Lovecraftian horror has been a longtime staple of the horror scene. The Sinking City 2 by Frogwares plunges players into the heart of the otherworldly, incomprehensible horrors. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, the sequel to the 2019 cult hit is almost here. But not without some major changes from the first game. After getting the chance to play two parts of the game, exploring the city of Arkham and a hospital, it’s clear that the shift to a more survival horror focus is a great choice.
The Sinking City 2 takes place in 1920s Massachusetts, in the city of Arkham. A supernatural flood has devastated the once thriving metropolitan center, leaving it nearly abandoned. Those who remain have succumbed to a madness thanks to a leech-like creature called the Slither. Through the Slither, many common folk can perceive the incomprehensible, while cursing those who try to avoid the madness for their own sanity.
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We play as Calvin Rafferty. So far, Calvin has little to no connection to the protagonist of the first game. All we know is he’s searching Arkham for his partner, Faye Bennett, who is lost somewhere in the city. Without any memories, but possessing the ability to perceive the dreaming realm, Calvin must save Faye from wherever she is and survive the ever-growing horrors of Arkham and its otherworldly flood.
The environmental storytelling demonstrates the improvements Frogwares has made.
The story seeps through in the two areas we got to test out, giving just enough to make you want more. The most intriguing element is the environmental storytelling, which shows Frogwares taking a massive leap forward. Notes and interactive items are scattered everywhere. Messing with them gives us more clues as to what the citizens of Arkham have been experiencing since remaining behind.
Most impactful is the mystery-solving system. Some of the notes and items will lead to “clues” needed for something bigger, whether it be a solution to a puzzle or a guide to advancing in an area. But it’s all up to you to put everything together, including one of the primary puzzles that must be solved to supercharge a trident head and power up a church. Journal entries and crypts throughout the Church grounds give hints at the correct order of operations, equating names of Elder Gods to symbols they were known for, and the proper order of the hierarchy of those same Eldritch beings.
Connecting the dots awards currency to upgrade Calvin in different ways, but, most importantly, it makes sorting through clues much more straightforward to reach the right solution. The way the clues and puzzles have been implemented makes the whole system rewarding in a variety of ways that encourage exploration even more than usual.
The Sinking City 2 blends survival horror with detective mystery.
In a survival horror game, exploration can lead to more ammo and resources (or doom if you’re not careful). Here, exploring the areas to their fullest gave all that, and naturally built the playable characters even further, making them more customizable while feeding the player more of the overarching story.
The Sinking City 2 is deeply rooted in survival horror while also being a detective mystery. The Lovecraftian influence on creature design and worldbuilding is even more deeply rooted in this game’s execution. From the playable segments, the Survival Horror experience was quite challenging. With limited inventory space, managing key items, ammo, crafting items, and especially healing items is very challenging. That’s all on top of how aggressive and hard-hitting the enemies faced were.
In fact, the inventory space is reminiscent of older Resident Evil titles. You’ll either give up or use usable items earlier than usual to make space for others. What makes everything even more challenging is how aggressive and hard-hitting the enemies are. In the preview, the two main enemies were facehugger-like crawlies that possess corpses, which sprout glowing pustules. The corpses aren’t too bad to take out. The crawling ones, however, are fast, evasive, and love to dive at you.
There’s plenty to explore throughout the game and in Arkham in particular.
Healing damage isn’t too efficient with the early healing items either, leading to a more cautious gameplay style than usual for these types of games. But once after getting a shotgun in the second part of the preview, they were much easier to handle.
What was most surprising was just how big and explorable Arkham really is. In the first part of the preview, Calvin escapes a building infested with Slither and explores the flooded ruins by boat. This isn’t simply a linear boating section, though. You can get off at various stops to explore for more resources and other useful items.
Even the church area, which was the primary focus of this portion of the preview, has many more unlockable doors and secrets than one could find in the limited available time. Those curious to explore every nook and cranny will find much to discover here.
The Sinking City 2 triumphs in building an atmospheric world.
The Sinking City 2 tackles an aspect of Lovecraftian horror that games influenced by it seem to miss. And that is through how anyone is corruptible by the Elder Gods madness and influence. The two primary NPCs that Calvin runs into are two highly intelligent people, each of whom has been able to tap into the Slither for different purposes. One to get even more knowledge. The other, a head physician named Thaddeus Lowe, uses Eldritch knowledge to improve hospital security and to perform grotesque experiments.
One of those is the procedure for removing a face from an individual and preserving it. The faces serve as a locking mechanism, with Azathothian technology securing doors and other areas of the hospital. Each has their own goals and purpose of relying on the Slither. And each comes off as one who may not have been as corruptible as they seem. No human can get the best of the Elder Gods. We are less than gnats to them. But the thought of power and the limitless knowledge they have is tempting even for the people we perceive as being the most incorruptible.
The Sinking City 2 nails atmosphere, world-building, mystery, and execution in using Lovecraftian influence to its fullest. Fans of the survival horror genre have another one to look forward to. And anyone who was put off by the first has less to worry about with all the changes and updates to their design philosophy that Frogwares implemented into this game. In particular, with the expansive, explorable areas, puzzle design, and combat. Even though the latter is a little too difficult in its current form, survival horror is really one of the best ways to do justice to H.P. Lovecraft’s works.
The Sinking City 2 is coming soon to Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC.
