, so here’s to many more. If you like horror, or even just enjoy detective style games, The Sinking City is exactly what you need. I don’t normally partake in the “spooky season” when it comes to games, but this one is perfect for an October spookfest.

A Nintendo Switch Review Copy of The Sinking City was provided by Focus Home Interactive for this review.

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The Sinking City

$49.99 USD

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Tense Atmosphere
• Choices in Cases Matter
• In-Depth Crafting and Progression
• Intriguing Cases

Cons

• Things Load in as You Explore
• Crafting Material Limit is Annoying
• Combat is Clunky