The Sinking City Remastered

Fun game. Very addicting even for a Lovecraftian game. The added detective work and blend with action make for a fun thrilling (and freaky too) adventure! Totally recommend to all Lovecraftian fans. If that won't entice you, there will be a sequel to this soon so consider playing it if you want to experience the sequel if it ends up continuing from the conclusion here.

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!

"In my restless dreams... I see that town." The more I think about the Sinking City, the more I understand why I really enjoyed Silent Hill as a series. Exploring an isolated town steeped in the mysteries of the occult. A handful of interesting characters with colourful backgrounds are literred sparingly around the town for you to encounter. The city itself is falling apart due to some sort of curse unraveling before you, and you are armed with limited resources to take on overwhelming odds against the horrors taking over the streets. The detective aspects, the mind palace and searching for clues, are defining traits of what makes the Sinking City so enthralling to me. Unraveling a mystery is extremely fun, finding all clues in the investigations feels very rewarding. However, I feel like the investigations don't grow with the time you spend in the game. You can definitely see a pattern emerge in the first two major cases of the game, and it runs through to the end without changing. I think the inclusion of some physical, in-world puzzles like putting a chess piece in the right place, setting a clock to a certain time or the sort would've gone a long way to make each case feel unique. It can make it feel a bit stale after the first act. It often feels like the open-city aspect got in the way of individual investigation designs at points, like in the Blackwater Manor or how most side zones often repeat in the same design. The finale definitely hits at the beginning. Not going to spoil a single thing because in my opinion, the first few steps in the final investigation are some of the strongest points. I do think the finale isn't as strong as the initial investigation. There doesn't seem to be enough moments for the player to bond and learn more with Charles (like how he really dislikes being called 'Charlie' several times, the only two diary entries add a lot of flavour to him especially, 'do a magic trick,' is super funny) and sprinkling more endearing character interactions would've made the last 3 options really slap by getting the player more invested in our protagonist. I greatly enjoyed my time regardless - and my critiques only prove to me that I really was invested. I just wanted a bit more character engagement with Charles and learning more about who we're playing, how our choices effect him, and how much more those endings would've hit harder had there been more time to form a stronger emotional connection with our main protagonist. I do like you get rendered scenes based on your story decisions, definitely a step in the right direction as you can see how Charles reacts. - - - I did experience some technical difficulties playing the Remastered version of the game, and I'm glad it comes bundled with the original 2019 edition. Sometimes the animations would stop suddenly, or doors wouldn't properly open, like the one at the top of the Dark Reef Hotel. Although the lighting and textures look a lot better in the remaster, I like the vibe and gritiness of the original release and feel like it's more in line with the vision of the art direction.

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Sinking City vás ohromý atmosférou knih H.P. Lovecrafta a o pár hodin později vám zničí iluzi dobré atmosféry díky zbytečně roztahanému open worldu, fakt špatnýmu combatu a zbytečně na sílu daných encounterů. Příběh je sice vtahující, ale je v něm velké množství filleru a questy se začnou hodně rychle opakovat. Jde opravdu hodně vidět že tato hra měla malý budget. Plusy: - Příběh, první a poslední čtvrtina - Zajímavé puzzly - Atmosféra kosmického a eldritch hororu Mínusy: - zbytek příběhu - Combat - Survival horor mechaniky - Open World I když sice názorem hraničím s negativní recenzí tak i tak bych hru doporučil, i přes její masivní chyby se dá užít

La trama está ambientada en un detective privado en una isla de comienzos del siglo XX donde ha habido una inundación importante... la mitad de las calles del mapa están inundadas y solo podemos circular en lancha... en la Ciudad habitan 3 especies diferentes... humanos.. humano-simios... y humano-peces... Si así de raro... y broncas y negocios turbios entre uno y otro... pero si fuera poco hay que sumar a los bichos mutantes... de todo tipo y color.. bípedos.. cuadrúpedos... acuáticos... humanos convertidos en bichos... feos....muy feos !!! Se encuentran debajo de las Aguas y los terrestres surgen de otros planos para dimensionales en puntos específicos del mapa donde hay mayor infestación.. El detective tiene que ir resolviendo casos que se van presentando.. a medida que se va revelando la historia .. va recolectando pistas.. el Personaje tiene una especie de vista para dimensional donde muestra acertijos ocultos y también puede utilizar retro cognición para develar como acontecieron los hechos, ordenando una secuencia de acciones. Se hecha mucho de menos poder subirse a un Ford-T de esos y manejar un rato... Gráficos.. La verdad buenos gráficos.. iluminación... ciclos día / noche.. Estoy jugando con gráfica integrada Intel Dual Core con opciones de video todo en bajo, sin AA, así que mucho no les puedo decir del apartado pero sin nada activado ya se aprecian buenos gráficos.. supongo que con hardware mejor se apreciará mas el trabajo de post procesado. Buen trabajado el sonido ambiente... y en los efectos... buenas secuencias de video completan la historia... Jugabilidad... Al principio cuesta un poco agarrarle la mano. Se usa mucho el mapa.. al principio se hace algo tedioso la logística pero luego vas encontrando Cabinas telefónicas que son viajes rápidos.. que te permiten viajar de punto a punto... ahorrándote bastantes minutos de lanchita... Munición verdaderamente escasa.. y bichos mutantes.. hacen del juego que no sea extremadamente fácil.. tiene autoguardado... es un juego donde al menos yo ya morí muchas veces... hay que cuidar munición... ir a la búsqueda de suministros para balas.. (casquillos y pólvora)... y alcohol jeringas y vendas trapos etc para la Salud.. de todas maneras salvo alguna misión especifica no merece la pena enfrentarlos.. se pierden muchas balas.. mejor huir... para combatir tenemos armas largas / cortas... bombas incendiarias y bombas explosivas... trampas... para la salud tenemos pastillas y botiquines... para ambas barras de salud... física y mental... Estilo... Una Aventura de investigación en 3era. Persona con detalles old school y con estilo Lovercraft.. un pequeño grupo de habilidades que le dan un color RPG.. con diálogos cortos... bien pensante... pero bien jugable.. Arcade y Adictivo...

I'm a fan of most things Lovecraftian, so I'm not overly surprised I enjoyed this one. It's no AAA game, and there's some jank here and there (mostly getting stuck in the terrain every now and again). It's dark, it's gloomy, and there's the sense of dread and insanity lingering the whole time--which is something I want in a Lovecraftian horror. The atmosphere was great, a couple of little jump scares when monsters came out of nowhere, but I wouldn't call this too much of a jump scare horror. It's definitely mystery and thriller. The game is NOT forgiving in the early stages either. Ammo is scarce, unless you want to try your hand at getting your arse beat by monsters way too powerful for you (which I did stupidly enough lol). By the end game, I felt much more confident and comfortable with going into infested zones, but they were still challenging. This was also one of those games that really tugged at my moral core, never quite knowing if my choice was actually the right one to make or not, and dreading what consequences would happen to those involved. Some of the characters I hated and then liked, and some of them I just outright hated because they were jerks (in fact... a LOT of them are jerks!). If you're interested in detective games, this is definitely worth it, and it's got a good amount of hours of gameplay, too (I did all side quests). Like most of these AA games, however, it suffered from an ending that was just too quick once it got there. There are multiple endings also, which is good, I just wish they were expanded upon a little bit more vs a small 30 second clip for each. Still definitely a game I found stands out on its own and is unique, and I'm very much looking forward to the second one :D