The Sinking City Reviews

This game was great. It was dark and challenging, but a lot of fun! The detective aspects, the fighting aspects, the character designs, the city designs, all of it...LOVED!!

I played the base game without the DLCs. [strike]The remastered sure looks better, but I don't know if it also polished some of the many technical issues (not about performance, I had no trouble running it, but it has many little glitches and things that feel somewhat sloppy).[/strike] I just discovered that I didn't notice my version *is* the remastered, so it goes without saying that the glitches and sloppines either weren't fixed or were worse in the original. That said, this game has a good atmosphere. It certainly induces some amount of the oppression a lovecraftian game should induce. Investigating, putting things together, researching archives, it's all nice, although every single aspect could have undoubtedly been better, with more budget, resources, and creativity. Hoping the sequel will improve on everything (despite the awful war going on in the studio's country). Gameplay wise, I'd lie if I said it isn't quite poor... you have to walk around a lot in a city that has pretty much nothing for you to do outside of the points where you have to go to progress cases... the main enjoyment is from unraveling the story, the main one and the one from a few complementary subquests. There are also quite a lot fetch quests with no story; they provide tiny pieces of lore that don't add anything to the bigger picture or provide small creepy stories through a couple of documents found around, but it's always basically along the lines of "go to place X, fight a couple of monsters, take document, stop". They net you some XP, but overall not worth it. Combat is quite poor, overall, but it isn't the main focus of the game, so one can't complain too much about it, but still, as said above, it's a bit sloppy and could have been better. Also, enemy variety is very limited and in the first two hours of playing you'll have seen all the five types of monsters (yes, five total; the only other type of enemy is humans), from the smallest to the biggest; they have some variants with special abilities (like turning semi-invisible like Grey Fox in Metal Gear Solid, or emitting black smoke), but they're always the same five enemies. I can live with having so few enemy types, but they could have been presented and used much better, for example starting with a couple small ones, then later increasing groups of them, then throwing in another type, etc., but that would have also required a more precise quest design. The story too isn't perfect, a lot of thing could have been, again, been better. I'll throw in only one example of many I could do, and this is also a bit of a spoiler: [spoiler] Throgmorton looks like he'd have some major role throughout the game, but instead he's just Reed's employer for the first half of the main story and a couple sidequests, then just remains at home and becomes completely inactive and irrelevant. [/spoiler] Despite this, the atmosphere is good, unsettling, and always makes you want to go on and discover more. Well, all in all, if you approach this game knowing it has its limits and welcome the good it has to offer, it's a nice adventure for anyone who enjoys being lovecraftianly disturbed.

I hope the 2nd one is better. This one has a lot of issues i can not stand. Its been a rough two hours...thats all the time i could waste on this game.

Great Lovecraftian game. It also reminded me of Silent Hill atmosphere-wise. The only downside for me were the underwater missions, they had also nice atmosphere, but they were kinda boring when it comes to gameplay. Also some assets were clearly reused a lot, but it didn't bother me that much.

If you like lovecraft and mystery solving games this is the game for you. Things to consider - combat system is bad,it's an open world game and there's alot of dead hours just walking around & sailing trying to find doors to open ,killing monsters and finding items to craft. Other people on boats might drag you with them, happened to me a couple of times :D I played Dark Corners of the earth and loved it and Sinking city gives a similar experience, i love the ominous atmosphere and craziness in this game.

Immersive world. Nice visuals. Pleasant balance between shooting and thinking/puzzle elements. Generally impressed how grim and unusual the city looks. Underwater sections are something really out of this world.

I haven't done many Steam reviews, but overall, this game is one of my favorites. I've finished four times now - twice on PS4, twice on PC (once for the remastered.) It has some novel ideas for game play, and some really compelling mechanics to the game that make the player slow down and think about what they're doing. It's replay value kind of sucks - admittedly - especially because you know what's going on, but even still, I find myself replaying this one every so often. I really like the story, really like the game play, and just ... enjoy the atmosphere. Enough that yes, I backed the sequel. Definitely worth the price, especially considering that it's going to the devs, now.

The water gives, and the water takes. The city of Oakmont is sinking, and only Charles Reed can save the city. But first, he needs to save himself, as he has his problems, mainly his visions. But maybe they are a blessing in disguise, as you will be using Reed's psychic abilities to solve cases and navigate your way through the Oakmont society. Amazing game from a relatively small developer, The Sinking City builds into Frogwares' detective mechanic that they also utilize in their Sherlock Holmes series. They are also in the same, Lovecraftian universe, so there is a consistent world-building, which is soaked in a constant feeling of dread (that I personally love). The monster designs are really cool, however the combat (which, combined with crafting, differentiates this game from the SH games of the developer) is a bit wonky and needs getting used to. But it's honestly fine, as this is a detective game first and foremost. The detective work and puzzle solving also need getting used to, but if you're familiar with Frogwares' other games, you'll find your footing fast enough. Once you get the hang of things, it's honestly really fun. I have to say, the endings are polarizing to say the least (there are multiple endings based on your choices), but seeing as this is essentially a Lovecraft story, I don't know how a perfect happy ending can exist. [spoiler] Personally, my favorite is the Boston ending, as I think the sense of impending dread is the strongest in that ending. [/spoiler] If you like Lovecraftian games or detective/deduction games, definitely check this one out. 100% recommend.

Great surreal atmosphere. I loved the visual design and even enjoyed the travelling by boat. However, the detective mechanics are unintuitive and the shooting is underwhelming. Buy it on sale, if you're a fan of the setting and themes. Avoid it, if you're looking for anything else.

great if you are a fan of Lovecraftian aesthetics and mythology, mediocre if you want modern gameplay mechanics and a polished game. It's almost a point and click adventure with simplistic fighting mechanics, but I still recommend it just for the setting and story