The Sinking City Reviews

The Sinking City is ranked in the 40th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
Jun 26, 2019

The Sinking City is yet another Lovecraftian horror game that fails to live up to expectations, largely thanks to a flood of technical issues and tedious gameplay.

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IGN
Top Critic
7.8 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2019

While occasionally frustrating, The Sinking City's compelling stories, exciting environments, and memorable characters make for one of the better Cthulhu lore games around.

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No Recommendation / Blank
Jun 25, 2019

Frogware's most ambitious title to date sees it take on the Cthulu mythos, but unfortunately it makes for one of its most flawed games too.

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Andy Kelly
Top Critic
66 / 100
Jun 25, 2019

An occasionally entertaining detective game blighted by poor writing, rote combat, and a dreary open world.

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Jun 25, 2019

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

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7.5 / 10.0
Jun 28, 2019

The Sinking City succeeds at creating a memorable world and twisting narrative that pulls players beyond its mediocre gameplay

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GameSpot
Top Critic
3 / 10
Jun 26, 2019

Clumsy design, tedious storytelling, and often game-breaking technical limitations sap The Sinking City of any real terror or intrigue.

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Unscored
Jun 25, 2019

Great investigations and ancient horrors are hidden by frustrating action

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Unscored
Jun 25, 2019

Goodness, I was very interested in The Sinking City. I really wanted to love it. But I’m afraid rain may have stopped play this time.

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7 / 10
Sep 13, 2019

While it's carried over its fair share of clunky elements in the transition to Nintendo's console, The Sinking City on Nintendo Switch is a fully-featured and mostly well-optimised port. The mixture of psychological horror and detective skills is a positive step beyond the developer's previous work on Sherlock Holmes titles, and while its sanity mechanic doesn't quite hold up to the likes of Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and it's not without bugs, it offers an enjoyable if not particularly scary descent into madness and delirium.

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7.5 / 10.0
Mar 1, 2021

If you're looking for something action-packed you'll be better served elsewhere, but for fans of Lovecraft's universe or head-scratching detectathons, The Sinking City is more than worth a shot.

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7 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2019

If you can ignore The Sinking City's technical failings, set the combat difficulty to easy and stick to getting embroiled in the story

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5 / 10
Jun 25, 2019

The Sinking City is well worth playing for the initial rhythm of its casework and the freshness of its setting, but its mechanics, like its mystery, end up flooded.

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7 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2019

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.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

6.5 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2019

Despite featuring elements from many video games that I love, The Sinking City still fell flat for me.

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Hobby Consolas
Javier Sólvez López
Top Critic
62 / 100
Sep 13, 2019

The Sinking City is a faithful adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft´s universe. As in other versions, some mecanics are pretty interesting and make it an interesting adventure, but this port to Nintendo Switch has many technical flaws and the open world structure feels "empty", long loading times aside.

Review in Spanish | Read full review

8.5 / 10.0
Jun 26, 2019

The Sinking City is an amazing experience, portraying a great interpretation of the pieces of H. P. Lovecraft. Adding together L.A. Noire with Sherlock Holmes, Frogwares gives us a game that blends private investigation, shooting and narrative into a believable world that is immersive and molded by our decisions, making us feel the true protagonist of the adventure.

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TheSixthAxis
Steve C
Top Critic
6 / 10
Jun 27, 2019

The Sinking City promises a nightmarish journey through a Lovecraftian townscape filled with monsters and threatening cults, but too often falls into a loop of forced combat and resource hunting. The investigative parts are excellent, and this is probably the best Lovecrat adaptation since Call of Cthulu: Dark Corners of the Earth, but it still never really lives up to its potential. Close, but no Shoggoth.

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8.1 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2019

A good example of how to craft a Mythos game. Not for the faint of heart. Cool fact: a gamer who knows nothing about the mythos will make probably all the wrong choices in the game.

Review in Italian | Read full review

Jun 25, 2019

The enjoyable Cthulhu detective story is enough to be worth seeing through, but it’s a mystery why the other parts of the game couldn’t be as strong.

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