In media, there are certain things that audiences can find lacking in quality but still delivering in other meaningful ways. B-movies and guilty pleasure music can give us satisfaction in a big way, despite our ability to recognize and analyze their flaws. Cult classics as well exist in the world of video games, with premises so good, players can’t help but overlook or at least suffer through their flaws mechanically. Open-world investigative survival horror title The Sinking City from Frogwares is one such flawed gem.
You are thrust into the role of sleep-deprived Navy vet and P.I. Charles Reed, as he journeys to the recently devastatingly flooded Massachusetts town of Oakmont, in search of missing persons connected to repeated shared nightmares. It’s Eldritch horror time kiddos, and The Sinking City does well to blend a myriad of references to the cosmic horror of H.P Lovecraft into its own fascinating piece of the mythos. While the references are plentiful, the main story and the secondary cases themselves are all original plots, woven well into the setting in which they are placed.
You’ll follow leads to locations you have to seek out on the in-game map yourself. All quest markers are marked by the player, giving progression a very organic feel. Reed, through mysterious means, has the ability to “see” clues and past events. This esoteric power allows the player to discover solid evidence for each case, by using this “detective sight” to piece events together in the order in which they occurred. You’ll take the evidence collected to research areas such as the police station for criminal records, the newspaper for historical clippings, and city hall for addresses. The corroborating evidence can then be pieced together in Reed’s “Mind Palace,” essentially a mental corkboard-with-string to draw conclusions with. This studio made the Sherlock Holmes titles in the past, and the detective work is all very similar, if a bit more simplified. The story and the investigation gameplay components are by far the best parts of this title, and in my opinion, make up for most of its flaws.
The Sinking City is a title from a relatively independent studio, so it is understandable that it can fall flat at times. While the atmosphere is perfectly oppressive and moody, its not always pretty. There are framerate stutters, stiff animations, and repetitive environmental design. The environments can look good in the right lighting, with a well-realized dinginess to the buildings and sliminess to the creatures, but the draw distance can sneak up, popping textures in surprisingly at times. The title is a sandbox, so traversing the map is a good chunk of your playtime.
The combination of flooded and dry streets to traverse, and the constant access to boats for the former, actually were quite enjoyable for me. There are a few Eldritch horror titles on the level of The Sinking City, such as the official Call of Cthulu game and adventure title Black Mirror, but as adventure titles, they are not conducive to allowing you the feeling of truly existing in a world, as much as in a moment. That is perfectly fine, and I in fact quite enjoyed the journey of Call of Cthulu, but the ability to freely explore and exist in a Lovecraftian horror town is a thrilling experience. The aforementioned repetition of environments and the lack of any meaningful interactions with the citizens outside of specific folks in specific quests do diminish the thrill a bit, but I enjoy the story and Reed enough to keep moving along and taking it all in. The combat as well can be a bit of an exploratory deterrent, as it is not particularly tight or enthralling. It serves its purpose and can be avoided for the most part when generally traveling.
Truly The Sinking City is rough around the edges in many ways. But the things it manages to get right are very well done. The encouragement of keeping the player interacting with the cases at hand, while also not just guiding them along on rails is very refreshing in the days of not-always-so-mini maps and quest markers that are as prominent as crosshairs. The investigations themselves are quite interesting and flesh the world out in big ways. While the environments may repeat, the secondary cases that take you through them are usually not just simple fetch quests, and if the lore interests you, you’ll probably find them to be rewarding troves of information. The graphics are not always top-notch, but the art design really is, from Reed’s dangerously bloodshot eyes and anxious hand fidgeting, to row houses encased in horrific barnacles, to the librarian with her lips sewn shut. It builds a bizarre world and asks you to stay and look around a bit, and I’ve loved every second so far.
Of course, I’m a little biased both because I really love crushingly depressing cosmic horror, but also because I got it on sale for $14.99 on the Xbox. Seriously if this writeup even halfway interested you, it’s worth every cent of that. Sadly, our PS4 and PC pals have to shell out $59.99 at the moment, which I can only suggest if you truly are a die-hard Eldritch horror or investigation fan. However, Switch gang gets a bit of a break at $49.99.