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The Sinking City
A DETECTIVE GAME WITH A LOVECRAFTIAN T WIST.
Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One | $TBC | http://www.thesinkingcity.com
THE SINKING CITY is a third-person detective
adventure set in a fictional version of 1920s
New England, inspired by the works of
influential (and, yes, controversial) horror
writer H.P. Lovecraft. Divers uncover an
ancient cavern hidden beneath Oakmont filled
with otherworldly statues of cosmic demons,
and are driven mad by the discovery – a
madness that begins to spread through the city
and awakens strange, violent creatures the
locals call wylebeasts. The game is divided
between solving crimes and shooting
monsters, although the gulf in quality between
each flavour of play is pretty wide.
Ukrainian developer Frogwares has been
making Sherlock Holmes games for over a
decade now, including 2014’s magnificent
Crimes and Punishments. As such, The Sinking
City is a decent detective game – particularly in
its use of the blatantly Sherlock-inspired Mind
Palace system. As you explore a crime scene you
collect clues that, while useless on their own,
can be connected in the Mind Palace to open
up new lines of investigation. And you have to
make these connections yourself, without any
hand-holding or hints, which makes a
successful deduction especially satisfying.
But while Sherlock Holmes has to rely
entirely on his intelligence and intuition to
solve a mystery, Reed has a supernatural
advantage. In certain locations a glowing blue
portal will open up, through which he can
witness whichever crime transpired there.
These vignettes come in the form of
shimmering silhouettes of the people involved
and fragments of speech. Reed must then
construct a narrative, figuring out the order
these echoes of the past occurred in, which will
usually result in a new clue appearing in the
Mind Palace.
My biggest issue with The Sinking City, at
least as a detective game, is that the cases aren’t
that interesting. One of the greatest strengths of
Frogwares’ Sherlock games is encountering a
confounding mystery and being overcome with
a desire to solve it. But I rarely felt that
compulsion here, and the solutions to many of
the cases lacked a satisfying “Aha!’ moment- the punchline that should round off any good
detective story.
[ANDY KELLY]
OUTER WILDS
EXPLORE AN EXPLODING SOLAR SYSTEM IN THE
NEXT GREAT MYSTERY GAME.
Xbox One, PC | $TBC | http://outerwilds.com/THE SUN HAS gone supernova. That’s bad
and all, but right now I’m actually more
interested in some rocks. You see, I found a
physics-defying obelisk that emits a specific,
eerie noise. I wake up, jump in my ship, and
use my signalscope to scan the solar system
for matching sounds. I follow one to the
planet of Brittle Hollow, but almost
immediately get distracted by some
interesting ruins. I land nearby and
investigate. And then the sun blows up
again. I wake up, jump in my ship, and
activate its log. A new entry appears for the
ruins. There are rumours of other possible
points of interest too. I’m trapped in a time
loop. I’ve got about 20 minutes until the sun
explodes once again. What can I discover
this time?
If Outer Wilds isn’t as perfectly tight as
Return of the Obra Dinn et al, it’s because its
interactions are broader and more
interactive. It’s a mystery that spans multiple
worlds, after all, and untangling it is a
delight. [ PHIL SAVAGE ]DISCOVERGAME REVIEWS3 41 / 2WINNERED’sCHOICE
AWA RD