The Sinking City Reviews
The Sinking City is held back by extreme technical issues, weak presentation, and monotonous combat, but the high quality investigation mechanics and incredible worldbuilding make it a one-of-a-kind ride.
Moral dilemmas and gruesome beasts abound in a deliciously gothic and disturbing flooded city
Frogwares tried to merge a pure detective adventure game with horror action elements and the result is a fairly enjoyable title, although not very cohesive. Sometimes, less is more and the studio's ambitions were drowned in muddy waters just like the unfortunate city of Oakmont. Despite that, The Sinking City remains one of the better adventure games released this year.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
The SInking City is the new game from Frogwares where you play as a detective to discover the origin of your own paranoia.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
The Sinking City brings together Lovecraftian horror with detective gameplay into a solid horror mystery game.
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 basically Sherlock Holmes off his tits on Opium after reading the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It combines all of the great deduction and investigation mechanics we’ve seen in Frogwares‘ Sherlock games with adequate combat mechanics and an emphasis on plotting out your own map based on the clues you uncover. Whereas I wasn’t a massive fan of the combat in place, it helped mix things up a little so that you’re swapping between investigating and killing things. Neither version I played (PC and PS4) felt perfect, in terms of its performance, but it wasn’t enough to put me off playing the game as the gripping story and horrific aesthetics had me hooked.
When it comes to detective games, The Sinking City features some of the best gameplay that I've ever experienced in the genre.
The Sinking City (TSC) is an invitation to read, listen and be part of a STORY. Even though it's classified as an Action-Adventure, most of the game is about reading and listening to the story. All other game mechanics (character, combat, npcs, missions, etc...) can be found in other games made in a similar or better way. To play TSC, you need to like a SLOWER game pace and see pleasure in searching for things at your screen.
Frogwares have made better games than this, though. Their Sherlock Holmes titles are real pleasures of mine and so I come into The Sinking City just a little bit disappointed. I wanted to like it more than I did but I often found myself grimacing, grumbling, and groaning as I made my way around this grimy old world. Power past the faults, though, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll find that The Sinking City gradually winning you over.
For fans of Lovecraftian horror, The Sinking City is filled with... fishy details and lore that is used to enrich the world that Frogwares has created. Private Investigator Charles Reed must voyage through the deepest and most disturbing parts of his mind, as well as Oakmont itself, to find a way to rid the town residents of their visions. Doing what he does best, Reed must investigate and solve crimes while battling the horrors that jump out from the dark. While it lacks a bit of polish, The Sinking City is an otherwise weird and mind-bending journey, bundled with all the ingredients for a great experience.
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 feels like a victim of low budget. There's solid core gameplay (except terrible shooting), interesting story, and the feeling that it could have been be so much more.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Despite a few issues with combat, The Sinking City features solid world building, strong crime solving mechanics, and is the best Lovecraft game released in recent memory.
The Sinking City is a thoughtful take on the source material, but is nearly destroyed by the poorly-executed open world and actions sequences.
The Sinking City succeeds at creating a memorable world and twisting narrative that pulls players beyond its mediocre gameplay
The Sinking City always entails a cycle and maybe that just really how it is but still, its disappointment is the major mood when I got to that last part. What is the point of having choices then? Overall, this game has potential and my advice would be to wait until a few patches get released and maybe by then this game gets the remedy it needs.
An interesting game that scratches the detective itch, without ever reaching great heights.
I'm not sure if it's worth the $60 pricetag, but if you're a Mythos fan, you should definitely pick it up when it's on sale.
The Sinking City is an overpriced technical mess full of awkward mechanics but with a decent plot.