The Sinking City Remastered

I love the mythos itself, and the atmosphere of The Sinking City is fitting. The game is interesting to explore for a while, but there is just too much travel time. Most of the detective work is walking around looking for a random cue that feels more like hide and seek rather than solving a puzzle. The combat is okay but there are only 4 enemies that you'll face over and over again, then 2 additional ones that are all very simple in gameplay. The game definitely has its moments, especially with atmosphere toward the end, but the majority of the game felt drawn out. My main gripe is that there is no Cthulhu, boss encounters, nor cinematic scenes until the very end where it felt like far too little and too late. The store page is pretty misleading and just as you think it's getting good it will abruptly end.

[h1][b]💙 В поддержку проекта серии 💛[/b][/h1]

This game offers a truly incredible atmosphere. If you enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes games from the same studio, there’s a good chance you’ll like this one as well. It shares many of the same mechanics, especially in how investigations are handled and in its overall gameplay structure. The game takes place in an open-world city, Oakmont, which is partially flooded. This means you’ll often need to travel by boat to reach certain districts, adding a nice touch to exploration. The atmosphere, both outdoors and indoors, is particularly well done, with strong use of lighting and fog that enhances the eerie and mysterious tone. This remastered version brings noticeable visual improvements. While some lighting effects and textures still show their age, the overall presentation remains very enjoyable, especially on higher settings. The main weakness lies in the combat. Despite a decent variety of weapons, fights feel clunky and not very satisfying. That said, it’s still somewhat improved compared to some of the studio’s previous titles. The narrative and dialogue are largely successful, both in the main story and in several side quests. However, the frequent backtracking across the city can become repetitive over time. The interface and investigation systems also feel outdated. They are not always intuitive and would clearly benefit from quality-of-life improvements. On top of that, there are still some bugs, such as getting stuck in the environment, which can be frustrating, even if I never encountered a true soft lock. Despite all that, I was really drawn into its Lovecraftian world. If you enjoy this kind of atmosphere and detective gameplay, and can look past its flaws, you’ll likely have a great time.

The Sinking City is a 5.5/10, but if you are looking for a HP Lovecraft game then this is a solid entry in your collection. The Sinking City (TSC) Remastered edition fixes enough of the issues to create a competent, narrative driven detective game within a unique setting. A little background, the developer Frogwares (the Sherlock Holmes game series) got into a legal dispute with the publisher Nacon over the original TSC. For a while the version of TSC sold on Steam had no post launch support as the developers were completely locked out as they went to court with the publisher. Now the devs are the sole publisher of TSC and this is their upgraded version with all of the post launch fixes and improvements. (and more) Returning TSC players will be happy to know this upgrade was a big one. Unreal Engine 5 upgrade, ray tracing, 4K textures, new lighting across the map, improved performance, faster loading, enhanced locations, upscaling, improved combat, stability fixes; they did a lot to improve on the original. It is still very much the same game, but the entire experience has been improved so if you enjoyed it before, you're likely to enjoy it more. It's not the best looking game in the world, but unlike the original there's not really anything graphically to complain about. You can crank up the Ray Tracing and make it look great, but at 4K you would need a pretty decent PC or be willing to put up with the fan noise. NPCs in conversation look good enough, but are very stiff and you can tell there are only so many models they're built off. Weather effects look pretty decent as well although sometimes the in game fog can make the game look washed out. Graphically it's fine, not great, just fine. The city of Oakmont is a grim place and a great setting for this game. You will get around by boat navigating the flooded streets, the city feels foreboding and menacing like it's watching you as you track down leads. Abandoned homes and businesses line the streets empty, strange outbursts of crazy people and violence occur, the residents of Oakmont have come to accept this as normal; the place will make you feel uneasy. There are places where it over does the dilapidation, (who sleeps next to rotting fish parts?) but overall, they succeeded in creating an ominous setting. I wouldn't be surprised if people listed the setting as one of their favorite aspects of the game. The problem is the city is inhabited by lifeless NPCs who wander around completely disconnected from the map. They have no schedules; they are placed without much thought and are merely just set dressing. Now you can point a weapon at them and they panic and run, and if a monster gets out onto the street they react appropriately, but that is about the most complex thing I have seen them do. There are scripted events that can happen and can be genuinely creepy, but they are few and far between and do not involve the player at all. You'll spend much of the game talking to NPCs, gathering evidence and engaging in short bouts of combat. Talking to NPCs is like any other game, except they often use an uncomfortably close-up camera shot which is an odd choice. Combat is improved but as this is mostly a detective game it won't be competing with any shooter on the market, but it's not frustrating and that is all it needs to be. Now the evidence gathering is both the game's greatest strength and weakness. Frogwares is great with environmental storytelling, it's fun to gather evidence and piece together crime scenes, and it's cool that these puzzles now play out in an open world seamlessly. Connecting evidence in the Mind Palace is still a great way to come to conclusions, and then leaving it to the player to decide what is the correct moral choice makes each decision memorable. The problem is a lot of it leans heavily on this games version of detective vision called the Mind's Eye. Following footsteps, inspecting items, putting together a sequence of events, finding hidden clues; all of it uses the Mind's Eye which can become stale and tiring by the end of the game. Also annoying is the game's requirement to collect all Key Evidence which doesn't allow for the story to continue without investigating specific items/info, which can make investigation feel like just a storytelling gimmick. Overall, Frogwares' classic investigation mechanics still work in TSC, but frankly are starting to feel pretty thin in 2026. The story is very Lovecraft. Cults, monsters, horrid dreams, hoodlums, creeping madness, ancient gods, animal human hybrids; it strikes the perfect tone. Throughout the game you will see plenty of winks and nods to the source material it is already working off of. It may not be a "love letter" level of reverence, but it's clear there is a passion for H.P. Lovecraft over at Frogwares. Oh, and it's only about 25-30 hours without the DLC. IMO this game is for people who want a "Lovecraft Game." There is a decent-sized audience that exists around the weird fiction author's works and they are eager to get their hands on anything that can make them feel immersed in Lovecraft's writings. They will be the ones willing to ignore the game's flaws and appreciate its highlights. Since I am one of them, I recommend it.

TL,DR: Waste of time if you're looking for an immersive Mythos experience. Okay for a Friday evening play after a couple of beers. Maybe. IF you got this for free. AND have nothing better to do with your life. The 2018 "Call of Cthulhu" from Cyanide Studio is the better of two somewhat similar games, in my humble opinion. Long version: I couldn't quite put my finger on it for a while, but then it struck me: the game almost feels like one of those Lego adventure games, but with a Lovecraftian skin slapped on, and a lot more boring. The world pretends to be open, but isn't: There are no unique items or collectibles in the game, so there is utterly no point to explore until you get the quests which tell you to do so. Unless you're grinding for XP. But what's worse, the game is just not... *believable* enough to be entertaining. Its mechanics are so much on the surface it simply leaves the player no space for immersion. By the end you're so bored you just want it to be over. The game is very shallow - which is ironic, considering the title. * Story is artificially drawn-out, but even so it's still rather short if you disregard the time lost travelling and wasted underwater. The plot is also not great - just your usual HPL vaporware. Honestly, the best bit of storytelling was the "Brother looking for his sister in the asylum" side-quest. That one has meat on its bones. The rest, including the main plot, is just poor justification for making the player go through repetitive gameplay mechanics designed for a previous game by the same devs. * Investigation segments where you have to put events in the right order are painfully simple and thus can only be categorized as another artificial time sink. * Diving segments are bloody f**king godawful. Too slow, too pointless, too artificial, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. * Location assets are so obviously copy-pasted it almost hurts. Once you've seen one manor, you've seen them all. The devs seem to have been cutting corners wherever they could. There is a main quest where a child is supposed to be pushing a gangster down a hole, but they obviously haven't made any kid models, so they used an adult instead. * Monster variety is painfully low low. Spoilers: there's 4 types, you see them all during the first half an hour of play and will be bored out of your skull by the end of the game. And I refuse to count the slight variations as separate entities. This is cutting corners again. * Having to manually place addresses on the map gets super annoying super fast. It's a pretty nice mechanic, but having to do so 50+ times is just plain awful. * The fast-travel via phone booths system is so slow due to the fact you need to travel to them by foot/boat, that it's usually faster to quit to main menu then load, because it puts you next to the nearest booth and you can travel where you need to go. * Oh yeah, and the desktop shortcut Steam creates for the remastered version actually launches the original non-remastered game. And save games are not compatible. So, no. Not recommended. Personally, I'm sorry I wasted my time on this, but I rarely quit a game I've started unless it's a complete pile of garbage. But this came close.

While I'm a sucker for anything lovecraftian, which made me enjoy the game, it was a chore. It feels less like detective work and more of a fetching game. Which is funny, since the game goes out of its way, forcing you to put in markers on the map by yourself, trying to evoke a sense of investigative work and failing at it. It did feel like artifically fluffing up game time. Adding some random barriers on the map to prolong your travel time (looking at you, random junk on the way to the newspaper). It feels like an ambiciouos project that had little resources, having the same assests reused for everyone and everything, having a sense of a large, yet very empty world. The few unlockable looks were a nice idea, since unlocking new abilities didn't amount to much. After writing all of this down, I feel like I liked the game this could be and not what it was. Still, I'm optimistic for what Sinking City 2 may bring. Hopefully, more of everything.

Remastered runs like utter dogsh!t. If you have an Nvidia, then DLSS doesn't work... It's listed, but doesn't work. This runs WORSE than before. So congratulations, you destroyed your game by trying to upgrade it. Unplayable on an RTX 3080.

The Sinking City Remastered — это тот случай, когда хочется и похвалить, и поругать одновременно. Украинская студия Frogwares, известная своими Шерлоками, решила вернуть на прилавки свою лавкрафтианскую драму про затопленный город Окмонт, но уже на движке Unreal Engine 5. И да, визуально это просто конфетка. Но если копнуть глубже, под красивой оберткой скрывается всё та же неровная, бюджетная и местами откровенно сырая игра 2019 года . 🎭 Главное — детектив, а не боевик Если вы ждёте здесь динамичного шутера про отстрел монстров — проходите мимо. Сердце игры — расследования. Вы играете за частного детектива Чарльза Рида, которого мучают видения, и приплываете в город, который постепенно сходит с ума и уходит под воду . Механика детектива сделана отлично: Вы собираете улики на местах преступлений. Роетесь в архивах полиции, больницы и библиотеки . Заходите в "Дворец разума" (специальный режим) и соединяете факты, чтобы выстроить логическую цепочку. И главное — вам никто не скажет, правильный ли выбор вы сделали. Игра может молча засчитать провал, и вы пойдёте по неверному следу. Это одновременно и круто (реализм), и бесит (приходится переигрывать) . Именно ради этого чувства — что ты сам, без маркеров и подсказок, раскрыл тайну — в The Sinking City и стоит играть. 🖼️ Unreal Engine 5: ради этого стоило переиздавать? Да, графика — главный козырь ремастера . Разработчики завезли: Lumen и трассировку лучей — вода блестит, тени падают правильно, город ожил . 4K текстуры — теперь можно разглядеть детали безумия на лицах прохожих . DLSS и FSR — летает даже на средних системах (но системные требования подросли, GTX 1070 — это минимум!) . НО. Даже в ремастере заметно, что мир — пустой. Это просто красивые декорации. Вы не найдёте следов на песке, интерактивности или жизни за окнами. Город мёртв, и это убивает погружение . Один игрок на Metacritic метко заметил: "Дождь недостаточно густой, фонарик недостаточно яркий, ощущения от наползающего моря тоже недостаточно" . ⚔️ Боевая система: вот тут всё плохо Если вы надеялись, что в ремастере починят драку — нет, не починили . Боевка здесь — необходимость, а не развлечение. Стрельба деревянная. Оружие чувствует себя как игрушечное . Враги — болванчики. Монстры предсказуемы, их можно бить через заборы или просто забежать на ящик, откуда они вас не достанут . Крафт и патроны. Система выживания сломана: патронов всегда мало, но они тут же крафтятся из мусора, который валяется под ногами прямо во время боя. В итоге вы не чувствуете себя ни выживальщиком, ни Рэмбо . 😤 Бесят мелочи (но они копятся) Сундуки возрождаются. Вы зачистили локацию, а через 5 минут вернулись — и все ящики с лутом снова на месте. Убивает атмосферу исследования напрочь . Пиксель-хантинг. Пропустили одну мелкую улику, которая не подсвечивается? Всё, тупик. Без гайда не пройти . Сейвы странные. Сохраняешься в доме, а загружаешься за три квартала от него . Копипаст локаций. Дизайнов заброшек в игре, может, и много, но они повторяются так часто, что к середине игры кажется, будто ходишь по кругу . 🧐 Вердикт The Sinking City Remastered — игра на любителя. Она для терпеливых ценителей Лавкрафта, которые готовы простить кривой экшен ради возможности самостоятельно распутать клубок тайн. Ремастер сделал её визуально современной, но не исправил фундаментальных проблем . Если у вас уже есть версия 2021 года — вам обновление доступно бесплатно, скачивайте смело . Если вы новичок — берите, но будьте готовы к тому, что 70% времени вы будете плавать на лодке по пустым каналам и страдать от перестрелок, а оставшиеся 30% — кайфовать от атмосферы и детектива. Итог: Красивый, но всё такой же сырой детектив с душой Лавкрафта и кривыми руками. Оценка: 7.0/10 (за атмосферу и UE5, минус за боевку и пустоту). Обзор написан 22 февраля 2026 года. Если соберётесь играть — ставьте сложность боя на минимум и кайфуйте от сюжета.

[h1]А ВИ ЗНАЄТЕ ЩО ТАКЕ БОЖЕВІЛЛЯ?[h1] Ми граємо за колишнього військового Чарльза Ріда,він став приватиним детективом який страждає від постійних галюників та кошмарів,його мета найти на це відповіді і покінчити з цим божевіллям. [u]Сама гра виявилась для мене таки цікава зі своєю історіє і цікавими персонажами,сама механіка досліджень саме на початку гру була для мене трохи не зрозуміла,але по проходженню сюжету я приловчився до цієї механіки і мені стало грати набагато легше і приємніше. Тому рекомендую цю гру до проходження і підтримати українських розробників. [h1]P.S. 18 серпня 2026 року виходить друга частина яку обовязково мають пройти всі бажаючі.(також доступна демо-версія гри)[h1]