The Sinking City 2 Review | From Detective Noir to Full-On Survival Horror

Unlike the first game’s setting of Oakmont, this story takes place in 1920s Arkham, Massachusetts, during a massive supernatural flood event.The atmosphere is heavily grounded in the classic Lovecraftian mythos, leaning into decay, silent flooded streets, coastal cults, and leeches everywhere.The story adopts a darker, personal horror narrative tone over the original game’s procedural detective investigations. It’s a love story between Calvin and Faye. The ritual she and Calvin perform to enter the Dreamlands goes wrong: Faye’s body is left in a coma, while her spirit becomes separated from it. This sets Calvin on a desperate journey to traverse the dangerous Dreamlands, uncover ancient occult secrets, and find a way to wake her up.

Gameplay: Survival Horror First, Investigation Secondary

Core Gameplay Loop: A complete shift to third-person survival horror mechanics reminiscent of classic and modern Resident Evil and Silent Hill. There is a variety of weapons and upgrades that you have to look for and solve puzzles to obtain, and the puzzles are truly well made. That’s no wonder because the developer’s core experience comes from their Sherlock Holmes games—I played all of them with my wife and solved a ton of
cases, so they know how to make you think and read a document more than six times. The game offers two options for puzzles: “Breezy,” which highlights some words, and “Brainy,” where you are on your own. It has NG+ and offers more lore. You also get in-game points to buy infinite ammo and blaze through the game like Rambo.Handgun, Shotgun, Tommy Gun, Hunting Rifle, Grenade Launcher Each weapon has upgrade pieces found by searching and completing puzzles.

Investigation: The signature Mind Palace and detective mechanics are now non-mandatory. Players can choose to dig deep for extra lore and earn Dream Essence to upgrade skills. The more clues you link successfully, the more essence you earn, allowing you to better understand the surrounding puzzles and lore.

Map & Level Design: The map design and level design of each location are so well made that I didn’t even need to check the map to navigate. I remembered everything. The only time I opened my map was to check if I missed a collectible, as the map shows uncollected items in red and cleared areas in blue. Some puzzles also offer background stories and lore about the people who lived there before the flood.

Resource Scarcity: Tight ammo counts, limited healing supplies, and strict inventory space management make you starve for
ammo or crafting materials even on normal difficulty, making the overall experience very memorable.

Combat Overhaul: The gunplay, melee combat, stomps, and aiming have all been significantly modernized. Everything feels much smoother than in the first game, with none of the clunkiness or roughness that held the original back. The stomp mechanic also adds a great layer of tension to close-quarters encounters. Overall, the quality is very high.

Development Background: Initially, this game was a Kickstarter by Frogwares. Because I love their games, H.P. Lovecraft stories, and enjoyed the first Sinking City, this title was a very pleasant surprise in terms of quality. I followed them from day one on Kickstarter, watching them reach their funding goals, engage with fans, show new monster designs they wanted to add, and extend the campaign for another week.

Visuals, Technicals, & Audio
Engine Upgrade: Built from the ground up on Unreal Engine 5, offering realistic water physics, volumetric fog, and dynamic lighting. Honestly, it looks beautiful and provides plenty of stunning, artistic moments that made me stop just to take in the view.

Level Design: It features seven distinct locations—four set in the flooded city, alongside a large hospital and the fish market. Each location offers a solid variety of enemies and a unique aesthetic so it never feels repetitive. I always wanted to discover and see more.

Sound Design: The sound design is well-executed and never sounds awkward or out of place. Each weapon has a satisfying feel and impact, alongside great audio for monster sounds, opening doors, and solving key puzzle pieces

Voice Acting: Absolutely brilliant work from every actor and actress. It features high-quality, AAA-level writing and dialogue, and Calvin in particular was a joy to listen to.

Problems

The game falls into the same trap as titles like Cronos: The New Dawn, starting as a strong survival horror game before suddenly turning into an action-horror title. It locks you into an area where hordes of enemies spawn alongside yellow supply boxes containing ammo.

Trying to survive wave-based fights or bosses with regenerating ammo and healing boxes totally ruins the game’s momentum. While acceptable during dedicated boss fights, I dislike this design choice in general.

It feels similar to the end of Silent Hill f, where the game suddenly bombards you with combat encounters. If it only happened once, I wouldn’t mind as much, but it occurs several times in The Sinking City 2.Additionally, some lip-syncing was a bit awkward, especially during emotional beats.Lastly, every location features a safe puzzle requiring a combination. While repetitive, it never bothered me because finding the codes remained enjoyable.

Final Verdict

I played on PC at high settings and enjoyed rock-solid performance, maintaining a smooth, high frame rate throughout my playthrough.Specs: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X paired with an RTX 5070 (12GB), 32GB DDR5 6000 RAM, and a WD Black SN7100 1TB NVMe SSD on a B650 motherboard.I experienced zero bugs, glitches, or performance issues. As a huge fan of Lovecraftian stories, this is an easy recommendation.

Despite a few minor flaws in lip-syncing and a late-game shift toward
action-heavy wave survival, The Sinking City 2 is a triumphant evolution for Frogwares. Its atmospheric world, tight survival mechanics, and stellar Unreal Engine 5 presentation make it an absolute must-play for fans of cosmic horror and Modern survival horror games.