The Sinking City Reviews
The mystery of what is really going on in Oakmont, and with lead character Charles Reed, kept drawing me in and often kept me playing far longer then I intended to.
The Sinking City has a fantastic story, atmosphere, and investigations, leading to something that feels genuinely unique. It's just a shame that it's brought down by an overabundance of crummy combat and glitches.
The Sinking City struggles under the weight of its ambition, but it's compelling mysteries and horrific world make it a compelling journey.
Frogwares creates an open world and a story that both fit perfectly inside Lovecraft's mithology, but The Sinking City fails to stay aside the best games of the genre.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Frogwares expertly blends its Sherlock Holmes gameplay formula with Lovecraft's universe to create one of the best Lovecraftian experiences in years
The Sinking City is deeply evocative in its oppressive dourness, and stays true to the investigative backbone of Cthulhu. We are presented an open world of horror and suspense that HP Lovecraft surely would have enjoyed investigating.
The Sinking City Xbox Series X|S is a failed next-generation update, but thanks to its history, the excellent recreation of the Lovecraft universe, and the feeling of being a detective, make the game a remarkable play.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
The Sinking City is a game that had everything to succeed in the new generation, but in addition to the technical issues, the plot ends up saturating in a very short time, as well as the entire system itself. It might be better to stay away, at least for now.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
The Sinking City was already an intriguing and worthwhile detective-thriller. But its PS5 enhancements have taken it to the next level. It’s a gorgeous-looking game, and roaming the ruined streets of Oakmont at 60FPS has never felt better. The combat is still a let-down, and more repercussions for your choices would be nice to see, but the freedom the game gives you to follow your own leads is second to none. Frogwares should be proud of everything it has achieved here, and it’s got me excited to see what its next game has in store for us.
No matter how frustrating the combat became or how broken the environments turned out to be, I loved doing case work and figuring out obscure deaths or uncovering secret organizations within this peculiar game world. Given all the downsides, this is a game that is difficult to recommend, especially at full price.
At time of writing, this feel of roughness coating what is otherwise a good experience at core, holding it back on Switch as much as on the other platforms, even if some extra work went into the audio department to make things feel more authentic.
It does some interesting things such as using bullets for currency, causing the player to have to weigh the options of fleeing from or killing a threat. The sanity effects caused by being in disturbing situations or using Reed's investigation abilities too much are cheesy but mainly unobtrusive and add a charm to the game I did not expect. Nonetheless, even with these fun aspects, the significant technical problems and boring traversal of Oakmont make me hesitate to suggest the Switch be your chosen platform for visiting this doomed town.
The Sinking City is an ambitious game with a great story which was bigger than what the small team at Frogwares could deliver. The final result is a moderate game with many mechanics that are lower that today’s standards. On the other hand, the numerous bugs throughout the Oakmont city and the full-priced tag don’t help this game at all. Nevertheless, the Lovecraft-inspired story, great characters and engaging in-game cases make this game a worth-trying experience.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Despite its shortcomings, the story and the oppressing atmosphere of The Sinking City recommend it as one of the best Lovecraft inspired game to date. If you can get past the clunky combat and technical issues, there's much to like in The Sinking City.
The Sinking City, like most of Frogwares' other titles, offers a great concept with a somewhat poor execution. The severe lack of polish destroys the promising atmosphere, and some of the misguided gameplay elements can be annoying. If you're willing to look past that, however, then you get a very enjoyable investigative thriller in and of itself, even without those Lovecraftian elements.
The Sinking City is not a great game, but it was one that I enjoyed in-spite of that fact. For the unfamiliar, The Sinking City is a detective-mystery...
A brilliant concept with some excellent ideas, let down badly by the game engine, inconsistent writing and plotting
The Sinking City will test your patience throughout its interesting story, its potential was ruined by bad execution. Overall, the game looked like it belongs to the old gen
Review in Arabic | Read full review
The Sinking City is a decent adaptation of Lovecraft's work, meshing dark themes with a variety of great investigations that culminate into tricky decisions. If the combat was less clunky and the world more polished, it would have beckoned all to its desolate shore.
The Sinking City is a thoughtful take on the source material, but is nearly destroyed by the poorly-executed open world and actions sequences.