The Sinking City 2

ENGLISH BELOW Szczerze? Pierwsza część była ciekawsza. Rozgrywka stała się niezwykle liniowa i przypomina teraz serię Resident Evil. Nie oznacza to, że gra jest zła – ma swoje dobre momenty – ale nie da się pozbyć wrażenia, że została mocno okrojona względem jedynki. Zapomnijcie o otwartym mieście, świat gry mocno się skurczył. Zabrakło interaktywnych dialogów, a elementy RPG, takie jak rozwój postaci, są bardzo ubogie. Z plusów: w grze czuć przyjemne inspiracje serią Silent Hill. Niestety, walka frustruje – bywa nudna i uciążliwa, dlatego polecam grać na najniższym poziomie trudności, bo starcia nie dają żadnej satysfakcji. Dodatkowo gra potrafi wybić z immersji absurdalnym projektem poziomów. Przykład? Bohater musi krążyć po labiryncie pomieszczeń tylko dlatego, że drogę blokuje mu... drewniana skrzynka z książkami. Na pochwałę zasługuje całkiem wciągająca historia, choć mimo zakorzenienia w uniwersum Lovecrafta, nie jest to najwyższa literacka półka. Honestly? The first game was more interesting. The gameplay has become incredibly linear and now feels a lot like the Resident Evil series. This doesn't mean it's a bad game – it has its moments – but you can't shake the feeling that it was heavily stripped down compared to the original. Forget about the open city; the game world has shrunk significantly. There are no interactive dialogues, and the RPG elements, like character progression, are very bare-bones. On the plus side, you can feel some nice inspirations from the Silent Hill series. Unfortunately, combat is frustrating – it can be boring and tedious, so I recommend playing on the lowest difficulty because the encounters offer zero satisfaction. On top of that, the absurd level design often breaks immersion. An example? The protagonist has to navigate a maze of rooms just because his path is blocked by... a wooden crate filled with books. Ridiculous. The engaging story deserves some praise, but despite being set in the Lovecraft mythos, it’s not top-tier writing.

The Sinking City 2 ukazuje, že přechod Frogwares od detektivky k survival hororu byl povedený risk a výsledkem je poctivá, atmosférická hra, která se neztratí ani vedle větších jmen žánru. Nejvíc sedne fanouškům Residentu Evil, správy inventáře a hádanek, revoluci ale nečekejte. Za plnou cenu bych možná počkal, jinak jde o jasné doporučení.

Finally a horror series that I enjoy just as much as Resident Evil! It's a little different because of the cosmic horror mythology but that is what makes it interesting. + Engaging story and lore + Smooth, fluid gameplay + Excellent atmosphere that amps up the creep factor What are you waiting for? Buy this now!

Я гадав в цьому році вийде тільки один Resident Evil а тут вийшов ще один! Неочикувано і приємно.

It's about a 7/10 survival horror experience. Don't go into this one expecting the gameplay loop of the first game. While that one was investigations with occasional survival horror sections, this one is all survival horror with occasional puzzles that the game pretends are investigations. Very little enemy variety too. I'm more impressed that these guys managed to finish and release this in the middle of a war, so yeah, support Ukraine and buy it at full price.

The world has changed a lot since the release of the original The Sinking City, making it a miracle that the sequel even released. After warring with their publisher over the rights for the first game, they then had to make the second in the midst of a real and horrific war. Even the opening card when you load up the game explains the conditions that the game was made under and it makes you appreciate the work they had to do to get this out at all. I previewed the game recently on the Steam Deck, and found the opening section to be quite promising (despite being almost unplayable on Valve’s handheld device), so I was looking forward to trying out the full game on stronger hardware. Many thanks to the Frogwares for the review code. PUTTING THE ‘LOVE’ IN LOVECRAFT Whilst the protagonist and name of the game may look awfully similar, The Sinking City 2 is a completely separate beast to its predecessor. Rather than following on from the events of the first game, this sequel moves from Oakmont to Arkham (which is another Sinking City, making the definitive article in the title a little questionable), putting you in the shoes of occultist enthusiast Calvin as he tries to gather what he needs to perform a ritual that could save his wife from her eternal slumber whilst the city around him is slowly being consumed by water. It’s a tragic tale, and Calvin is haunted by dreams putting him at fault, thus making it a much more personal narrative to the original. They add just enough mystery to keep you intrigued, and the writing and voice acting only adds to the strong storytelling. Frogwares are, of course, masters of weaving a tale so this comes as no surprise – but this time the rest of the game manages to match that same level of polish. As someone who adored the first game, it’s hard to deny that the second is far more technically impressive by comparison with its level of detail and water effects being sublime. Of course, that also means the game is a power-hungry beast, but the Steam Machine was capable of running it pretty much perfectly – which is more than can be said for its little brother, the Steam Deck. The biggest change though is not with the technical improvements nor the shift in narrative, but rather the main gameplay itself – and this is where I believe the game is going to divide many. Whereas the first game opted to be a detective mystery in an open-world that never allowed you to uncover all of its eldritch mysteries bubbling away, The Sinking City 2 instead leans into the ever-so-popular Resident Evil format, with limited resources, ferocious enemies, and save rooms being the only place you’re truly safe. It’s a style that many have followed after the remake of Resident Evil 2, including the likes of Cronos: A New Dawn, Alan Wake 2, and Silent Hill 2 Remake amongst others. As with many of the games it follows in the footsteps of, The Sinking City 2 is a far more linear affair that pushes you along set-piece locations for you to explore instead of an area that gradually opens up and evolves over time. That’s not to say there’s no backtracking, as on occasion you will obtain a key item that opens up areas in a previous location, thus requiring you to hop on your boat to head back there, but there’s no real chance of getting lost. Heck, even when sailing you’ll typically be following a set path until you reach the next dock. Those key items though will quickly become a burden, as your limited inventory size only allows you to a handful of items at the start. With a gun of some kind being essential, as well as some backup ammo, you’ll quickly find that carrying around anything extra than is absolutely necessary is impossible – as you’ll always want to make sure that you have at least one space available for a key item. The problem with this is that this game has so much ♥♥♥♥ for you to pick up. Sure, you may want to leave space for one key item, but often there will also be two or three. Or maybe you’ll find an item that takes two slots. Or maybe you’ll want to pick up ammo for more than one kind of gun. Or, more often than not, you’ll find one of the countless items scattered around that are used for the game’s crafting system. It’s overwhelming, and results in you either making numerous trips to the safe room to dump as much as possible, or you ignore it. The latter of which is not the best idea given how sparse supplies are and how ineffective your melee attack is on anything other than a worm. The limited inventory system works in older games, as the amount of backtracking allows you to leave anything extra until the next time you pass by, but here you really do have to get everything all at once as there’s a good chance you won’t be going back to the same place again. The much bigger issue I had with the game, is that it really loses the strong sense of identity that the original had. Sure, the combat mechanics here are much better than before, but fighting was never really what the first game was all about. Charles Reed was a detective, and so a lot of the game revolved around investigating and talking with the fishy, peculiar residents and solving various mysteries. It felt like the perfect way to blend their old Sherlock Holmes’ style of games into the world of horror, and had some genuinely great cases to solve. Here though, Investigation is pushed to the side and never a necessity. You can use your mind palace to organise clues to figure out a door code, but you probably won’t ever bother with it most of the time. What’s worse though is that the Lovecraftian elements are also vastly reduced too, with fish people being replaced by the undead being puppetered by parasitic worms. It’s a neat idea, but having a survival horror full of zombie-substitutes just feels really underwhelming for a game that is supposed to be about eldritch horrors. That’s not to say that there aren’t other creatures, but they’re less frequent and not overly compelling outside of the genuinely great bosses. It really pains me to be so critical, as this is still a really polished survival horror experience – but it’s yet another game that tries to imitate Resident Evil so much that it loses itself in the process. This doesn’t feel like The Sinking City anymore, but rather a wet imitation of Capcom’s classic series. The problem is that there’s nothing special here to set it apart from all the other great survival horror games out there. Sure, genre fans that aren’t familiar (or didn’t like) the original will likely still find enjoyment – but will they remember the game in a year’s time? I’m not so sure.

Зазвичай я не роблю предзамовлення на ігри, ця - стала виключенням. Пройшов за 13 годин, в які розробники, окрім приємної (нехай і РЕзівської) механіки і геймплею, вплели прям дику кількість творів Лавкрафта. Вона лінійна, але на останній катсцені волосся встає дибки навіть там, де ти про нього не знав. Розробникам - повага, в моїх очах виросли настільки, що будь-яку іншу їх гру я буду чекати, і з великою долею вірогідності - передзамовляти. Враховуючи, що вона коштує на 30% менше ніж всі ААА - це просто дикий мастхев для всіх любителів хоч одного з жанрів, які тут присутні. P.S. Для тих хто очікував такого самого геймплею, як і в першій частині - погані новини, це робить гру іншою, але поганою - точно ні. Категорично рекомендую

Игра крепкий норм, близко к хорошо! Получил удовольствие от прохождения, геймплей приятный. Так как я не фанат прошлых детективных игр Frogwares, задумку сделать свой Резик одобряю. Немного поддушила локация с рыбным рынком. Всё-таки затопленный город в начале игры задал слишком высокую планку по атмосфере и вайбику. В целом игра как игра хорошая. А вот сюжетно, простите, полная шляпа. Сюжет этой игры уже давно написали в Super Mario. Мы буквально из главы в главу получаем одно и то же. «Ваша принцесса в другом замке». Концовка тоже, мягко говоря, такая себе. Но сама игра тупа топ, так что за это можно простить даже абсолютно всратый сюжет. 7/10