I've walked the waterlogged streets of The Sinking City 2, and we might finally have a Cthulhu survival horror game to rival Resident Evil and Silent Hill

Frogwares' The Sinking City was unsmooth astir the edges, but it shone with a genuine appreciation for its Lovecraftian lore, contempt a cosmic horror-style litigation fracas which saw the developer warring their steadfast implicit power of the game. The Sinking City 2, owed to merchandise aboriginal this year, is escaped of these ineligible travails, though arsenic a crippled developed by a Ukranian squad successful the midst of Russia's invasion, real-world authorities person erstwhile again provided a backdrop for eldritch horror.

That said, I've played a preview physique of The Sinking City 2, and it feels similar a standalone effort that reimagines the strengths of its forebear. We've inactive got the ambiance of a flooded Massachusetts municipality nether siege by forces beyond the veil, but alternatively of a bloated unfastened satellite structure, this sequel trims the abdominous for the constrictive corridors and timed thrills of endurance horror.

Aside from the archetypal Alone successful the Dark and Eternal Darkness, it's hard to pinpoint a crippled successful the Resident Evil/Silent Hill look that feels straight related to Cthulhu and his ilk. The Sinking City 2 aims to alteration this. Protagonist Calvin manages constricted ammunition, locates locked doors and puzzles, finds the keys and items helium needs to bypass these obstacles, and dodges plentifulness of shambling and skittering enemies on the way.

Interspersed amidst this panic are acquainted Safe Rooms, each of which are decorated with signs of the flat that Calvin shared with his person Faye, who present lies successful a coma and needs you to prevention her. And yes, a gramophone successful these locations plays the hauntingly calm euphony that endurance fearfulness fans person travel to expect erstwhile redeeming their games.

Arkham extends earlier you with galore flooded streets that bring to caput the archetypal Sinking City, which didn't person bully Safe Rooms. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Frogwares

I saw 2 areas successful my preview that gave maine further reminders of the genre's touchstones - the decayed streets of Arkham (which are similar a 1920s Raccoon City, but with flood waters everywhere) and the interior of the Akeley Memorial Hospital (which brought to caput memories of the Raccoon City Police Department). Throughout both, Calvin was haunted by the Slither - worms that burrow into deceased bodies and reanimate them a la zombies, but much Lovecraftian - and the Stygian, hopping spider-things that were successful the archetypal Sinking City, but are much troublesome present acknowledgment to the deficiency of ammo.

Slither-infected humans are beauteous akin to your modular Resident Evil zombies, close down to the bulging anemic points connected their skin. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Frogwares

Clearly, Frogwares person studied from the greats and tweaked their attack accordingly. As idiosyncratic who appreciated the caller Resident Evil Requiem and Silent Hill f, I recovered overmuch to bask successful The Sinking City 2, though Calvin is surely little memorable from the onset than Leon Kennedy, Grace Ashford, oregon Hinako Shimizu. That said, his travails are a small much cerebral.

Creepiness reminiscent of precocious '90s and 2000s fearfulness games abounds successful The Sinking City 2. Using ripped-off faces to unfastened doors? Charles Dexter Ward would beryllium proud... | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Frogwares

The archetypal Sinking City, arsenic good arsenic Frogwares' Sherlock Holmes games, person each featured investigations wherever the pb quality analyses transgression scenes and puts pieces of grounds together, formulating a practice of however idiosyncratic died successful their mind. (Batman: Arkham Origins and Knight did the aforesaid thing.) The Sinking City 2 swaps this caput palace for an probe bulletin committee that exists successful the paper and lets Calvin signifier connections betwixt assorted in-game documents.

At first, this conscionable seems similar a mode of organising the notes scattered astir Arkham (often scrawled by folks successful the grips of eldritch breakdowns). Handy, but surely not necessary. But erstwhile you realise that you really get a currency for quality upgrades by connecting documents together, the process becomes much interesting. The organisational facet besides proves to beryllium vital, arsenic 1 of the puzzles that I ran into - which progressive arranging the symbols connected a monolith to lucifer those of assorted deities successful Lovecraft's mythology - was capable of a brain-scratcher that I had to usage a carnal notebook to scribble down notes portion referring to the probe board's hints.

Put unneurotic the hints successfully and you'll get points to upgrade Calvin. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Frogwares

This felt similar I was a existent backstage sleuth connected the job. At its champion moments, the archetypal Sinking City provided instances of this sensation, but they were bogged with jank and watered down successful an overworld that seemed a tad excessively large, letting the intimacy of a bully enigma beryllium swept distant successful the tides.

The Sinking City 2, with its caller focus, seems acceptable to debar this misstep, delivering a operation of endurance fearfulness suspense with the puzzle solving recovered successful accepted escapade games. Frogwares person surely endured a batch to get this sequel to the decorativeness line, and if the last merchandise delivers successful this manner, possibly we'll yet person a bully Cthulhu crippled that tin basal up to the likes of what Pyramid Head and Nemesis person fixed genre enthusiasts.

Disclosure: I backed the Kickstarter for The Sinking City 2 successful 2025. There person been a fewer builds released to definite Kickstarter backers, but this intended-for-press preview is the archetypal clip I've personally played the game.