The Sinking City 2
Developer: Frogwares
Publisher: Frogwares
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed)
Release Date: August 18, 2026
Price: $49.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Sometimes change happens unexpectedly or simply because someone desires something different. Other times it is a necessity to survive, and when it comes to Frogwares. Not only has the developer had to deal with legal issues after the release of The Sinking City 1 that dragged on for years, they are also currently dealing with the nightmare of a war happening in Ukraine. With such a hazardous work environment, one would expect the developers to shift focus to perhaps something a bit different from Lovecraft’s dark and twisted lore but instead the team has doubled down and shifted focus in an entirely different manner. Rather than being an open-world detective game, The Sinking City 2 tightens things up into a survival-horror experience that feels right at home in Lovecraft’s sinister mind.
Story
The inland city of Arkham may have been thriving once upon a time but now a supernatural flood of unknown origins has struck and the water continues to rise with every passing day. No manner of pumping, floodgates, or man-made barricades seem to keep it out and the only thing people can do is flee the city in hopes that they can escape the rising water. Six months after the start of the flood players take on the role of Calvin Rafferty, a skilled occult adventurer that has fallen in love with Faye Bennett who shares his same passion for the occult and forbidden side of the world. During an occult ritual to enter the Dreamlands, something goes terribly wrong and while Calvin awakes with no memories of what happened on the other side, Faye remains in a supernatural slumber, with only the mysterious Nightshade Mask forming on her face as a result.
Believing that her soul has somehow been separated from her body, Calvin has done enough research to believe the answers lie within a book in the forbidden section of the library, but he will need to cross through the drowned out streets of Arkham and the Slither that now occupy its buildings and waterways to track it down. Though even then, this is far from the end of the journey as something far more sinister than a few worm-like creatures and eldritch monstrosities have plans in mind for the pair, nevermind the few living people that Calvin does manage to come across who have stayed behind in the flooded city.
The Sinking City 2 takes a very deliberate and heavy swing away from what players might expect after the original game and this swing is a successful one. By focusing on dialing in the narrative delivery and environmental storytelling rather than spreading themselves thin through an open world, the story here is not only filled with dread but also keeps players guessing as to what twisted thing will happen next and likely still be surprised, even for those familiar with Lovecraft’s lore. Far more than any actual detective game might since there truly are so many surprises that happen within every chapter of the game as Calvin travels from location to location. This results in a title that is not only excellently paced, but features one dark turn after another before twisting the emotional knife a few more times with the loving couple.
Notes contained within every level provide some extra context to the game’s world, including desperate pleas for those who tried surviving, pages from those exploiting the flood and eldritch beings, and more. The puzzles themselves are also far more interesting than players might expect given the game’s narrowed focus. In The Sinking City 2 the puzzles tend to be optional but also provide useful rewards as well as additional narrative purpose at the same time, especially with how horrific the consequences or results of these puzzle solutions end up being.
As for the characters themselves, while the game is a lonely experience it is an intentional one, where isolation is often only broken up by something far worse. Thankfully though the interactions between Faye and Calvin are truly wonderful throughout the story. These are told both through flashbacks of how they met as well as interactions while exploring levels. While it would be a spoiler to say how she can interact, let’s just say it works quite well from both an occult perspective and romantic element at the same time. It also must be noted that while the game does feature a New Game+, the only additional story content added are some extra notes throughout the entire game while the core storyline remains the same.
Gameplay
While the story may still feature all of the eldritch horrors and dark reveals that one would expect from a game set in a Lovecraftian world, the gameplay is where The Sinking City 2 truly sets itself apart from the original. Whereas the original game was set in a more open world and combat took a back-seat to investigations that often spanned city-wide clue hunting, this time around Frogwares has opted for a far more linear and stricter approach to the game with puzzle elements taking a bit of a backseat. Instead, the main focus now is almost entirely on survival horror through an over-the-shoulder perspective as players must now navigate through tighter corridors all while managing their limited ammo and healing items and eliminating enemies, or straight up running past them if need be, to reach their objective or a safe room.
It is worth noting that off the bat the title offers players four difficulty levels to choose from, ranging from an Easy equivalent that can even make the player invulnerable to a truly challenging hardcore mode and these difficulties can be swapped at anytime during gameplay, though the title will only recognize the lowest difficulty players went to upon completing the game. Similarly, the puzzles also have two difficulty levels and this is more of a personal challenge than anything else, especially since it is easy enough to match clues together but having simple investigations highlights specific words within clues and matching icons for specific puzzles while standard difficulty removes these hints and leaves players to their own devices to solve the riddles and combinations on the clueboard as players discover them in each area.
As players navigate through the flooded city of Arkham they will generally do so with a boat but even here the actual paths players can take are linear with only a few diverging optional areas for those looking for extra items or bonuses. While players won’t be attacked on the boat, as soon as they are on land they are potentially free game as enemies will appear almost always out of nowhere, seeking to not only spook the player but also get the jump on them at the same time. This is done by Slither controlled bodies often bursting through walls, rising from their dead-states when players solve a puzzle or open a previously locked door, or even opening up a container sometimes. Then there are those that bust through doorways, opening up new paths while also making players have to scramble to put up a fight.
The Sinking City 2 offers plenty of ways for players to fight against every type of enemy they encounter and most enemies have their own unique weaknesses but at the same time, so does the player. Part of this weakness is the fact that the player has a limited inventory space and every healing item, firearm, and ammo stack takes up a slot and while crafting items do stack on one another, this can make for some rather tight situations if players venture out unprepared or overburdened and unable to pick up quest items without retreating to a safe room to stash items. That being said, the enemies players face off against come in a variety of forms, ranging from simple Slither infected forms with weak spots that blister out of their bodies and can be targeted for significant damage, jumping spider-like enemies that players can dodge out of the way of and stomp to death with a single squish, evolved Slither forms that can spit bile and reinforce their weak points, and even Deep Ones themselves that end up being one of the most formidable standard enemies players come across outside of boss encounters.
One thing that should be emphasized in The Sinking City 2 is that while it is possible to probably kill nearly every enemy players come across, it really feels like that is the last thing players should do. While players can craft ammo and healing items, the amount of damage they receive from attacks and even damage enemies can absorb, especially if players are careless with the Slither and allow the worms to travel to another body without squashing them, allowing them to revive another corpse, can be quite brutal. This is alleviated a little during forced combat encounters as these locations will feature containers that will slowly refill with consumables such as healing items and ammunition, though it won’t always match the weapons players might have on hand. These weapons start with a standard handgun and eventually players will find a shotgun, tommy-gun style smg, rifle, and even a grenade launcher all of which have two attachments a piece players can sometimes find in “Emergency Relief Crates” scattered in levels that have unique one-use pens that open them. No worries on missing out though, there are enough pens to open every crate as long as players search hard enough.
Speaking of which, while players do have a melee option for both punching/shouldering enemies and stomping, it feels like it is generally a last resort or a way to thin out a single stunned enemy as they can quickly stand back up and strike if players are careless. Of course, since it is also possible to dodge an enemy attack and send them stumbling to the ground and vulnerable, it is also possible to exploit this opening for a few stomps. Similarly, dodging is perfect for seeing a hallway filled with Slither forms or even a Deep One and dodging right past them to run through a doorway or into a safe room, especially if players know they won’t need to return to that location again.
This is helped by the familiar survival horror mechanic of featuring a map that changes room color depending on if there are items or documents still in it or not. Red signifies a puzzle, item, or document might be within while blue means it is cleared. Speaking of the puzzles again, it must be said that the puzzles within the game are quite smart and require a bit of thinking to actually discover the solution to. While every puzzle features clues players can assemble on Calvin’s clueboard, with proper connections providing “Dream Essence.” There is often still some intuition involved in actually figuring out what players will need to do. Most of these puzzles are for optional things such as extra inventory space, attachments, or even just Dream Essence but many also provide useful ammo or are required to advance the story and having quite a few of them be brain teasers is a nice balance here. Not only are players tested in combat, but also just enough with the puzzles to keep things feeling fresh without halting progress too much.
Now the Dream Essences that players acquire from completing investigations and found in certain locations can be used to unlock special perks for Calvin and the player. These perks will go into the Night Shade mask which initially only has one round slot and one diamond slot available with two more diamond slots available for unlocking with a lot of essence. These various perks start at low rank and unlock as players obtain more of them and range from simple things like taking less damage from humanoid enemies or taking less damage the more healing items the player is carrying to crafting more ammo with every recipe or even having a “last stand” attack against an enemy to avoid dying. These perks must be equipped and can be swapped at any time. It is also worth noting that besides carrying perks the Night Shade mask serves a secondary purpose as a “back up” life. Should the player fall in battle and the mask is charged with a specific item, it will revive Calvin with about half of his health left and allow him to return to the fray. These items are quite useful even if we didn’t find ourselves using many throughout our playthrough, even against the few challenging boss fights that the players will need to deal with, but we’ll leave that up for players to discover.
Now, it is worth noting that the game does feature not only a New Game+ mode but also “Eldritch Achievements.” New Game+ allows players to carry over all of their unlocked mask perks and slots into a new game while also providing some extra notes scattered here and there throughout the story. The Eldritch Achievements on the other hand reward the player with Eldritch Points that can be exchanged for some powerful goodies or cosmetic ones should the player desire. This includes unlocking weapons earlier in the game, infinite ammo packs for each weapon type, and even extremely powerful perks that can only be obtained with these points. Other unlocks include costumes for Calvin and Faye, flashlight colors, and concept art.
Audio & Visuals
The Sinking City 2 is quite the gorgeous looking game in its own hideous way at times. The flooded streets of Arkham have their own dreary charm to them, seeing echoes of what used to be a thriving town with brightly lit signs advertising long evacuated or dead businesses all while the monsters that players face off against are especially grotesque and show believable body damage when attacked, at least when it comes to standard humanoid enemies. When shooting or even destroying an explosive barrel against a humanoid enemy they will appear burned and charred if they stand back up, or feature torn apart flesh from bullet impacts and bursted weak points. Similarly the NPCs that players do meet that aren’t hostile match the aesthetic of a Lovecraftian tale perfectly, even if they are few and far between. It is worth noting that while my time throughout the game was mostly flawless, the game did suffer a hard crash mid-cutscene and during a prolonged forced-battle long distance enemies appeared to move at an odd frame rate compared to closer foes, making it difficult to target them.
The voice work throughout the game is handled exceptionally well with a great deal of emotion being put into Calvin and Faye’s performances, especially the few times a character happens to sing here and there. The background noises and sounds of the monstrosities help create a creepy atmosphere wherever players are traveling, especially given that background music is kept to a minimum or only used for dramatic effect during boss battles.
Overall
Frogwares was taking a big risk when it came to changing the formula so hard for The Sinking City 2 but it has paid off with dividends. Not only has the story managed to stay more focused in delivering the eldritch horrors and dark twists that fans of Lovecraft come to expect but it also combines a satisfying mix of challenging combat that balances the player’s instincts of when it is time to take a stand and fight or make a run for it and save some ammo/healing items for the next encounter. Combine this with modified investigations that align better with a survival horror’s progress and item management and we have a game that is not only ready to scare players with existential dread as often as it does with a fresh enemy bursting through a wall ready to send tentacles through Calvin’s face.
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