The Sinking City 2 by developer and publisher Frogwares—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes.
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes.
The Sinking City 2 sees the return of Frogwares’ 1920’s Lovecraftian Horror. Taking place closer to the end of the decade, this latest adventure will test you, and the new protagonist Calvin, in new ways as you navigate new settings and dive into survival horror mechanics all to save the one you love.
I really enjoyed my time with The Sinking City 2. Is it perfect? No. But it was a well crafted experience that has you questioning a lot. Why would this be here? Why would I need to do that there? How do I get through this door? How do I get past those locks? Why is there so much damned water flooding this city and the surrounding areas?! Then you uncover the notes and the truth behind it all. Then it all starts to make sense.
What was perhaps my biggest issue with the original Sinking City ended up being the shining point of The Sinking City 2. The “emptiness”. While the original was a more open concept investigative adventure, the sequel is a much more direct and catered survival horror story. The difference is that the original had you moving about a city that was lived in, yet you saw next to no one, and could barely interact with those that were present as you got used to getting your feet wet.
The city this time has been abandoned. The last boats out are leaving as you begin your adventure and that feeling of unease settles in. Knowing something is out there, but that you are all alone makes you question how brave you really are. This in turn meshes well with the new survival horror aspects. You can no longer explore everywhere, but instead, navigate through carefully designed interconnected areas never quite knowing what is around the next corner.
What was perhaps my biggest issue with the original Sinking City ended up being the shining point of The Sinking City 2. The “emptiness”. While the original was a more open concept investigative adventure, the sequel is a much more direct and catered survival horror story. The difference is that the original had you moving about a city that was lived in, yet you saw next to no one, and could barely interact with those that were present as you got used to getting your feet wet.
The city this time has been abandoned. The last boats out are leaving as you begin your adventure and that feeling of unease settles in. Knowing something is out there, but that you are all alone makes you question how brave you really are. This in turn meshes well with the new survival horror aspects. You can no longer explore everywhere, but instead, navigate through carefully designed interconnected areas never quite knowing what is around the next corner.
To make it through, you’ll need to make maximum use of your pathfinding and memorization skills. For those that are good at this in the real world but not so much in the game world, The Sinking City 2’s Investigation Space and your Map will be your best friends. All major clues for the main story and side content can be added to the Investigation Space. From there, depending on gameplay style which has various combat and puzzle solving difficulties, you can try connecting the dots on your proverbial corkboard. If connecting the dots doesn’t highlight green, you could be missing something, or, they may not be the right dots to connect.
Adding to your options is your Map. This aspect was elaborate. Not only does it fill out as you explore, but it keeps track of what pathways are locked, barred from the other side, need a specific key, or clues to get it opened. This really helps you pathfind your way forward, and acts as a second set of eyes. There are a lot of details that you could miss on an initial walkthrough. In the dark with only a small flashlight, you may have missed a note or missed that you could open a drawer. The map, as long as you’ve looked “at it” so to speak, will mark it for you to know that there’s something there. If there’s nothing showing on your Map, but the area is still marked red? Keep looking!
These two tools go a long way to helping you navigate the often dark and enclosed spaces which are never as empty as you may think. This is perhaps one of my other favorite parts of the Sinking City 2, the Slither. These worm-like creatures that came in with the flood are everywhere. Gross sounds are often heard as they just… slither there grossly on the ground. Wet, squishy, unsettling. Even if you try to take a few of them out by stomping or shooting at them? There are chances that they’ll stick around making their noise anyways.
It’s what was not said above that was really neat. The Slither can bring corpses back to life meaning that you’re essentially facing off against Lovecraftian zombies on top of other unsettling and unnatural beings. This often begged the following questions. Is that body going to move? Is it really down and out for the count? Or is it going to get back up because I didn’t do enough damage to the physical body and there was still plenty left for another batch of Slither to take over? You just never know which adds to the overall feeling of unease.
Do I have enough ammo? Do I have enough healing items? How confident do I feel moving into that next room?
These other questions lead into the main core gameplay, the exploration and the combat. You’ll be guiding Calvin in a third person format through various areas. Walking and running around felt natural enough, and being younger and a bit more spry, Calvin is also quick on his toes and can dodge enemy attacks. While Calvin can take a swing at things, I often found it was not as effective as his stomp when things were already knocked onto the ground. For everything else, there is an armory available.
Starting off with a trusted pistol, which never went out of style as I used it up and until the end of the adventure, there are other weapons that become available to you. A shotgun, machine gun, grenade launcher, and a rifle. Each has its time and place, and can be upgraded with various parts as a reward for really exploring every area. What I appreciated here, is that none of these ever felt useless. None of your weapons are ever depreciated in use because you received a new one.
Do I have enough ammo? Do I have enough healing items? How confident do I feel moving into that next room?
These other questions lead into the main core gameplay, the exploration and the combat. You’ll be guiding Calvin in a third person format through various areas. Walking and running around felt natural enough, and being younger and a bit more spry, Calvin is also quick on his toes and can dodge enemy attacks. While Calvin can take a swing at things, I often found it was not as effective as his stomp when things were already knocked onto the ground. For everything else, there is an armory available.
Starting off with a trusted pistol, which never went out of style as I used it up and until the end of the adventure, there are other weapons that become available to you. A shotgun, machine gun, grenade launcher, and a rifle. Each has its time and place, and can be upgraded with various parts as a reward for really exploring every area. What I appreciated here, is that none of these ever felt useless. None of your weapons are ever depreciated in use because you received a new one.
This is something that a lot of others could learn from. The same can be said with the overall enemy design. There was a small variety, but I appreciated the variety that was there. The kitchen sink was not being thrown at you alongside everything else while already in darkened areas splashing through various liquids and substances. Several human-like enemies reanimated by the Slither will make up the bulk of the enemy types, but there are more special, scarier monsters that come out to play.
It all compliments itself well together, but it's not without its flaws. A lot of the areas leading up to the finale draw way too much from the “law of three”. Three pieces required for this. Three charges required for that. Three pieces needing to be charged through three design patterns. It could get tedious especially since everything surrounding those specific aspects were well designed. The need to do a lot of things three times could take away from the overall flow as you basically told yourself, here we go again…
Because otherwise, there is a solid adventure that will clock in anywhere between 8~12 hours. The length of time will depend on whether you want to look through everywhere, or move forward without caring about what could be locked behind a special chest. If you did go through and pick everything up, it will benefit you in a new game plus option as you'll know what's mandatory, optional, or what you really want to pick up. Additionally, you also get to unlock weapons from the start of the game, infinite ammo, and bigger boosts to Calvin’s last card up his sleeve, the Night Shade.
The Night Shade is a mask that Calvin has in his possession. Possessing occult powers, the Night Shade is used both as part of the story and as a gameplay mechanic. Keeping spoilers to a near minimum (outside of the screenshots) the Night Shade can be charged to allow Calvin to escape death if he takes too much damage. Very useful on higher difficulties. The other card that the Night Shade allows Calvin to play is equipping Talents.
Talents are learned through the use of sigils that can be either found through optional quest lines, locked chests, or by completing investigations in the Investigation Space. When equipped, these provide bonuses such as faster reload or receive less damage from certain enemy types. Where the new game plus comes in, is that new Talents can be learned allowing you to completely change how you approach Calvin’s second or third time through the nightmares ahead of him.
Finally, to everyone on the Frogwares development team, you truly did create a great experience. I cannot even imagine what it’s like to develop something of this scale, much less under the circumstances that it was developed in.
Talents are learned through the use of sigils that can be either found through optional quest lines, locked chests, or by completing investigations in the Investigation Space. When equipped, these provide bonuses such as faster reload or receive less damage from certain enemy types. Where the new game plus comes in, is that new Talents can be learned allowing you to completely change how you approach Calvin’s second or third time through the nightmares ahead of him.
Finally, to everyone on the Frogwares development team, you truly did create a great experience. I cannot even imagine what it’s like to develop something of this scale, much less under the circumstances that it was developed in.
The Sinking City 2 is a great next step in The Sinking City series. The change from an open world investigative adventure to a more finely crafted survival horror worked in its favor. The new location settings and Lovecraftian horrors often kept me checking over my shoulder as they often sounded like they were right there just out of sight behind me…
Score: 8 / 10
Score: 8 / 10
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