The Sinking City

this game will not be for everyone but its a solid horror style investigation style game with some action tossed in.
the core game focuses on you the player investigating cases in the city of oakmont which is currently being flooded and attacked by strange creature's, the core reason for the main character a, private investigator, being there is to learn about visions he has been having and as you solve things you learn about his past and the horrors that lie beneath the city and even within it.
the investigating aspect is the make or break part you will either hate or love it as you have to look around the different spots for clues which includes making your own markers to find said locations, personally i think its cool having to go about finding the streets and even people to progress the cases.
the combat is a little clunky using a loot and craft system to make ammo and other tools to fight the creatures and while it is not terrible it's not great.
the map is interesting but there is a lot of reused assets for both exterior and interior buildings most likely due to budget restraints but it is still cool to look around and discover the hidden bits throughout the city.
lastly the story is overall actually really engaging as you learn about the city's people, history, and even your past and is the big reason i recommend this game.

if its on sale for a decent price i say get it you will at least have a good story to follow at the least and once you get used to the gameplay it's pretty fun

There is a lot to like in this game, but also a lot of disappointments.

The monster fighting survival horror gameplay gets a pass. It's no resident evil, but it shouldn't get in your way of enjoying the game.

The story & atmosphere meet my expectations as someone with a mild familiarity with Lovecraft and an interest in other Eldritch Horror, but I don't know whether it would live up to the standards of die hard fans of the genre. Almost all NPCs have nothing to say, some live out little vignettes on the street that neither involve you nor hold your interest. Some NPCs can be decent, but I wouldn't call any one of them three dimensional.

The setting is interesting as a whole, but most of the locations in it are not. You will undoubtedly encounter reused locations several times in this game in both main and side quests. The cutscene for using a diving suit is cool the first time, but reused every time thereafter. Honestly, I think they could have skipped it all of those extra times and lost nothing.

The detective gameplay starts out novel, but there isn't enough there to keep it interesting for the whole game. One disappointment here was the archive research system - you can look through records at places like the police station and the newspaper to aid in your investigation. My disappointment came after finding time and time again that this research is more like a combination lock waiting for the right input rather than something that feels like doing actual research: trying to find just the right piece of information in a sea of noise.

My final critique is of the open world. The act of traversing it is not very fun. There are dangerous zones, but they're largely avoidable and the resources available within are not so uncommon as to be worth the risk. Many parts of the city require the use of boats to navigate. Given the watery theme of the setting and the monstrosities that you know for a fact lurk underwater, riding these boats is bound to make you ask, "am I really safe on this boat?" The answer is yes. As far as I can tell, there is no harm that can befall you in them, which I would consider a wasted opportunity. They're also the place where I saw the most issues with the physics engine, which was nearly free of issue. Indeed, the floating debris is the most incomprehensible of all the eldritch horrors present in Oakmont.

Final Verdict: Wait for a deep sale, and you'll get a decent detective game for a decent price. I got it 80% off and feel pretty good about it. Probably won't be picking up the sequel on launch though.

A fun and well written game. Combat is a little clunky, diving is a little tedious, and it would be nice to cast some of the spells from the Mythos at some point. But it's a great representation of the canon, good visuals, good soundtrack, good voice acting. Parts of the story seem to be red herrings (why is there an ape man?) and the protagonists backstory isn't very well fleshed out. All that said though it's a good game and a solid recommend for anyone that enjoys Lovecraft.

There are so few Cthulu-type games. So while the combat is uninspired, it scratched an itch and I can't wait to play the second one that was announced. Story kept me hooked even if I didn't see much point in continuing to do the side quests. I got what I wanted from the title and was more than happy with the price point. If you're hunting for a Lovecraftian game, this is a solid title to appease you.

very good detective game tho it gives you a lot of info right at the start its not too hard to keep up after that

The game is not as good as Call of Cthulhu due in part to its attempt at an open world which diffuses the main story and leaves you running around checking every single road if you are a completionist. However, despite the recycled animations, voice actors, and NPCs, the world and the story leave you feeling as if you are in a Lovecraft story. Some of the side-quests have a lot of potential and are mentally disturbing, unfortunately, many of them lack depth because they are so short. There is a lot of potential in this game and in the writing that, if improved upon, can make an amazing sequel!

I love this game, I need to finish it one day but it itches that Lovecratian nerve pretty good. Very dark.

Great story, atmosphere, and characters

The Sinking City is a game that had a lot of potential, but it’s marred by poor execution and a lack of polish. If you're a fan of Lovecraftian themes or detective games, you might find some enjoyment, but there are far better options out there.

Thankfully I received this game for free..

While not perfect by any means, this is an effective Lovecraft-inspired game with the DNA of this studio's Sherlock games. You have some freedom in how you complete cases and can see how your choices effect the world. I'll be interested to see how the sequel turns out, because this world is much more suited to a survival horror game than an open world game

It's hard to recommend a game that's clearly unfinished.
Design is globally very good, THE bestiary is not huge but well made. The different stories are quite good, there's a profund understanding of the Cthulhu mythos. And he way racism is handled by targeting the Innsmouthers is smart.
But combat are very boring and repetitive, the difficulty only reside on the rarity of ammo, the usage of sanity doesn't bring any gameplay improvement but real nausea. The boat to explore the submerged parts of the city doesn't bring anything either. Some side quests are interesting, but most are just go there, kill, unveil the artefact and take it. And I haven't even finish the game yet.

I enjoyed the story and atmosphere, but that's it — gameplay is mid at best. There's nothing to explore, open world is just there to drag out your playthrough, skills are useless, the combat system is clunky. Endings are the biggest disappointment, to be honest.
I liked the game tho, just don't think I should recommend it.

It can soft lock and the start (with large monsters) is more annoying then difficult for combat. It is great outside of these two things and is worth playing.

The game has a lot of eldritch horror, nods to different ideas, and the base mechanics of the game are great. The posters hug through the city and wall are are also something interesting to look at.

After getting through the city and exploring for extra items and experience the game has a lot.

The graphics are solid. The writing is good. The voice acting is great.
The game is enjoyable. And, it is challenging. To a point.
Encounters are repetitive and become very predictable really fast.
Weapons are received in a very weird order, considering how the enemy difficulty ramps up.
The Weapon Wheel tool is very clumsy.
The inventory system is also pretty clunky.
Going in and out of the game so often in order to find/do/investigate stuff is kind of immersion breaking.

That said, I do recommend this game. It is fun. It has a great story. And, it isn't as "horror" based as I expected. The H.P Lovecraft basis is clearly evident. And, they did good by it.

Resident Cthulhu so far so great! Quest tracking isn't holding hands though detective hat on to navigate the streets!!!

It's a good game if you're in it mainly for the story. The combat gameplay is a little bit clunky but serviceable, however a big focus is the detective mechanics that are pretty good in higher difficulties. A big standout is the atmosphere which is always dark and dreary. the Cthulu Mythos really adds to the game as well. I would say give it a shot when it goes on discount. I am looking forward to Pt 2

Might be the worst Forgware game.
Detective system essentially no existent. Its impossible to fail.
Combat is bad, too repetitive, only maybe 5 types of enemies, and frankly not needed.
City is bland and layouts are constantly repeating.
Minds Eye ability serves maybe two purposes and thats it.
Uses Lovecraftian horror so poorly, I might actually consider this the worst Lovecraftian game.
Refugee agellory with the Innsmouthers that are fish people. And definetly arent and shouldnt be nice and sympathetic.
The atmosphere is alright, and is possibly the best part.
Quests are repetitive and so simple. There are no puzzles despite this being a detective game.
Conclusion: Sherlock Holmes Awakening might actually be the better Lovecratian game from this studio. and I dont even like that game.

Cosmic Horror at it's best for this generation. The graphics are decent, the story is engaging, and the game play is satisfying. I recommend for anyone who likes Action Adventure or Horror Survival games.

used all my barincells to link the hints and solve the first case , then findout game done give anymore hints from that point , and thats a horror game , so i need to use 100% of my brain while being scared , nty

Overpriced for what it offers, the Sinking City features clunky gameplay, unsatisfying combat, pointless underwater levels, underwhelming endings, creating an experience that drags as you wander around a mostly barren city. Oakmont's design initially seems vast and ambitious, but its exploration soon becomes rather repetitive.
As some who enjoys Lovecraft's Mythos, I did appreciate the general atmosphere and much of the plot. Still, I can't recommend spending your money or time on this game unless it's heavily discounted and you are a dedicated Lovecraftian completionist.

This game has been kicking around on my bucket list for a few years, now. It looked really interesting, but I was in the middle of other games at the time and it slipped my mind. Now that SC2 has been announced it's high time that I get the kick in the ass, that I deserve, for not playing it yet. :P

Anyway...

I really enjoyed game. I've always wanted an open world lovecraftian game. Also having guns in the game felt appropriate since there's monsters in it. Oh noes :O, monsters what ever should I do? Run around, screaming in circles? No, shoot the bastards already!
The solving of mysteries to get places was a fun angle too. Being the only one to know something feels kinda special, in an already mysterious world. I also like how sometimes the only answer in the whole city is a tiny piece of text found in a books at a library or found in an archive. As they say: the devil is in the detail.
As far as the story and atmosphere goes, they too were satisfying. It's your basic lovecraftianism at its best. You have a gloomy end of the world, that is yet still intriguing and only YOU can change things but always at a sacrifice.
The graphics are a bit dated, but who cares. The lovecraftian themes still look cool. I've seen worse.
I can't wait for the next game now.

if you are looking for a good investigative game, so far this has been very good at making you deduct what has happened with clues that you have to find. I recommend this game for a change from the normal games I like.
well worth the money spent

This isnt L.A. Noire, but this is an incredible detective game.

The story is really unique and encapsulating but it drags and makes you feel like you have to get through it rather than want to get through it

Pretty good. Can recommend for any Lovecraft fan.
Combat is serviceable at best, but It isn't the main focus of the game.

The thing I enjoyed the most about the game is playing a detective. I really like how the game never gives you some marker to follow your next objective. You have to find it on your own.
Most of the time you are given only the name of the street a clue leads you to, and you have to find it on the map yourself.
Sometimes, you have a lead that needs further research, and so you have to figure out whether you need to look up police archive, citizen records. or news articles.
Finding where to go, although not difficult, leaves a certain sense of satisfaction.

The negative is that, after a while, this can get bothersome. After you do so 50 times, in a row, searching for a crossing of two streets to place a marker, does get tiresome.

Decent game, very similar to the last Sherlock Holmes game. The graphics are not the best, the monsters will sometimes get stuck in the walls , the story is not great . Overall this is a 6 out of 10 game for me.

Since there aren't many Lovecraftian games available, I must say this is one of the few that's worth our time.

Intriguing story, gameplay need more work and polish though.

Definitely ticks all my boxes. Even towards the end I was still finding new locales and oddities to explore. Admittedly It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're after a game that's a more Lovecraftian version of Pathologic, I can't recommend it enough.

if you enjoy lovecraft and detective games i recommend its buggy but a fun adventure none the less

A third person detective story with some over-the shoulder combat that's passable. You play as Charles Reed and try to investigate some disappearances and your own mental wellbeing. How deep will the plot go?

+ Fascinating story and setting, well done HP lovecraftian vibe.
+ Great characters with unique and memorable traits.
+ Good voice acting and sound design.
+ Good detective feeling with archives and clues.
+ Reading the map yourself, instead of being given map markers.
+ The world feels suitably dirty/filthy.

- A lot of the extra cases are just: "Go there, plant/get thing."
- While the city is amazing, the individual houses can be very copy-paste.
- While the stories are cool, almost everything has one, and only one, correct solution. There are a few (interesting) choices, but the detectiving remains mostly the same.
- The job button should REALLY be a toggle...
- The (in)sanity effects are decent, but they should really have taken a page out of Eternal Darkness'(2002) book.
- For me, the game locked up after the credits on a black screen... Weird.

The DLC is not really worth it, but the main game has some very good storytelling.

On the whole, it is a good and enjoyable game with a few annoying gripes that hold it back.

A mediocre game with a bad ending, but with an insanely good atmosphere.
The choices will not affect anything, the plot will not be revealed normally, the consequences of the choices will not be shown, the monotonous gameplay will get boring, but the atmosphere is good. If you like reading notes and immersing yourself in the atmosphere of madness, then this game is for you.
I spent 30 hours on one playthrough, I do not regret it, but it could have been done much better. Much better. I hope the developers will learn from their mistakes and the sequel will be better.

Although it has a lot of flaws and bugs I enjoyed this game very much. The lovecraftian atmosphere ist spot on and the stories are entertaining and full of HPL eastereggs. I hope they garner enough support for the development of part 2 so they can iron out the flaws and make the sequel an even better experience.

A little unpolished, particularly the open world NPCs, but a compelling story.

Great storytelling. and pacing. some of the clues were hard to find cause you just don't think about looking there so you spend like 20 minutes looking all over the house till you notice one of the clues is framed on the wall. also kinda odd how less than 10% of players chose to trust the next "Seed" in the cycle to keep it going. and just went "Restarting the Cycle is pointless" but maybe I'm just biased and want Humanity to keep going

I really enjoyed the game from start to finish. It was easy to get immersed in the atmosphere and the role of a detective to the point I didn't want to stop playing.
Story was good, combat was good, ammo was not as scarce game leads you to believe.
Also I loved the fact that I was able to develop the character entirely before the game ended.

That being said, I do have two complaints:
1. for a detective, picking a fight via dialog while being surrounded by several opponents wielding a shotgun... a detective... highly intelligent move
2. sidequests could have been more easy to pick up instead of relying just on pure luck or Google, but that's just me. I just don't like the feeling of missing out and I dont want to break out of immersion of being a detective, by going out of the game and looking for clues on the internet.

Pros
1- developers care about lovecraft lore
2-atmosphere is fine in most cases
3- voice acting


Cons/Opportunities for improvement
1- less clunky combat
2- tighter story (this one felt a bit tedious)
3- less repetitive gameplay/investigations (more puzzles)
4- More grand and rewarding ending/s

Grab for $15 or less if you’re a lovecraft or frogwares fan.

Hopefully frogwares is aware of the opportunities for improvement present in this first game and really raise the bar for The Sinking City 2. Given the new change and direction they have mentioned for 2, it sounds like they are on the right track. Let’s hope they don't find themselves under water.

I only recommend this if you're willing to ignore the major problems the game has to experience its story.

Some things that stuck out to me:

The Sinking City The Fetchquest City

Regular frame stutters as is typical of poorly optimized Unreal Engine games.

Major graphical bugs on occasion.

NPCs have weird/random routing, get stuck in the floor and often abruptly snap to face a different direction.

Cops will shoot you if you're shooting monsters. Lol

Building layouts and signs around the city are extremely repetitive.

Collision-mapping in some areas is downright atrocious. It's a mix of not being able to walk up one step, getting stuck on terrain or in-between objects.

Climbing mechanic could use a lot of work.

Charles doesn't know how to jump, so you can't jump across a 3 foot gap.

Your sanity meter will go down if you're looking in the general direction of a monster, even if you can't see it because it's behind a wall.

When you die, you almost always respawn at a fast-travel box with the same ammunition you had when you died, but all the monsters you killed will respawn.

Every ending for the game is extremely underwhelming.

I liked this game, up until you get to the mind palace, and have to manually piece together clues. You are a private detective, and gather clues. These clues are stored in the mind palace. From there you have to piece them together.

It is hit and miss as to how this works. Developers get these crazy ideas about features in a game, and wonder why sales drop. Look at Starfield.

If the mind palace did not exist, or was done better, or simplified, I would have continued playing the game. The game tells you when to go into the mind palace, and when I do, I am unable to piece the clues together. To get the clues to work together, you click on one, then another and hit a key on your keyboard. If you have 15 clues, it is hit or miss if you can get this to work. Terrible feature.

ᓚᘏᗢ By Kay, this cat loves this game, even with its side-quests which are mostly go-fetch/bring-back (only dogs enjoy this kind of task, pfff). The main adventure, on the contrary, is full of surprises and originality, while remaining faithful to the Lovecraft source. But I hate this game for its combat phases. Now, don't misunderstand this cat, I don't mind a good fight, I enjoy it even, but here it's like being sent against a pack of rats with your paws sunk into wet socks. Un-blinking-fun!
Good news, though: some guy came up with a MOD, very easy to apply, to eliminate all the combat awkwardness which ruins the game: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2613390670 Thanks to that, you can enjoy The Sinking City as the marvellous and mesmerizing nightmare it's supposed to be.

Quite good, but outdated graphics.

Weak shooting but great lovecraftian atmosphere and detective work. Worth a buy during sale, especially if the pack includes all DLC.

This game is very much like reading Lovecraftian fiction.
Dense, obtuse, hard to get into. The King In Yellow is there.

But despite all that it's also fascinating, engaging, and incredibly genuine, altho in the case of mister Lovecraft that's not always a good thing, that's not the case with this game however. Just like the fiction it has many issues, but if you can sit down and engage with it for just a moment you'll find a lot to really enjoy.

My first Frogwares game, but certainly not my last! Probably not worth the full price, but on sale it's absolutely worth it.

The game is awesome and immersive; they capture the feel of H.P. Lovecraft's books. The game mechanics are good and easy to use. I recommend this to whoever likes H.P. Lovecraft's stories and/or RPG/detective games.

awesome game. took me a couple times to get into it and figure out the dynamics, but is a fairly fun game

i enjoyed the game very much
the pace, the storyline, ending
controls are good.... only the "research" can be a little bit confusing

9/10

I very much enjoyed the environment and the characters, both were well thought out and felt real to the extent a Lovecraftian city can. Only criticisms are recycled assets and somewhat short endings, both of which I think can be ignored if you focus on the good. Without a deal/discount, I would say 6/10 if this genre is your cup of tea, and if there's a deal definitely bumps it up to at least an 8.

For everything this game does good, it does one thing wrong

It's a very grim and dark Lovecraftian setting, but with modern social norms
It's lacking in direct refunds of resources, but easily obtainable as everything respawns
Every monster is a dangerous encounter, that are plenty of in the world while requiring all your ammo to get through
Your choices matter, except they don't really
and you can kill NPCs if they're mean to you actively, but hurting a bystander will result in a hefty penalty, while also protecting important NPCs, instead of actually punishing you for acting against them
I love the whole "search your own locations" and having to make your own map markers, but travelling is tedious with nothing interesting to do and fast-travel is so scarce it becomes a chore to travel.

It's a game with the right intentions, but not the good execution. I'd say this is a solid Discount Game.

Idk why people are complaining. This game is easy unlike other puzzle games that I have played. And those who are complaining about shooting and all, there's clearly a TPS tag. And in the real world, there is no say what might happen to you even if you're a detective. You might die or you might kill someone innocent. At least you can load your progress in the game. I only died twice in this game due to my mistake. The monsters might be hard at the beginning but it gets easy later. Finally, for the achievements, check the guides here or on the web.

A really good mystery thriller and detective game. Somewhat similar to Sherlock Holmes or Vampyr. Explore a huge map, dank and decaying city streets filled with all sorts of riffraff. The main story is thought provoking and intriguing. The main character is a witty and admirable figure that is faced with many moral decisions. I had the misfortune of having some technical difficulties. Sound and visual glitches but not enough for me to give up. It's a good game that I enjoyed but feel like it could use a bit more polish. I also think it drags on a bit much but a shorter game would just be my preference. Being a native of Massachusetts my whole life, it is always fun to play something based on the area. Although the city itself is fictional as far as I know.