The Sinking City 2: Hands-on Preview - Pleasure to me is a Wonder...
Lovecraftian horror is one of those things that always seems to be lurking on the edges of the cultural zeitgeist, and whilst sometimes things come to the fore like bubbles in a sickly bog, more often than not it’ll keep a cult following only. Luckily for me, I’ve just come off the back of listening to the very excellent Malevolent podcast, so I was hungry for more eldritch horror.
The Sinking City 2 takes place in a very dreary Arkham, a city pounded by floods and now a husk of the city it once was. There’s a duality to the feeling of the game. Half leaning into horror, half into a detective vibe, the game has you play as Calvin. He is seeking a solution to his current predicament, that of returning his partner’s spirit to her body, literally. Surely the eldritch monstrosities in the city hold a solution.
It’s the duality of this feeling that I find quite interesting. You’ll have firefights with abominations at one moment, then take some downtime to piece together clues to better understand your environment or contemplate the potential use of an ancient artefact. It gives you time to really enjoy those tense combat segments and lets you lull into the sense of creeping dread when there are no enemies around.
Dread is the right word too. From the moment I came across a helpful NPC who had cut out his eyes to ensure an elder parasite could settle into their place, allowing him to see through the veil between worlds, I knew something very cool was in store. There’s a segment in the preview where you’re moving through a church to an elder god, and it’s dripping with atmosphere. It’s only a small segment, but it has a nice little puzzle where you have to piece clues together to understand how a giant obelisk works, perform the ritual and unlock the relic it’s hiding. It was a pretty simple puzzle and investigation, and I hope it’s a reflection that the segment of the game is early and I get to really use my grey matter more in later sections, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
In terms of gunplay, it feels very much like a mixed bag. Horror and horror-adjacent games tend to suffer from a pretty simple-seeming problem. To be scared, you often need to not be capable. As soon as you’re able to easily take down enemies, the risk and dread dissipate. There are obviously exceptions, but it’s a good rule of thumb to remember. Sinking City 2’s Calvin is barely capable. Again, early segment of the game and it’s got upgrade systems in place, but I’m not completely sure Calvin could shoot his way out of a paper bag. If you’re up against a single monster, and you’ve got time to properly aim and shoot, you’re fine. If you’re against more than that, it’s a coin flip. The aim feels loose, and most of the guns feel like you’re attacking more with colourful language than an actual weapon. It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes out in the final product.
I do want to discuss the exploration, though. Everything feels very faux-open world. I like this a lot, admittedly, where you’re free to explore smaller segments of the game, and as you’re moving around the actual city you’ve got a few options on where you take your boat. Many of the areas are optional, but feel encouraged to explore. The map assists with this, with rooms coloured based on if you’ve “found” everything, and objects of interest marked out. This was great for me, who loves to explore but can be a bit oblivious to some items directly in front of my face. Maps, especially the later segment of the preview build, tend to loop back on themselves in a satisfying way, opening up shortcuts to previous areas and just making getting around a bit easier.
The Sinking City 2 surprised me, in a good way. I’d heard the prequel played a bit like it was held together with duct tape, but this felt very solid to me. I’m still a bit torn on some of the elements (such as gunplay), but I am hungry for a Lovecraftian-focused game. There was a lot to enjoy here, and that’s just early segments. If Frogwares even manages to remotely stick the landing, I could see this being a bit of a darling to action/horror fans. There’s a lot of passion here that really shines through, and much like a horde of eldritch worms in the eyeballs and the veil – I’m here to see it through.
