In this case, it makes you really feel like the gumshoe you're meant to portray.Ĭharles is such a capable detective that he can even handle multiple cases at once, which means a plethora of side quests are made available through each 20-30 hour playthrough. It's antithetical to modern open world design in all the right ways, sharing this element with only a few lauded games such as Red Dead Redemption 2 or Breath of the Wild. You have to examine clues and put your next lead on the map yourself. Landmarks like the newspaper office or town hall are given to you, but clues leading to regions or addresses don't just get sorted for you. In The Sinking City, you almost always mark up your own map. Even as the game's open-world may at first look Ubisoftian in size, it's lacking the clutter of dozens of map icons.

Rarely is your next move spelled out so clearly, leaving you to have to make sensible deductions in your casebook, which in turn can lead to some very divergent storylines including multiple alternate endings. The Sinking City trusts players to a refreshing degree.

Tonally, it mixes in a strong sense of film noir with Reed's fedora and tired eyes questioning townspeople all across the game's impressively large open world along with a soundtrack that features a slow-crawling bass setting the mood of a town that is as corrupt as it is flooded. Immediately, this Lovecraftian horror feels unique from the others we've seen recently. Reed shares these visions as well, and his personal stake in the phenomenon is pivotal to the story. As Bostonian private eye Charles Reed, players will arrive on the fictional coastal town of Oakmont, Massachusetts to investigate a string of strange visions being reported. The investigative elements are front and center and they're the game's best feature by far.

Frogwares is best known for their long history with the Sherlock Holmes series and that really comes through in The Sinking City.

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