There are few religions and mythos pulled from as much as the literary works of H.P. Lovecraft. Many films, comics, and video games have covered his world of old gods and monstrous giants for over a century. As we’ve mentioned before while reviewing Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss, just like madness that eternally plagues those that dare to venture beyond the veil, it’s a well of darkness we’re going to be revisiting, most likely, forever.
Just recently Frogwares, the developer behind The Sherlock Holmes adventure games released the sequel to their Lovecraftian nightmare, The Sinking City. Now with middling reviews and Truly Disturbing still being the dormant beast that it was, the game was skipped for more surer bets. But as it sometimes happens, the sequel comes out and our interest is piqued. And we can’t just dive headfirst into the second part without knowing the depths of the original.
Luckily for us, GOG knew this would happen and put a hefty discount on the remastered version of the game, making it perfect for people who wanted to pull back the layers of their own minds and possibly worship at the altar of Cthulhu.
Originally released in 2019, the remastered version was released just last year in May of 2025. This remastered version uses Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 5. Promising enhanced graphics, lighting, resolution and quality of life improvements. The sinking city of Oakmont Massachusetts never looked or played better. If you own the last gen version a free upgrade is available for modern hardware, and that’s always a plus in our book. So, before our sanity is irreparably peeled away, let’s see if The Sinking City is worth diving into.
Story
Set in the 1920’s, you play Private Investigator Charles Reed. After surviving a wartime incident that left him with visions and supernatural intuition, he finds himself tortured by nightmares and visions of monsters, drownings, and his own apparent suicide. Trying to find answers, he is invited to the city of Oakmont by Professor Johannes van der Berg to investigate the events after an all-consuming flood and the infestation of monsters of unknown origin the locals are calling Wylebeats. These monsters range from spider-like creatures the size of a large dog, humanoid abominations that emit smoke or bile, to giant monstrosities that defy all known science and logic. With the addition to these monsters the locals are also plagued by visions and nightmares, with some going completely insane as a result.
To make matters worse, there are also tensions between the locals and a recent immigrant population taking residents in the town. The town of Innsmouth was completely destroyed by police and now their inhabitants are seeking shelter inOakmont. The Innsmouthers have a condition that gives them a fish like appearance which makes them targets for racism and prejudice.
As soon as Reed arrives in Oakmont, he is greeted by van der Berg and told to talk to Robert Throgmorton. The Throgmorton’s are one of the three families that basically run Oakmont. Throgmorton is trying to find answers to his son’s sudden disappearance and tasks Reed with the job. Soon after, both Reed and Throgmorton believe the flood and all subsequent events may be connected to an expedition Throgmorton funded and his son led. Now Reed must find the answers before his visions sap all his sanity and the town drowns.
I tip my detective hat that the story went places I wasn’t expecting. I liked when the story used the time period and the writers’ own prejudices to go to uncomfortable places. Themes on religion, cults, the occult, race and murder all make for a compelling narrative.
Atmosphere
With the town being submerged in most parts and otherworldly creatures roaming the streets, you would think that would be oppressive enough. But the main tensions lie with the racism and bigotry between the locals and various cults and religions, with you being caught in the middle as you investigate the situation. This game is set in 1920’s Massachusetts and with that come some historically accurate issues. You’ll hear and see hooded figures doing terrible things, so consider this a trigger warning. I tip my hat to Frogwares for not shying away from the subject, especially since Lovecraft was a known racist. One main mission in particular was surprising in how it was presented, in that it genuinely caught me off guard, but in a good way.
The game does have a sanity meter that depletes when you witness events that are mentally jarring, such as dead bodies, monsters or using your supernatural sight for too long. When the meter drops below the top, vision becomes blurry and as if you’re in a fishbowl. As the condition worsens, phantom monsters can appear and you eventually hallucinate that you are underwater. Be careful not to leave the meter low for too long, as your own insanity can hurt you and you will suffer damage. In one instance I had phantom enemies attacking me to the point where panic settled in and I died. It was a nice touch to make sure as a player I was keeping my sanity in check. Unfortunately, the variety of the hallucinations are minimal and will get repetitive over time.
This game is mainly slow burn, but there are some moments where a jump scare can catch you unaware. It just depends on where you land with jump scares.
GameplayUnfortunately, this is the part where the game is a little uneven. The investigations and cases are the bulk of your gameplay but will get very repetitive over time. Now I’m in the camp of believing that all games are truly repetitive, most games have you do the same thing repeatedly till it’s over. But when the story or gameplay is strong, you either don’t really notice, or you just don’t care. This game does have a strong narrative, but it’s not quite strong enough to where you won’t notice the cracks in the gameplay. The combat is decent enough, where the shoot outs are typical third person action. There isn’t a cover mechanic during shoot outs, and you can easily find yourself overrun by monsters, so you must keep up on your supplies and health to survive. There is crafting in this game, which gives you the ability to craft everything from bullets to health items. You just need to scavenge the items as you travel around town.
The monsters are regulated to quarantined areas of the city. But this does not stop them from appearing in random houses while you openly investigate. Along with the main case, you will find other cases that either move the needle on the main case or are just ways to help the locals. Every area or clue of a case is tackled the same. Talk to someone, get information that leads to more clues or another area, use the map to find where in Oakmont this is and repeat till you complete all the tasks associated with that portion of the case. There is literally no part of the game that doesn’t use this set up, which is what makes things too repetitive.
Traversal in the game is not that great. Since the city is sinking many of the areas on the game map are submerged under water. You have access to small motor boats to get around, but the experience is a little clunky. There are also telephone booths that are used as fast travel locations, which is going to be a primary choice to get around.
There is an interesting mechanic in the game that utilizes the Casebook to compile clues and thoughts called the Mind Palace. You take the main clues and thoughts that you have and you can match ideas and clues to come up with conclusions.
Graphics
This being a remaster, the visuals are better than what was first offered in the original 2019 version, but the game is still a little dated visually. The lighting and reflections off the water were nice and overall the game looked decent enough. The monsters definitely looked grotesque in the best way possible, even though there was a lack of variety with monster designs.
Final Thoughts
This was a decent game, just a little too repetitive in its structure. It was also odd that for a game that involves Lovecraftian monsters, there’s not many. The cases and puzzles were not the hardest, but some took a bit longer. The story was good enough to keep me invested, but by the time the game ended it did feel a little flat to me.
I give The Sinking City Remastered 3.5 Wylebeasts Out of 5