Shooting is unsatisfying and melee fighting is floaty and imprecise, but it doesn’t matter. There’s very little combat in The Sinking City and this is a good thing, as the combat is the weakest element. In fact a lot of The Sinking City is like this, including why people are so comfortable with monsters wandering the place and gutted sharks stinking up the streets. There’s also a family who closely resemble apes, although that’s never really explored or explained. Instead he finds conspiracy and terror lurking around every corner, a cult dedicated to the worship of the otherworldly deity known as Kay, and escalating tensions between the townsfolk and a humanoid race called Innsmouthers, who resemble fish. who suffers crippling PTSD, and had come to the dreary former resort town looking for a cure. The protagonist is a former sailor turned P.I.

It makes you wonder why people are so content to literally leave dead bodies strewn about the city, but then things in Oakmont are rarely what they seem. On PS5 the dingy streets and waterways tingle with detail, fish carcasses and octopi remains gleam with a hideous patina. My most recent foray was in the Switch version and, while it ran as well as it could after certain concessions, it struggled at times with framerate and the resolution took a major hit. Reed’s decent into madness and horror in the bizarre city looks pretty incredible on PS5. Perhaps unsurprisingly, its also the best version of Frogware’s Lovecraftian detective thriller, The Sinking City. Lovecraft and a beautiful horror experience well worth your time.The new version on PlayStation 5 marks the third time I’ve stepped into the shoes of Charles Reed and made my way to the grimy city of Oakmont. Beyond those minor gripes, this is still an exemplary outing into the world of H.P. There are still some texture issues – particularly with the hair and teeth – that don’t fit in with the rest of the next-gen polish, and the strange NPC programming can definitely detract from the moment-to-moment situation. The graphical upgrades are monumental in elevating the eerie, unsettling world which is already dripping with atmosphere into a new level, and the haptic triggers heighten the tension with every bullet. With such a rich world and narrative, compelling investigative segments, and some truly horrifying features like experiencing hallucinations when your sanity meter drops, this was a title classic horror fans simply must try. The Sinking City arriving on next-gen is a surprising yet greatly welcome arrival. Not necessarily game-breaking, but it can kill the atmosphere that the game does such a great job of setting up. I did still notice some programming jank with them with animations of one person attacking another but still standing several feet apart, or interactions between people not lining up with their audio. Either a city is entirely empty which suits the aesthetic just fine, or you’ll turn a corner and see 30 folks just wandering around. It does still suffer from strange NPC appearances. What was already a moment of shock and tension is heightened even further with the DualSense controller. You feel the weight and panic of the situation as its no longer a button press but a very real pull of the trigger to try and save your life. This makes every bullet matter, but with the haptic trigger you can feel that extra bit of tension as you aim down sight at whatever atrocity is in front of you and shambling forward. You’ll need to scrounge for materials and craft bullets yourself – which can also be used as currency in Oakmont. As a survival horror game, The Sinking City doesn’t hand you ammo and send you on your way. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on the significantly faster load times than the PlayStation 5 edition brings, as well as the use of the haptic triggers. Enhanced Immersion with the PlayStation 5

It’s the finer details like this in the supernatural that seriously elevate The Sinking City above its previous edition. This is shown in an ethereal world with shadowy effects that reinforce the eldritch inspirations, and with the new graphical updates these look even better. This is used extensively in the investigation segments of the game when you encounter Sinking City’s phenomenal mechanics to relive an incident and uncover what transpired. Ever since a strange experience as a sailor out at sea he has unexplained mystical powers which let him see what has already happened – a rather handy skill for a PI. Reed isn’t coming to Oakmont empty-handed, either.

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