Gran juego a pesar de sus mecánicas toscas. Es bien Lovecraftiano, hay que investigar muchas cosas, hacer varias deducciones y resolver casos. No hay ninguna ayuda o tipo de marca que te indique donde ir o que hacer todo hay que investigarla, leer e interpretar las pistas que nos dan. El mundo abierto está un poco desaprovechado los npcs no tienen dialogo solo los importantes de las misiones principales y secundarias.
Es un juego muy justo no destaca en nada pero cumple y te tiene atrapado en ese mundo lovecraftiano que tanto nos gusta.

FROGWARES VERSION HAS BEEN RELEASED!


As of the late morning of January 2nd Frogwares has won full control of the publishing rights for The Sinking City and ending their legal battle with Nacon. A new version of the game with all the optimizations and content will be arriving soon. It is unclear still how the new version will be distributed but I'll update my review as more information becomes available.

Details here: https://www.pcgamer.com/the-sinking-city-legal-battle-ends-with-victory-for-frogwares-new-version-of-the-game-coming-soon/


After some minor investigation, it would appear Frogwares will be updating the Steam version to the enhanced Xbox Series X|S and PS5 ports which include all the patches and enhancements from those versions. In addition, those with the DLC pass will get the DLCs that never made it to the Steam version. Those who don't will still have to buy the DLCs later on.

Original PSA:


Frogwares, the developers of this game, do not support or even ENDORSE this version of the game. In fact, the legal nightmare this game was with their publisher has forced them into now self-publishing their games for the foreseeable future.

There's a lot of history here, and its worth it to look up Youtube videos covering what happened, but the issue now is that the Steam version is missing a bunch of the DLCs and doesn't have the next-gen patches from the PS5/Xbox Series X|S version of the game meaning the Steam version is INFERIOR in every conceivable way. It's insanely buggy, has poor performance, and for some people it doesn't even work.

This is the part where I would tell you what you can do, however, I cannot. Originally, Frogwares self published the game themselves on a website called GamesPlanet. This is the version of the game they updated with the DLCs and it seems even the next-gen patches were going to be applied. However, that version of the game was mysteriously taken down recently and now Frogwares legally can't comment about it. Kinda strange that, all of the sudden, Nacon put their crummy version on sale for dirt cheap. Really makes you think, doesn't it? This is no longer true. Please read the update if you haven't.

After 36 hours of a true joy, I will give this game a BIG thumbs up. It is perfect for every bookworm with a Lovecraft kink and for people who like detectives. Here is my list of pros and contras:

Pros

- The story - it is amazing with a lot of Lovecraft references
- The atmosphere - with a good story and a beautiful world comes a good atmosphere
- Characters and their acting
- Fights - for the 1st half of the game they were REALLY difficult and I tried to avoid them - that is how it has to be for a newcomer who sees the abominations fot the 1st time. Then I got more experience and ammo and fights became passable
- Gameplay - if you select the hard difficulty then you will really have to use your head to pass the cases, as you need to search and think a lot (it could be not an advantage for someone)

Contras

- The whole game feels a bit unfinished - crowd behaves very strangely (like in Cyberpunk after release), some textures are broken (but as I said, overall the world still feels real)
- Choices - sadly, they do not really matter (but it was actually a pleasure for my ego to remain a fair guy and help people, heh)
- Character leveling system is poor and boring
- Gameplay starts feeling very repetitive after 20th hour

So, as I said, if you read any Lovecraft's tale once (I've read like 30+ of them) and you find his worlds fascinating then just RELAX, BUY THIS ON SALE AND ENJOY.

I am simple Russian guy, so sorry for my English, thanks for reading this and have FUN

The Sinking City está bien. Para quienes disfruten del horror cósmico este juego puede parecer una buena opción; y aquellos que no conozcan el género pueden tener un primer acercamiento a él a través de esta historia.

Cosas que me gustaron:

-La ambientación: Creo que la constante lluvia y los lugares húmedos y asediados por las inundaciones transmiten un sentimiento de amargura, pues incluso cuando el sol se deja ver la ciudad de Oakmont está tan... mojada y sucia. Las creaturas que caminan por las calles no mejoran ese aspecto. Reconozco que me han dado más asco que los monstruos con los que te tienes que enfrentar.
Las misiones bajo el agua: Los momentos en los que debes sumergirte bajo las aguas de Oakmont me generaron un sentimiento de incomodidad. La oscuridad y las creaturas marinas no son buena combinación.
La historia: Debo reconocer que el juego me llegó a saturar en algunos momentos; sin embargo, la historia me pareció lo suficientemente interesante como para llegar hasta el final.
Si lo tuyo no son los juegos donde debas leer constantemente quizás The Sinking City te aburra, pero si consigues engancharte con su historia seguramente puedas disfrutarlo. Personalmente el tener que leer no me molestó, la cartas y mensajes son lo bastante cortos como para no volverse pesados.
El final: Me gustó y ya, no quiero decir spoilers.

Cosas que no me gustaron:

Los bugs: En algunos momentos el juego presenta bugs y glitches que me sacaron un poco de lugar, pero no son tantos y tampoco son tan molestos como para tener que reiniciar un nivel. Este problema lo presentan los NPCs, así que no lo considero muy grave. Aún así, me parece un punto negativo.
La jugabilidad: No es mala, pero tampoco ofrece algo nuevo. Es el típico sistema de crafteo, búsqueda de recursos, toma de decisiones, mejoras de habilidades en base a la experiencia adquirida y mecánicas de disparo que ya se han visto antes.
Repito, no me parece malo pero tampoco es tan bueno. Si estás bien con eso entonces la jugabilidad no será ningún problema.
El doblaje: Personajes como Charles Reed, el protagonista, y otros con los que se encuentra tienen un doblaje decente tirando a bueno, pero hay otros que me hicieron pensar: "un poco más de voluntad, por favor". Esto pasa con los NPCs, lo cual no es tan grave ya que solo sirven para estar ahí y nada más, pero algunos con los que te encuentras me hicieron poner una mueca. Quizás pudieron hacerlo un poco mejor.

Cosas con las que estoy neutral:

El personaje principal: Charles Reed me pareció un personaje decente, pero nada más. Te puede caer bien en base a las decisiones que tomes con él y la forma en la que se desenlaza su historia puede afectarte en base a ese afecto que le tengas, pero no me parece un protagonista jamás antes visto.
Los gráficos: Están bien, no todo tiene que ser en ultra realista, supongo. Para el tipo de juego que es y el precio que cuesta no está mal.

En resumen:
The Skining City es un buen juego, a secas. No me generó ese deseo de rejugarlo más que para conseguir algunos logros (que tampoco es tan necesario, ya que el juego te permite cargar la partida que guardaste antes de conseguir un logro para obtener otro que le contrarresta; de esa forma puedes obtener dos o más logros de una sola vez), pero sí tengo que decir que lo disfruté. Me pareció muy interesante y tiene bastante horror cósmico y ambientación Lovecraftiana como para que yo la pasé bien.
¿Lo recomiendo? Si, lo hago. The Sinking City es un buen juego.
Esta reseña es completamente subjetiva, aunque he sido objetivo en algunos puntos. Puedes estar tan en contra como a favor. Si te interesa y quieres jugarlo, que lo disfrutes :)

Do not buy this game whatsoever. If you want this game buy it on origin or frogwares website. This is a old version of the game pirated by nacon. The origin version is the full game made by frogwares with dlc.

Toda la jugabilidad de ser un detective y el ambiente están bien hechos.
Pero el gameplay es repetitivo y aburrido, una vez que jugas unas 2 horitas ya te das cuenta que no hay mucho para descubrir, lo mismo con los personajes y las misiones secundarias.

Parece un juego que todavía no está desarrollado:
• No tiene misiones suficientes
• Glitchs y bugs por todo el mapa
• No me abre el inventario.
• Se cierra solo.
• Lag cuando estas a los tiros y te cagan matando.
• ZzZZz.

The most recent update inexplicably removed DLC and added achievements. Now I can't load my 16 hr save because some DLC is missing. Not only have they stolen the DLC from me that I paid for, but now I am unable to complete the game without having to start all over.

Reseña provisoria:
A las reseñas muy negativas bueno, era de esperar. El juego nunca tuvo tanto potencial.
Además yo lo jugué 10 minutitos y no pinta nada mal.
De rendimiento va excelente y gráficos es bastante bueno.
Se nota que es una versión vieja no terminada para poder generar algún ingreso extra.
No tiene logros? Por eso van a reseñar un juego negativo? Nadie les obliga a comprar el juego.
Quien quiere guardados en la nube de un juego que terminas y lo borras? No es un gta.
Es como una hamburguesa completa que te la dan sin extra carne y sin la salsita. Sigue siendo una hamburguesa igual.
Pasa que hoy en día la mayoría de los ''gamers'' critican cualquier juego por cualquier cosita, y por eso es malo?
Antes los juegos salían y uno era contento con eso. Ahora tiene que ser perfecto parece.
La versión final a comparación con esta realmente se ve igual. Además salió con 60% off. Es un regalo.
Deberían darle una oportunidad. El día que se arregle todo seguro tendrán el juego completo y con sus dlc y logros.
Son todos unas nenitas que quieren sus juguetes rosas y les viene de otro color.

So... this is a tough one. I paid £16 for this game (if I remember correctly). I was looking forward to it because it had been quite some time since I had had an immersive Lovecraftian experience (Dark Corners of the Earth is still top). Call of Cthulhu had some good stuff in it, but it felt more like a series of mini events, very constrained, and too handholdy. So here comes an open world Lovecraftian adventure boasting a very thematic, immersive worldmap and a hard challenge for the hardened adventurers...

I'm afraid it doesn't quite deliver though. The TL;DR is only buy this game if you're craving for more Lovecraft and it's on sale; do not pay more than £7 or so. It doesn't deliver because, quite frankly, it feels like an unfinished game on too many levels. I understand there was some sort of publisher-related drama on steam, but as far as I know the console vesion and the Sherlock series suffer from similar flaws.

First the positive, because there are positives:

• The world is truly open world and it's gorgeous and truly atmospheric; the art department nailed it
  
• The story line is engaging, even if the dialogs have their own flaws
  
• There are plenty of side missions you can spend time on and level up if you feel you cannot face the challenges thrown your way
  
• The insanity mechanics are very well done
  
• You can make different choices that can affect the outcome of some of the mini-stories
  
• Some voice-acting is good

Now, let's cast the light on the bad stuff, which there's plenty of.
First off, we have a very poorly optimised game. If you dare try escape from enemies and they start chasing you, the frames will drop so much that it's pretty much game over; good luck figuring out what the hell is happening. If you add this to a very clunky, console-like wheel of doom combat system, you end up with a player that will not want to engage in fights, but for all the wrong reasons.

Next is the incompleteness of the game and the half-assed ideas:
The lack of polish is mind-blowing. You have a lot of clipping of characters/enemies, enemies spawning in the wrong place and getting stuck, dialogs that cut-off before the audio is done playing, the frame drops, the loading when fast-travelling, the loot boxes in the world that gave you no feedback (so you don't really know if you got something or not)... the list goes on.
Then you get some mechanics that are there, but not quite. It's like the thought, "oh, crafting would be cool. Everyone loves crafting right?, it's even in the author's last name: LoveCraft!". However, it's like they didn't quite commit to it. The crafting is very shallow; I never kept track of anything and you pretty much always get plenty of everything, so you don't really need to do anything to stock on crafting materials. Same applies to the skill tree; all skills cost the same regardless of how deep they are in the skill tree. These mechanics, I'm afraid, are here just to tick the boxes.
To hammer this point home, you have a lot of water (Oakmont is flooded) in town, and you've got these tentacle monsters, and some skills that reduce their damage. Guess what; they can only damage you if you jump into water and you never, ever, not once, do you need to swim in it. They might damage you the first time if you're unaware or curious, but once you know they're there, you just avoid plunging in and that's it. So what was the point of that?!

The world is cool, but it's empty. Soon enough you'll realise that all of the NPCs, though artistically spot on, are not interactible. That is not bad per se, but it's implemented in such a shallow fashion that there's absolutely no point in exploring at all; everything is very empty.

The enemies and the missions are repetitive and limited in what you do. This is probably the fatal flaw, the last nail in the coffin, the Nicholas cage in your film. Everything plays out pretty much the same; you get a clue, you need to locate it in the map, go there, kill that, farm the loot, investigate, rinse and repeat. If at least you got some escalation and variety in the enemies to spice it up, that might have saved it. But no. You get 6-7 different monsters? I'm speaking from memory, but that sounds about right. You have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of missions and you find yourself just trying to wade through them as fast as you can because it just becomes a tedious chore you want to get over with.

Is that the sign of a good game to you? Wanting to skip optional missions and plow through the main storyline because it's just too repetitive? To add insult to injury the ending is quite underwhelming as well. If I could I'd give it a middle thumb. There are enough good things in here to justify a cheap buy, but too many flaws to grant it a full-price thumbs up. Only for Lovecraft fans and if it's on sale.

I almost didn't buy it after reading the flood of negative reviews, what I found is a lovingly crafted atmosphere along with rich storytelling and immersive gameplay.

This game has extremely dark themes; self harm, family abuse, racial injustice etc. On the other hand there is also some clever dark humour.

The genre is a mix of Detective, RPG and Survival Horror. I guess some of the negativity comes from people who only wanted one of those things.

A common complaint seems to be "The Combat" and I have no idea what their problem is, I found it to be a very simple and intuitive experience with satisfying gunplay. At first it can be intense but is very easy to figure out and it is not punishing at all, if you do somehow die it just reloads the last checkpoint which is never far away.

The concept of limited resources is executed perfectly imo, I always seem to have just enough bullets to survive a situation and it feels rewarding to be prepared, scouring for more when needed. Venturing into barricaded streets marked as "infested area" is one way to find more but is completely optional so it's funny to see that complained about too. You can also earn from side missions (they're actually good too) and search any empty houses you come across.

The only really bad thing in this game is "Optimization", it lags sharply at some moments but at least stabilizes itself pretty quickly. I can see how frustrating it is hand-in-hand with having a combat system at all, since it is prone to happen when a new area and several enemies spawn all at once, but I see it as it's own separate issue, besides it never actually caused me to die.

The Detective work in this game is generally pretty easy but not always. It lets go of your hand sometimes and you just have to read through the clues you collected so far and piece together where to investigate next e.g. you may need to look up a birth record or business address at the newspaper or city hall archives, I felt a real sense of accomplishment in figuring these things out.

Naturally this type of game requires some patience and attention span, to fully appreciate the depths of the story and cases. For me the most tedious part is to go over some crime scenes with a fine-toothed comb to collect every clue, but at least the game tells you once everything has been found in an area.
Traversal can also be daunting at first but gets easier when you find all the phone booths to "fast travel" between, it's such a detailed environment anyway that it can be nice to just soak in on a boat ride or jog while thinking about your next step.

In 30 hours I beat my first play-through of the main story alongside about 7 side missions (it's a good idea to multi-task them)
However this is one of those games that doesn't return you to the open world after the final mission, so make sure to do a manual save a bit before the finale.
I will also give it a replay anyway since there are many multiple choice moments with interesting plot results.

In conclusion I highly recommend giving The Sinking City a chance if it calls to you.