A few weeks
ago, I got my hands on The Sinking City an investigative action RPG, based on
the dark and mind-twisting works of HP Lovecraft. The Sinking City, developed
by BigBen Interactive, puts you in the shoes of a 1920’s gumshoe as he
investigated the mysterious goings-on in the fictional Massachusetts city known
as Oakmont.
The Sinking City starts off your adventure as you dock in the Port of Oakmont, there’s enough time to grab some gear from the boat and take a photo of a rather strange monstrous looking fish on the wall before you disembark. You’re there in Oakmont, a mysterious and unmarked town suffering from heavy flooding, by invitation of Joannes van der Berg. He wants to help you discover the source of the terrifying visions that have been plaguing you for years, and with so many other cases of visions also occurring at Oakmont, it’s a good place to start.
No sooner
as you step off the boat you meet Robert Frogmorton, a powerful and influential
man (who has ape DNA in his lineage, from a tryst
his ancestor had with an ape goddess.) He has closed off the port until he
has solved the mystery of his son’s disappearance. Though, he has also been
investigating the source of visions and the flood itself as well, and he the
wealth and power to hire you.
It’s not
long before you encounter strange visions, and horrifying monstrosity’s as you
explore the flooded remains of the city. Will you solve the mystery of Oakmont
before your visions drive you mad?
Let’s be
honest, there isn’t really much more that you need from a Lovecraft inspired
game. A broken, flooded town, larger than life characters such as Robert
Frogmorton and Lewis Flynn, and a plotline that involves dark power, horror and
mind-crushing images, to twist the sanity of the protagonist.
At its
heart, The Sinking City is an investigative puzzle solving game with action rpg
elements wrapped around it. The game is broadly split into to different parts,
though these can overlap. Firstly, the investigative part. Much like
investigations of the less dark and creepy sort, you investigate cases be examining
crime scenes, interrogating witnesses and then putting those facts together to
come up with a conclusion.
Within The
Sinking City, you can also use the power of the visions you’re receiving to
help with your investigation. Put all the pieces together and you can reconstruct
the events, to solve the mystery. You can also use this special site to find
magical taint on objects, allowing you to view into other worlds and times.
Apart from
the main quest, there are a large number of side quests that can be obtained
from various places within the city. Unlike most rpg’s there is no guiding beacon,
or map reference to head to. Instead, you need to find the place yourselves
using the case description. Once, you’ve found the location, you’ll get
experience for finding the case, and the case notes will show that you’ve found
it. Like most side quests they are useful for increasing your XP, getting more
ammo and crafting gear plus they’re good for fleshing out the main questline as
well.
I liked the
investigative element, it felt real. Sure, there can be a fair amount of
trudging back and forth as your taken from old news clippings and journals, to
archives, and interviews. The game feels right, and the flow of that
investigation is nicely done. Add on to that the fact that you can come up with
different conclusions based on the evidence you’ve collected.
This is
where the majority of The Sinking City’s replayability comes from. As you play
for the second time or third time, and the navigation between the areas is less
mysterious, you can come to different conclusions and try out different endings
and game outcomes.
The second
part is combat. Now for me the flow here was not quite as good. With bullets
being the currency within Oakmont, firing bullets is basically like burning cash,
so you want to restrict firing your gun unless necessary. However, most of the crime
scenes have several rather nasty and ultimately quite violent creatures in
them, and they’re better in combat than you are.
It’s at
this point where the controls need a bit of fine tuning. I found myself dying a
lot to nasty looking uglies, simply because I was melee attacking and missing,
or got cornered and stuck by multiple foes. If melee is to be the chosen form
of combat, then it should feel a little smother. Dying isn’t a massive pain as
you purely just end up back at the last auto-save to have another go, but at
times I started to feel like I couldn’t be bothered.
As with all
good RPG’s what would they be without character progression? The more you play,
investigate crimes and kill nasties the more experience you earn. Gain enough experience
and you will level up, gaining a skill point. Skill points can be invested in
one three areas to improve your effectiveness and survivability: Combat, Vigor
and Mind.
Combat skills
improve your effectiveness in a fight, Vigor improves the amount you can hold
and/or increase your health. While Mind, increases your crafting effectiveness
or makes you a little more mentally resistant.
The skills
themselves fit in well, and they all seemed to be fairly well balanced. No one
game-breaking skill stood out for me, though it did seem that some of the more health-based
skills seems almost required early on in the game.
The final
element I want to mention is Oakmont itself. The city is divided into a number
of districts which all have their own style and architecture. The navigation to
these districts is nearly always by way of boat. Many of the existing streets
are flooded and the only way to travel is by boat. You can try swimming though
there’s some nasty beasties in the water that like the taste of investigator
flesh so taking the boat is the best way to go.
This travel is a little laborious to be honest, and although thematically fits into the game, I found I tried to skip it as much as I could, which I couldn’t. Luckily there are also fast travel points, which when I discovered caused me great joy (and I also felt pretty stupid for not finding them earlier.) Once, you find a new area, find the fast travel point and things get a whole load better.
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Jim Franklin
Jim Franklin is a freelance writer, living in Derby UK with his wife and his player 3. When time allows he likes nothing more than losing himself in a multi-hour gaming session. He likes most games and will play anything but prefers MMO's, and sandbox RPG's.
