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

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.

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.

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.

Hey, you. Yes, you. I know you're rifling through Steam reviews wondering if this title is worth your time. You're a cosmic horror fan. You crave the unknowable, the unfathomable. You chew through horror fiction hoping to find something - anything - that will scratch that itch for Lovecraft. Your love of weird has you forever chasing the dragon across books, games, and films...except that metaphorical dragon is a 100 foot tall Great Old One with an octopus head.

You know this isn't an action game, but that doesn't deter you. It's glitchy, yes, but you're not here for cutting edge gameplay. You've showed up for the atmosphere, the writing, and the infinite malignity of the stars. And yes. It delivers these in spades.

"The Sinking City" is messy and sometimes tedious, but its shortcomings are worth putting up with for a fantastic voyage into a very accurate and immersive Lovecraftian vision.

DONT BUY THIS HACKED AND PIRATED GAME ON STEAM! You can find the original game on the Gamesplanet website. The Pirated game works and all that, but instead using your money on someone that has scammed a game company, use it on them that have really made this game FROGWARES.

Foreword is that I liked the game, but don't suggest buying it on Steam, hence the thumbs down. Why? Because as I hear there's been some legal issues were Frogware accuses Nacon/BigBen Interactive of having stolen their game, uploaded it themselves and ran off with the profits. Now, I'm just a layman with no idea how that legal process went, so grain of salt, but I am inclined to believe it given the issues the game has had with missing content and the odd end credits where you get one from Frogware and a separate one from BBI. Sus.

If you don't care about outside factors like this and only want the game, or just find it too much of a hassle, no judgement from me; I just want you to make an informed decision. If you do wanna support Frogware, I hear Origin and Gamesplanet (sites I don't use myself, mind you) sell the Frogware version of the game.

==EDIT==
Due to Frogware becoming the sole publisher of TSC, I've changed my rating to a thumbs up.

Gameplay: 6/10
Anyways I had some fun with The Sinking City, I especially enjoy the investigation gameplay and how you need to look up the streets and pin your own map pointers, giving it a feeling of doing your research. Combat wasn't very good, but thankfully the game gives you two separate difficulty rating to modify, one for combat and one for the investigations, so I could reduce the burden and make it not interfere too much with bulletspongy enemies I've already encountered multiple times in the first half of the game alone. There isn't a great deal of variation of enemies you face.

The way you follow clues from one to the other is usually by trying to investigate various places from crime scenes to residences to monster-infested abandoned sites to try and locate clues of various kinds. You also possess a sixth sense vision of sorts which slowly drains your sanity to use, but may grant you supernatural insights into the scenes from giving you a vision into the past to peering past illusionary walls or sometimes to lead you to the clue you need through trippy visions you follow. It depends on the particular mission you're on and is something you follow rather than invoke. Some missions have branching paths, primarily the main missions, and said main missions also have a mechanic where you piece together the clues to form a wider narrative.

You also sometimes have to do a bit of research at various archives for things like citizen records or information about books, which you do by piecing together three categories that match what you're searching for. That one took a little getting used to since you got to select the exact part of the mission you wanna research and can't just select the categories wildly to see what sticks, and there wasn't too much of a game or information you'd get out of those archives, but it did provide enough to make your next clue and continue whatever narrative you are on. I guess I wish it had more to it though, either more gameplay to puzzle stuff together, or more reading material that you can uncover extra information from if you do your homework, even if it's just for flavor. Or maybe unlock hidden endings? More work, yeah yeah, but it'd make the game's rating go up a point and leave a more lasting impression and impactful salespitch, that's for sure.

Atmosphere: 6/10
The city is huge and has a certain attention to detail, which is cool. I loved looking through the streets on the map and gradually familiarize myself with the place, making me feel more and more like a resident. Albeit a new one. What my primary thoughts are though is "the devs did as much as they could with limited resources." I find it dark and gloomy which I enjoyed, but I also saw reused assets everywhere, often on the very same street, where the same kind of signs were used multiple times over announcing some old business or so, and while the furniture may change a bit, the layout of every residence picks from a small selection that isn't gonna change much.

And also people could pop in or out on the street which is immersion breaking. These things take away from the atmosphere in my opinion, though I still was invested in the story, my role as a private eye (and Charles Reed as a person) and enjoyed the general uneasy feeling in-universe. All in all while the game could use more polish and resources, I never felt like I wasn't part of the world the game presents me.

Technical: 8/10
I had no strong issues with running the game. Music worked fine, ambient noises were there and played as they should, and I never ran into invisible walls or bugs that I can remember. My main issue? I had to mod the game files, with some effort, to be able to walk. Give me a damn walk button, especially in a game like this when I need to take my time to explore smaller areas for details! Once I got that solved, I had no further issues with the game. But I do understand some content is or were missing from the steam version, so I'd subtract a point from that. Maybe I could argue it's mildly annoying how you can't save at the exact spot you want, but rather get thrown to the nearest checkpoint (with all the items and clues you've gathered intact, mind you), but I won't go as far as subtract a point for it.

Overall Rating: 6/10
I had fun, I was intrigued and I enjoyed going through the story. Endings weren't much to write home about and left me wanting. Combat was lame, investigations were fun. But most of all, now that I've played through it, I don't feel much need to revisit it again. I know what goes down, I know all of the mysteries unless I missed a side-quest somewhere and I know the story ends. Would I recommend it? If you like investigation gameplay and/or the Cthulhu Mythos sure. If you are more action-oriented, not really for you. What I can say is the only regret I have for my purchase is that I didn't know ahead of time about the Frogware/Nacon legal dispute and am worried, if a bit ignorant and unsure, about my money not going to the right place.

https://twitter.com/Frogwares/status/1365385278140133378
'Frogwares has not created the version of @thesinkingcity that is today on sale on @Steam. We do not recommend the purchase of this version. More news soon.'

Developers do not recommend the purchase of this version.
Neither do I.


+ Putting that point aside, I can not recommended this game. The game itself is flawed.



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