Chugging through submerged areas in a little motorboat doesn't exactly help either. As far as open worlds go, Oakmont isn't exactly a sprawling metropolis, but it's made to feel much larger by how long its takes Reed to amble from place to place.
This agency is unfortunately hampered by far too much legwork to get from one region of the city to another, and some rubbish deep sea diving bits. While none of this is particularly complicated, Frogwares resisting the need for handholding pays off, ensuring you feel some sense of achievement upon finding out something for yourself.įrom something simple like figuring out a location in Oakmont when given an address (there are no numbers on the doors to help) to looking up a person or place in the city archives situated in the local hospital, police station, library, or city hall, you're made to feel like you're in charge of the procedure. Most cases then see Reed venturing through a glowing portal for a bout of 'Retrocognition' to determine a sequence of events and get closer to what has transpired. Ultimately, you'll choose who to side with, and these choices do at least appear to affect the course of the game's story to some degree.īest of all, however, you're largely left to your own devices when it comes to conducting your detective work, finding evidence then looking into your 'Mind's Eye' to locate hidden truths all part and parcel of an investigation.
THE SINKING CITY PS4 REVIEW SERIES
The Mind Palace – a concept lifted from BBC's Sherlock TV series – is essentially a flowchart through which you can form connections, any conclusions drawn trickling down into a final binary decision at the end of each case. And despite Reed's delicate state of mind – as dictated by his sanity meter – The Sinking City isn't particularly scary, superimposed trippy images and wobbly effects failing to conjure a sense of terror.īut like the Sherlock games before it, the parts where you're being a detective are genuinely engaging, gathering clues then retreating to Reed's not remotely palatial 'Mind Palace' to make deductions an enjoyable process. Technical limitations like pervasive screen-tearing and far too many lengthy loading screens not withstanding, it's the presence of these monsters that undermines the core experience of being a detective the game's shoddy combat muddying your role as a gumshoe whose sanity is gradually ebbing away. Sherlock developer Frogwares does a pretty fine job of engendering an atmosphere of foreboding, the streets shrouded in oppressive greys and browns, its glitchy citizens inadvertently adding to the sense of weirdness. Even their opulent manors aren't spared the impact of the apocalyptic flood that has engulfed much of the city, buildings encrusted with filth and barnacles, scuttling wylebeasts taking up residence in dampened basements, alongside larger beasties. Into this maelstrom of misery steps private investigator Charles Reed, a soggy, sad sack of a sleuth drawn to this hideous 'borg' (as it’s colloquially referred to in Oakmont) by haunting visions.Ĭhanneling Hugh Laurie in 'House', Reed finds himself caught between feuding 'Grand Families' the ape-like Throgmortons, the Carpenters, and down on their luck Blackwoods. source its fictional city of Oakmont, Massachusetts, is a place lashed with perpetual rain, inhabited by dormant monsters and dour, dirty denizens. The Sinking City is the latest to employ a dollop of H.P. Lovecraft has provided the source material for many a game and, regrettably, not always to great effect. Purveyor of nightmare creatures and lashing tentacles, H.P.
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