The Sinking City 2 [REVIEW] – A Triumphant (yet Horrifying) Evolution

Sometimes a sequel comes along that completely changes how the original game felt to play, and that is exactly what Frogwares have done with The Sinking City 2. Gone is the open-world, slightly clunky detective simulator of the original game, replaced instead by a tightly focused survival horror that’s more akin to the modern take on the genre that you might be more familiar with. And you know what? It makes for a really, really good (and, of course, horrifying) time.

Check out some screenshots down below:

Set in a 1920s version of Arkham that has been inexplicably swallowed by rising floodwaters (if the name The Sinking City didn’t give it away), players step into the shoes of Calvin Rafferty. He is an occult investigator who has stayed behind in the evacuated city for one very specific reason: his partner, Faye, is trapped in a supernatural coma, caught in a realm known as the Sleeping World. Armed with a magical mask that allows Faye’s spirit to tag along and chat with him, Calvin has to scour the sodden streets for ritual components to wake her up. As you can expect, there are plenty of cosmic horror twists and turns along the way, but with Calvin and Faye’s romance keeping things grounded (as well as the believable and well-written dialogue), it makes for an engaging tale where you’ll really find yourself rooting for the duo’s success.

The Sinking City 2 delivers a high standard across its storytelling, but how about the revised gameplay? Well, the game itself is a lot tighter and linear to progress through this time around, with everything broken down into five distinct, self-contained chapters that see you scurrying through all sorts of locales within Arkham. You travel between these hubs on a small motorboat, which admittedly doesn’t offer much from a gameplay perspective, but was something I found surprisingly relaxing in-between all of the horror action. Because come on, who wouldn’t want to travel across a scary, sunken city on a boat?

Once you are inside a level, the game falls into a beautifully familiar rhythm of unlocking shortcuts, hunting for specific keys, and managing a painfully small inventory… so far, so survival horror, right? The old detective mechanics that returning players would have been used to have been shuffled to the side as a lower priority, though you can still gather clues and piece them together on an optional investigation board. Doing this, alongside solving some genuinely clever environmental puzzles, hands out upgrade points for your skill tree and weapon parts, strongly encouraging players to check out every dark corner and unravel every clue but without making it the core part of the experience. As someone who found the pacing of the original game a little slow, this was something that I appreciated the most, if only because I’m more of a traditional survival horror fan anyway. But it is worth keeping in mind that if it was Frogwares’ typical approach to detective work that pulled you into The Sinking City 2 in the first place, some of the changes might not float your boat quite so much.

“The Sinking City 2 feels like a big step up from its predecessor, offering a gripping survival horror experience that’ll draw you in with its eerie world, haunting atmosphere and satisfying combat.”

The switch to a more action-orientated approach does mean that there’s more combat in the game, and luckily, The Sinking City 2 delivers. The game switches to a classic over the shoulder perspective during combat, with players fending off various twisted creatures that have been possessed by The Slither (nasty aquatic worms that can jump between corpses to reanimate them). As a long-time Resident Evil fan, I know that a room full of dead bodies normally means you can expect one of them to try and get you, and that’s certainly the case here… it DEFINITELY keeps you on your toes.

Your arsenal features the usual suspects of the genre, such as a pistol, shotgun, and rifle… you get the picture. However, enemies will act like bullet sponges unless you target their glowing weak spots, adding an element of strategy to gunplay to ensure that you’re frugal in your use of ammunition. Come on, it’s a survival horror game, you have to expect SOME resource management, right? It works really well though, ensuring showdowns with enemies are satisfying and challenging in equal measure, with the action-focused shift in The Sinking City 2 definitely working in its favour in making for a more enjoyable gameplay experience.

That said, I’d be lying if I said it was flawless. Calvin has a dodge ability, but it feels a bit stiff and unreliable against the twitchy movements of the monsters, meaning you’re often caught in tricky situations that feel almost impossible to avoid. The camera also has an annoying habit of going a bit haywire in some situations, making it difficult to see where enemies are attacking you from. Throw in a few tedious combat arenas where the game just chucks hordes of enemies at you, and you’ll see that there are still a few elements of the game that could have done with a bit of fine-tuning.

Check out some screenshots down below:

It’s a bit of a mixed bag on the presentation side too, though the atmosphere carries it through. The environments look incredibly detailed and unsettling in all of the right horrific ways, but character animations are quite wooden and the lighting can look a bit washed out at times. They’re minor issues in the grand scheme of things (and it’s worth keeping in mind that the game would have had a more troubled development cycle than most so it’s a bit more forgivable), but there are some noticeable discrepancies in the visuals.

Developer: Frogwares
Publisher: Frogwares
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), Xbox Series X|S, PC
Website: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/the-sinking-city-2/