I enjoyed the first Sinking City title. It was pretty much on par with what Frogwares had put out before this with their Sherlock Holmes titles. Imperfect experiences with some creative storytelling and gameplay. Do what you want with this knowledge, but The Sinking City 2 doesn’t really do anything to break this mold for better or worse. What helps soften that blow is an opening title card that reminds you that this tale of love and cosmic horror was built against the backdrop of real-world horrors brought about by war. As most of the team was centered in Ukraine, while others had to flee the country, and others were still drafted. It’s not that it puts life into perspective.
The Sinking City 2 is a stand-alone horror experience despite being situated as the second game in the series. Having been a while, I didn’t realize that right away, and there are a few reasons the game might mislead you. For starters, we join the main character caring for his comatose girlfriend in a sinking city, flooded with water and rain (hey, that’s the name of the game!). He treats her one last time before setting off to undo the choices the two of them made in some ancient ritual that summoned some… thing… to our world.
This is pushed off to the back burner for major stints of the game, which CAN make it feel like a storyline that had played out before. In a sequel, this can leave you guessing whether these reveals are to come or had come prior to the start. I assure you, you are not missing things. This makes up the brunt of the story. It’s a fairly enjoyable story, though with several pacing issues as to when these narrative beats actually pay off, splitting between a classic horror exploration structure and more modern combat.
The second reason you might get confused is that the main character has a very similar aesthetic to the original main character. Which is to say, a leather jacket and fedora… or fedora-adjacent hat. That said, though, they aren’t really similar. Both games are set in the 20s, so I guess the aesthetic makes sense, though they could have been set apart a little more convincingly. The first felt more like a Bogart-type brooding hero, while this time around you play as more of an Indiana Jones—a fast-talking, less serious kind of guy. Juxtaposed with a world gone wrong, I actually enjoyed it.
Most of the writing in the game was pretty fun, especially where the other citizens trapped in the city are concerned. As if to drive home the point that the most twisted versions of Lovecraftian horror are commonplace in this world, an early set piece involves saving a murderous diva mermaid from a hotel. You fight several of the cosmic abominations while guiding the mermaid, who is suspended from the ceiling by a rope, as you kill and flip switches to get her into your boat. This is a tense combat mode made all the better by her constant quips of annoyance. The boat ride after is even better as the two argue or she makes a snide remark when you depart from any of the ports left around the city.
On the flip side, The Sinking City 2 hurts its own narrative by heavily relying on a generic love story as its focal point. Individually, and even together, the leads of Calvin (who you play as) and his love interest, Faye, are good characters. The whole affair just way too often slips into sappy lines and lovey-dovey moments that do little to move the plot forward and will probably feel like you have seen them many times before. The ultimate conclusion is so intrinsically tied to this; the game hinges on you caring about this, which becomes hard as it progresses.
Cutscenes also take away to some degree, given that the character models have some texturing to them and some janky animation. This is typical Frogwares, so it is hard to chastise them for it fully, but it can be a little off-putting. The closest comparison I would make is to Tortured Souls, since both are competent and enjoyable horror games that actually understand what they are doing, if you can get past this one thing. There are a few enjoyable action sequences in there as well, so it’s not like this is dragging the entire experience down.
When we join Calvin, after tending to his girlfriend, we learn that the city has flooded and an evacuation notice is in effect. It isn’t outright stated at this point but is implied that this is all Calvin’s and Faye’s fault; it’s established that Calvin’s motivation is to wake up Faye from her coma. This leads to a fantastic opening to The Sinking City 2, where you sail between safe points. Well, safe from the flood, at any rate. Doing so with the goal of progressing by opening floodgates to progress to reach your next waypoint.
This area is a semi-open world with a few places to explore that you will locate along the way and city streets to sail along as you navigate. There are also a few multi-step puzzles in this area as well, with most being narrative-driven, but they are actually pretty enjoyable. At one point, I found a church. I had to run around, finding notes to solve an obelisk with pictures I needed to order correctly, which in turn was needed to open the floodgate and get on my way. Much less messy than the time I had to lift a whale carcass.
What’s really cool about the city of Arkham—yes, the most Lovecraftian connector in the game—is the distance between the points and what that means for wandering around. Typically, enemies are on triggers, so solve something or open a chest, and you are likely to get attacked, as they make places like a fire station or a collapsing hotel more of a nightmare to navigate. In a good way, I mean. This means grabbing a key in one place, then backtracking to one you cleared, doesn’t feel like bland repetition. Actually taking the time to look around also yielded enough rewards for me to recommend taking the opportunity to look around. There are even a few hidden puzzles worth getting sucked into, even with the looping back and forth often associated with it.
Unfortunately, this first place stands above what comes after. It’s not like I didn’t ‘like’ anything else that I came to, but it’s night and day. I’m not going to go into detail on those areas beyond just a basic idea. Think classic Resident Evil: they are classic maps with rooms that attach, with exploration mostly tasking players with finding the keys to open a new portion for exploration. It’s night and day, and the city stands alone. This comprised a longer portion of my playthrough overall, though the following areas are much easier to get confused in, so this experience might differ from person to person. There is still a significant amount of the game to go, so plan accordingly.
This is when you get to the actual horror part. You will fight the abominations that plague your trip much earlier, but when the player arrives at the Annex, a flooded library, that is when it kicks into high gear. Try wandering the water-soaked halls, only for a monster to pop up from the liquid and come charging at you. The lighting and the morbid atmosphere keep you on edge regardless of where you are, just ready with a gun in hand to start blasting.
There is also a dark, classic-style soundtrack to ratchet up the tension, paying homage to the roaring era the game is set in. That said, the game is also willing to break this formula occasionally, such as that mermaid interaction I mentioned earlier, with some flashing colored lights and confetti falling all around you. The music is fine for what it is, but we really need to talk about the sound design overall. Moving down an empty hallway, the splashing of water, some creaking, and something noisy off-screen. Every sound drags you back into the moment as you take it slow and steady.
Each narrative point is largely based around an investigation with clues you can find to ultimately make your way through. I was a tad upset that these mysteries really don’t amount to much, and weirdly, your vision clue board serves more to help you unlock talents than actually progress. You can skip a lot, though, with some factoring more into a locker combination rather than the feeling you are piecing together a mystery. I actually stumbled into solutions sometimes, finding the clues for them later, so that was fun.
Having read a Lovecraftian horror or two in my day, I also dislike how often you get into fights with the monsters. There is a heavy inventory management system to the game, and you will find yourself running out of ammo as well. There is a point early on where you are told to run for your life, capped off with a nice cutscene to let you know you did well. This is the only time, but there are regularly points where they just flood out, with running being the only key option. This would not bother me if the constant threat of the monsters didn’t start to wear thin by the end. Lovecraft frequently kept his eldritch horrors hidden to build tension, something the game needs more of.
The core enemies you fight are zombie-like humans taken over by slugs. Most enemies have these weak points you can exploit and shoot through, though they can force you to take the combat slow as well. You get a mix of weapons that are fun to use, but it’s a classic style that keeps the guns consistent throughout, with minor attachments to evolve them, though not by much. Moving around with the gun, blasting away, and even dodging all feel consistent and enjoyable, only brought down by the rooms where you get swarmed and have no recourse but to run or use every bullet you have to survive.
I was afraid, as often you can walk into a boss’s enemy without realizing you aren’t prepared, and that actually fighting would hurt you overall. Though some players might complain, in boss rooms and forced hordes, you can continue to grab spawning items that keep you alive. I will say I like not running out of ammo, but the fact that you can grab nonstop healing items can make this feel unfair. These enemies aren’t really major shifts from combat up to these points either. They use different abilities; I had fun fighting one that threw acid at me. But it is a repetition of staying back, dodging away, then unloading your clip and repeating. This should be what you have been doing up until now.
The bigger issue is the game’s inventory system, which is space-based, and that becomes frustrating VERY fast. There is a crafting system, and you will find so many crafting parts. Then you have weapons that take up multiple spaces and ammo you really need to hoard. It is so fast that you will be making trips to the safe room in a finite area to put stuff away and grab one or two. The worst part is there are plenty of key items, and they take up space as well, which creates an even more tedious balancing act. You will upgrade it, but item grabbing far outpaces gaining additional slots.
Verdict
The Sinking City 2 was, for better or worse, everything I expected it to be. That was to say, an enjoyable trip through a land of horror and action. Even with the open areas that you get, you have a mostly linear experience that offers just enough freedom to find your own way and enjoy getting lost along the way. The narrative never hits the high I would have wanted but never sinks so low that I am let down. The combat is the element that should hold your attention more than anything, which is fun even at its worst. This is a horror game that knows how to wield fear well, though it doesn’t always do right by its inspiration. Nothing here is a sunk cost, though, and there is plenty to enjoy should you take that trip.
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Reviewed on PlayStation 5, also available on Xbox Series, and PC
Developer/Publisher: Frogwares
Release Date: August 18, 2026
Pros
+Fun combat with old school over the shoulder shooting
+Puzzle solving is for the most part well done
+The city location is incredibly cool
+Lovecraftian vibes and genuine atmospheric scares.
+For the most part an enjoyable love story with an interesting lead
Cons
-Occasional generic love story writing.
-Some animation issues
-Inventory system becomes tedium way too quickly
-Later stages lose the luster of that first area
-Moments where enemies swarm you become too frequent any annoying.
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The sinking City 2
