The Sinking City 2 is one of those games where you immediately know roughly what pool it's swimming in. Lovecraft, the 1920s, a flooded city, strange creatures, people who are probably not well, and an atmosphere where even the most ordinary hallway could end up with something breathing down your neck. Everything that sounds like a normal Tuesday in survival horror.
Frogwares took a more open detective experience approach with the first Sinking City, while the sequel clearly changes course. The Sinking City 2 is now more of a classic third-person survival horror, with a greater emphasis on atmosphere, resources, combat, exploration, and survival. I haven't played the original to be able to ponder every difference, but the change in direction is obvious. This no longer wants to be just a detective adventure with horror elements, but rather Resident Evil. And after an hour of the demo, I can say: it has potential.
The story takes us to Arkham in the 1920s, a city that is slowly being evacuated because something supernatural and unhealthy is consuming it from the inside and outside. Everything is flooded, cold, and mysterious. I particularly liked how much of the space already in the demo feels handcrafted, with a lot of attention to detail. There are old interiors, wooden surfaces, darkness, dampness, traces of life that are crumbling before our eyes. You can really feel that period, that certain vibe of the 1920s, even though the main character occasionally acts like a discount Indiana Jones who accidentally stumbled into a wet Resident Evil. Speaking of Resident Evil, the comparison is inevitable. It quickly becomes clear that some worm-like parasites are attacking people and turning them into zombified abominations. That’s not the most original thing in the world, obviously, but it doesn’t have to be. The horror genre has been recycling the undead, infections, cults, and strange basements for decades anyway. What matters is that it works, and so far, it works quite well here.
The enemies I encountered in the demo were quite basic. Mostly zombies with a visible weak point, or a growth that needs to be hit to effectively deal with them. There isn’t a large bestiary, boss fights, or spectacular grotesques that will steal your sleep, but what was present did the job. A couple of enemies jumped out at me from the corners of the camera when I wasn’t expecting them, and since I was playing at two in the morning, I admit the game managed to startle me. Yes, I know, very brave of me.
The combat pleasantly surprised me. Shooting has weight, enemies react well to hits, and the feeling of contact is better than I expected. It’s not yet at the level where I would say that combat itself is a reason to play, but it’s not the stiff disaster one might fear in such AA horrors. The game immediately shows that resources shouldn’t be spent as if you’re playing an action shooter. Ammunition is not infinite, medicine is also not something that just falls from the sky, and I ran out of bullets twice, forcing me to resort to a very sophisticated tactic: punching zombies. That’s actually a good sign. Survival horror must have that feeling of discomfort when you’re counting bullets and wondering if it’s even worth shooting or just running past. The Sinking City 2 in the demo so far strikes that balance well. I didn’t feel helpless, but I wasn’t sure either.
The investigation and detective part is a bit more complicated. The additional content and clues feel meaningful; when you find extra details, you have a sense that you understand the world, the city, and what happened better. That's a plus. The problem is that the investigation and puzzle menu in this demo felt somewhat confusing to me. It's not unusable, but it's not as intuitive as it could be. There’s a feeling that the game wants to retain that detective DNA, but at the same time, it has to fit it into a survival horror structure. This blend could be really good if the final version polishes it, but for now, it's the part that requires the most adjustment.
Technically, the demo ran quite decently. I played in 4K with DLSS and had a stable 60 FPS, which is always nice to see. I had minor issues with sound crackling, nothing dramatic, but enough to notice. What caught my eye more were the animations. Walking, climbing through windows, getting into a vehicle or a boat, all of that feels a bit stiff. On the other hand, the enemy animations when shooting and reactions to hits are quite better, so the combat leaves a solid visual impression.
The story, honestly, managed to hook me right away. The main character, Calvin Rafferty, is trying to save his girlfriend after a ritual that, shockingly, went wrong. She is trapped in some dreamlike, supernatural state, and we are trying to figure out what happened, why it happened, and how many more horrific things will emerge from the water before we get answers. The very beginning does have a few somewhat strange interactive moments, like pressing a button to trigger short animations of holding hands or wiping his forehead while Calvin sits next to his sleeping partner. I understand what they were trying to achieve, but to me, it felt more like padding than something that necessarily enhances the emotion. It could have been a cutscene and no one would have complained, quite the opposite.
After an hour, The Sinking City 2 left me with the impression of a game that still has to prove a few things, but has a good foundation. The atmosphere is there. The survival horror elements work. The combat is solid. The story is promising. On the other hand, the main character hasn't particularly resonated with me so far, the animations can be stiff, and the investigative menu needs to be clearer and more elegant if it wants the detective part to be more than just an interesting addition.
So for now, I would say: I’m optimistic but reserved. The Sinking City 2 won’t necessarily reinvent the wheel, although, ironically, half the game is in the water, but if Frogwares manages to further polish the movement, better develop the enemies, maintain this atmosphere, and cleverly combine investigation with survival horror, we could get a very interesting Lovecraftian horror for late summer.
It’s worth emphasizing the context in which The Sinking City 2 is being developed. Frogwares is a Ukrainian studio, and the game is being developed amid war, which deserves respect in itself. Not in the sense that the game shouldn’t be criticized because of that, but the fact that the team manages to push such an ambitious project under such conditions, change the direction of the series, and still deliver a demo that already has atmosphere, visual identity, and clear authorial intent, is truly no small feat. Indeed, hats off.
Demo provided by publisher Frogwares
