The Sinking City on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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In the 1920s, on the East Coast of the United States, the half-submerged city of Oakmont is gripped by supernatural forces. You're a private investigator, uncovering the truth of what has possessed the city and corrupted the minds of its inhabitants... and yours.

The Sinking City is a lovecraftian, third-person shooter and story rich game developed and published by Frogwares.
Released on February 26th 2021 is available only on Windows in 16 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Polish, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Czech, Turkish and Ukrainian.

It has received 4,445 reviews of which 3,339 were positive and 1,106 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.3 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 39.99€ on Steam.


The Steam community has classified The Sinking City into these genres:

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at The Sinking City through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows
  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 10 (64bit)
  • Processor: Intel Core i3-4350, 3,6 GHz / AMD Phenom X6, 3 GHz
  • Memory: 6 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 760 GTX, 2048 Mb / ATI R9 380X, 2048 Mb
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 20 GB available space

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

March 2025
Pretty good lovecraft game, atmosphere is great, the lovecraftian weirdness is on point, here and there a little janky and lacks some polish but nothing you can't get over if you want some crazy outer gods stuff
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Oct. 2024
This one is tough. There is so much to like here, but also many glaring issues. Pros: - Awesome artstyle - Very good graphics - Decent writing - Detective mechanic works well and is interesting - Sound design is very good Cons: - Combat is a clunky mess - Limited weapon / enemy variety - Towns feel dead due to lack of NPC interactions, can't order a drink at the bar let alone talk to random NPCs on the streets - room at the inn is a missed opportunity for a "home base" - Every single ending is underwhelming, lacks a boss fight of any kind. - The game is quite long, longer than it needs to be As mentioned previously, this is a hard one to judge. Overall, I liked the game due to the interesting detective angle as well as awesome art style and graphics despite some major complaints. I'd wait to get this game on a steep sale.
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Aug. 2024
Finally Frogwares got the rights back and I could play this game! Lovecraftian, so no way I could ignore this. The start was rough. The default FOV is horrible, especially on a wide screen monitor. Bordering on unplayable. After some searching and file editing I got a much better FOV set up, and it's like a new game. I really enjoyed exploring the city. The districts look different and have some unique locations. The graphics are OK by modern standards, but the animations could've used some work. NPCs are often clipping through objects and bumping into things. The voice acting can be amateurish at times, but otherwise the sound design is good. Creaking floorboards and splashes in abandoned buildings along with other noises. The music is excellent. The dark, ambient jazzy tunes were very enjoyable. The detective parts are a bit repetitive, but the best content the game has. I played on "detective" difficulty and enjoyed it. It didn't have much hand holding for investigating the cases, but then again most scenarios were obvious enough that no help would have been needed. You also have a camera, but I was disappointed because of how little it was used. There are two kinds of side quests. The simple detective cases usually have a nice story and are therefore fun to play through. There are also search quests, where you are given a list of around ten addresses. Each of these is an abandoned building containing an item you must get, and spawn enemies soon after entering. Not much story in these, I didn't finish the last too lists I had because they were not fun to complete. Combat is very basic and too frequent. I was playing carefully and didn't really have problems with resources, but it was still annoying when enemies started spawning. Despite being lovecraftian, the game has very little horror elements. You are killing grotesque monsters and suffer visual hallucinations, but that's pretty much it. No jump scares, but not much of a tense atmosphere either. The diving scenes have some good thalassophobia inducing stuff, but there's nothing similar on the streets of Oakmont. It is pretty repetitive overall, but I can recommend the game for the fans of Lovecraft. Just stick to the main quest and the more interesting side quests. And maybe lower the combat difficulty.
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Aug. 2024
I have played and completed the game after the whole scandal and when it was under Frogwares completely. The most concise way i could describe this game is a good 10 hour game wrapped in 50 hours completion time.Yes its exactly that type of repetitive stretched out story you never want in a game, it kills the pacing and makes something that would be short and sweet a real slog to complete.Being a completionist i wanted to see everything this game had to offer and it isnt that much, the theme was very interesting but in the end the boring and repetitive combat, crafting system and mission design really drag this game down. This is one of the closest games that i would not recommend you play at all, but after reviewing all my time with it, if you play only the main missions you do some side missions that are in your way you will have a somewhat good time. A very mid game and an open world you didnt really need and wont explore because there isnt anything there really besides some collectibles and repetitive quests. My advice for the sequel is drop the open world and make a more focused and polished experience, not a broken or incomplete game but a very lackluster experience for the price its asking even on discount, barely passes the thumbs up.
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Aug. 2024
After about 24 hours, I can say that I have finished The Sinking City to 100%; all the endings, all the side cases, everything, and although it is a game that has its flaws (such as those that I will discuss below) the whole package I think is more than recommendable for fans of Lovecraftian literature, but what about for the rest? It's a bit more complicated... Starting with the positive points, The Sinking City has a stellar setting, script and art direction, it's genuinely excellent; throughout my journey through Oakmont there were quite a few moments where I stood simply admiring the scenery, the decrepitness of the place, the grotesqueness of its corners... I could almost smell the sea and the rot as I was playing. The masterful way in which the guys at Frogwares have spun the whole script (at times slightly predictable if you have already read the bibliography of the aforementioned Lovecraft) is really commendable, at no time did I feel that the plot was thinning. Most of the Side Cases are, likewise, very well written! This is one of the few games where I've read absolutely every newspaper clipping and lore memo I've come across. Now, about the worst parts... it's more than clear that there was an intention somewhere to make this game last "a bit longer" than the original script gave for it, and that's why we have good Side Cases, mediocre Side Cases and absolutely terrible Side Cases that have no reason to exist other than to artificially lengthen a game that could have lasted about 5 hours less, and I'm not talking about Side Cases where the narrative is terrible, I'm talking about literal Fetch Quests throughout the city that reward you with absolutely nothing and you have to do them twice! "Functional Brain Cylinders" and "Defunct Brain Cylinders" is basically the same horrible side quest.... one is in the base game and the other is in the Merciful Madness DLC, then there's "All That Glitters" in the original game and "Fool's Gold", which is exactly the same, and in the same DLC as "Defunct Brain Cylinders". "Mystic Tomes" is also on a par with those previously mentioned. It's a very poor excuse to artificially lengthen the hours of gameplay, and although I did them (in the hope of receiving a reward in the form of lore, if nothing else) I regret it. As another of the negative points that have dragged down my experience is the entire combat system (and tied to it, the crafting system). This game would have benefited greatly from NOT having combat or crafting, as simple as that, since the one it has is clunky, slow, and is implemented half-heartedly, making each encounter unpleasant and practically from the first encounter you decide not to fight again, running and leaving the enemies behind. As a last negative detail, after several hours playing the game my right index finger got stiff from having to constantly press the trigger to sprint, couldn't it have been a toggle? Charles' movement speed is very slow, so sprinting everywhere becomes absolutely more than necessary, and ends up being painful. Having said all that, I still highly recommend The Sinking City to any fan of the cosmic horror genre, Lovecraft mythology or fans of games with an oppressive atmosphere and rich narrative. I'm looking forward to the recently announced The Sinking City 2, and I can only encourage Frogwares with their next projects and thank you to those of you who have read me so far.
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Last Updates
Steam data 14 April 2025 08:21
SteamSpy data 11 April 2025 19:55
Steam price 15 April 2025 20:47
Steam reviews 14 April 2025 17:45

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about The Sinking City, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

  • SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about The Sinking City
  • SteamCharts - Analysis of The Sinking City concurrent players on Steam
  • ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck The Sinking City compatibility
The Sinking City
7.3
3,339
1,106
Online players
43
Developer
Frogwares
Publisher
Frogwares
Release 26 Feb 2021
Platforms