Many story NPCs are equally bizarre and bleak and play the part well with solid voice-acting and interesting personalities that usually land on the right side of dark and weird. Entire sections of the city are submerged by the Flood, forcing Reed to navigate by boat and travel through abandoned and infested buildings filled with hostile creatures. In terms of exploration, the city of Oakmont is brought to life with some impressive environmental details and melancholy atmosphere. Even with the survival emphasis on crafting, scavenging and conserving ammo for ambushes, I can’t say it flowed as well as the investigation segments. Unfortunately, the over-the-shoulder third-person gunplay in The Sinking City feels overly clunky and janky when it comes to general animations, aiming weapons and taking down foes (who at least are quite intimidating and genuinely unsettling), and the melee option is similarly unreliable in effectiveness. Stay too long and scary apparitions and wylebeasts will plague you, leading to combat encounters. Using such otherworldly intuition comes at the cost of your sanity, which is measured in a meter that drains while you use Reed’s third eye. Another twist to the formula is Reed has an ethereal ability called Mind’s Eye, which lets him rebuild events to visually and link all the clues together in order to find the right lead. Given there are several different conclusions to investigations, it’s very satisfying to piece together the answers and face both the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ consequences with NPCs. As Reed, you’ll be presented with a number of crimes to solve and citizens to question, using old-school detective work to deduce the answers by exploring the crime scene, interacting with environmental objects and linking clues together in the interactive Mind Palace.ĭepending on the difficulty setting, the game doesn’t hold your hand in putting evidence together, either, adding a welcome element of authenticity and immersion to the overall detective-driven setting. The Sinking City rightly puts its investigation mechanics front and centre to help players explore these ghastly circumstances. It doesn’t exactly help that grotesque monsters from the sea infest the city, or that several citizens (called Innsmouthers) resemble the kind of terrifying deep-sea monstrosities straight out of an aquaphobe’s deepest nightmare. Oakmont has been taken over by an unnatural flood that has isolated all of its bizarre residents from the outside world, leaving Reed (and the player) out of their comfort zones while gradually uncovering the mystery behind the visions. Reed’s mission is a familiar, albeit intriguing premise that swiftly captured my attention thanks to solid voicework and a wonderfully realised setting. On the request of a client, Reed embarks on a job to investigate the stormy city of Oakmont, where others are experiencing similar supernatural afflictions – and where Reed hopes he can get some answers for his own demons, too. He’s a World War 1 veteran turned detective, burdened by his past and tormented by unexplainable visions of a sinking city. Reed, a rough and gruff protagonist who embodies many stereotypical elements of what I envisioned the merger of a Sherlock Holmes and Cthulhu hero to look like. The Sinking City puts players in the role of Charles W. While the likes of Bloodborne, Eternal Darkness and Quake all served up gothic treats, usually in the form of delightfully terrifying settings and visual design, I’ve always personally been waiting to play a slower-paced, narrative-driven title that truly bring the Deep Ones to life thematically.ĭeveloper Frogwares have put their action-adventure roots to good use to deliver up a fun detective-driven love-letter to Lovecraft in The Sinking City, filled with terrific world-building, psychological (and supernatural) horror, engaging writing and a distinct visual style – even if the combat mechanics, investigation gameplay loop and open-world don’t quite hold up all the way. Lovecraft’s unique brand of cosmic horror that is perpetually mystifying, unsettling, and itching for exploration in more interactive mediums of entertainment. Whether you love it or hate it, the lore, motifs and themes of the Cthulhu Mythos have influenced a fair amount of video games – old and new – providing us with some great titles.
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