©^BIGBEN^
INTERACTIVEIn a house in Oakmont, an investigator lies dreaming
The Sinking City
GAMING’S DEBT TO Lovecraft keeps getting
bigger. The Sinking City takes its source
material literally as well as seriously,
being based on two of HP’s stories:
1920’s “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur
Jermyn and his Family,” and the 1931
novella, The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
It starts with an arrival. You, Charles
Reed, private investigator, are invited to
Oakmont, Massachusetts, where there is
fog and rain and discontent and plenty of
fish. The beginning is reminiscent of last
year’s Call of Cthulhu, which used similar
sources, but took them on a different path.
This slice of mythos certainly begins
well, your arrival at the dripping, partially
flooded town noted by both the natty
dresser who invited you, and the simian
Robert Throgmorton, head of one of the
city’s leading families. One has lost his
son, and wants you to find him; the other
wants you to investigate strange visions
that are plaguing him and others—you end
up doing both, and plenty more besides.
Partially flooded, you must use a boat
to get to some of Oakmont. NeighboringThat’s easy for
you to say.Ghostly figures help you put
together a timeline of events.Charles Reed has a
face that’s used to
being out in the rain.Fish. Why’d it
have to be fish?don’t have an obviously correct solution,
adding more gray to a game drowning
under gloom and sea spray.
Then there’s the combat. It’s not good.
Strange beasts and armed NPCs patrol
areas of the city, and there’s a decent
supply of weapons, but there’s no thrill
to the gunplay, and smaller beasts are
better beaten into further undeath.
The Sinking City tries to do so much
right in a narrative that takes in religion,
politics, race, the Great Depression,
and sex with apes (yes), but Oakmont’s
atmosphere ends up drowning it all in a
gush of salty water. –IAN EVENDENInnsbruck has suffered a catastrophe,
and refugees are flooding in, to be met
by hostility from the Oakmont locals.
People from all walks of life are suffering
supernatural visions, pulling more and
more people toward the city.
Having investigated your way out of the
docks and into the city itself, the rest of
th e gam e i s s tr uc tur e d a s a s er ie s of c a s e s
and side quests. Scouring every desk,
cupboard, and cabinet to find every last
scrap of paper and diary means you’ll
have a good idea of where characters are
and what they’re thinking.
Clues can be put together in different
ways, and you’re encouraged to treat
each investigation like a jigsaw. Fit it all
together, and you’ll see a re-enactment
in your mind’s eye, including events you
couldn’t possibly know, that will lead you
to a satisfying conclusion. Eventually, as
the tentacled monsters of the Elder Gods
infringe further on our reality, you start to
suffer debilitating mental health effects
as you plunge closer to insanity. Many
investigations end in moral choices thatThe Sinking City
FLOOD Interesting stories;
oppressive atmosphere.
BLOOD Poor combat; dull underwater
sections; very gray and brown.
RECOMMENDED SPECS i7-3770/FX-8350;
8GB RAM; GTX 970/R9 290.
$60, http://thesinkingcity.com, ESRB: M6
VERDICTin the lab
90 MAXIMUMPC OCT 2019 maximumpc.com
ADVEN
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