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What’s it?: Survival horror submerged in Lovecraft’s Twenties.
Anticipate to pay: £41.35/$50
Developer: Frogwares
Writer: Frogwares
Reviewed on: Home windows 11, Intel Core i9, 32GB RAM, Nvidia RTX 4060
Multiplayer?: No
Steam Deck: Unknown
Out: August 18
Hyperlink: Official site
The Sinking Metropolis was precisely the sort of bold however flawed recreation that deserves a sequel. Good concepts, middling execution? Give ’em one other shot, I am positive they’re going to do higher second time round. What was bold was that it was a detective recreation but additionally a horror recreation about H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos set in a flooded open world the place generally you must get round by motorboating, and never within the enjoyable method.
Tremendous thought, however it suffered from the basic open world downside of not sufficient butter unfold throughout an excessive amount of toast, rapidly repeating patterns that grow to be so acquainted they had been robbed of thriller and spookiness, that are stuff you reasonably want in a horror recreation a couple of detective.
The Sinking Metropolis 2 correctly bins most of that, and is as an alternative just about pure survival horror in a collection of constrained areas. It is Resident Evil proper right down to puzzle locks and zombies who generally come again stronger after being shot, solely set within the Twenties. Which is not any unhealthy factor. Resident Evil: Roaring ’20s Revelations is a strong videogame pitch, and now we do not have to attend for Capcom to make it.
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Arkham—town from Lovecraft’s tales, not the asylum the place Batman locks up Condiment King—has flooded, which is an issue for many individuals, however notably for hat-wearing occult adventurer Calvin Rafferty. A model new protagonist, the one references to the unique Sinking Metropolis on this sequel being easter eggs, Cal’s out to revive his associate in occult journey and in addition life, Faye Bennett. She’s in a supernatural coma after a visit to the Dreamlands.
By the time the game starts Arkham’s evacuation is almost complete. It’s just you and a handful of other weirdos who refuse to leave, still hanging around to discover that the worm-like creatures who showed up with the flood have started clambering inside corpses to puppet them with homicidal intent.
This sets the scene for act one, where you boat across Arkham in search of a ritual to wake Faye, dock at abandoned buildings to shoot zombies and other gribblies, solve arcane puzzles, and scrounge for supplies. The combat’s improved, with an actual dodge move and enemies desperate to be baited into charging so you can sidestep then get in a cheeky melee to save ammo. I do wish it had that 180-turn button the RE games have, but it definitely feels snappier.
The problem with the original’s stealth being janky has also been solved—by ditching it completely. Cal stands resolutely upright while shooting monsters made of arms because crouching’s for wimps I guess. The sanity meter’s gone too, which seems more of a loss, though the idea madness can be measured like hit points did run a bit counter to the themes.
Given that Frogwares was responsible for the Sherlock Holmes games, it’s interesting to see how much the investigation side of things has also been downplayed. Though you still have a mind palace, it’s mostly for linking clues that lead to combination-lock codes and other puzzle solutions rather than murder suspects. Cal may dress like a detective, and be knocked unconscious about as often as a noir private eye, but he doesn’t do any actual detecting.
Another borrowing from RE is the inventory grid you have to make space in for weapons, consumables, quest objects (a key shaped like a fish takes up as much space as a handgun), and crafting items. More than once I left a larger gun in a safe room to make space, then immediately found multiple caches of ammo for that specific gun.
Or I’d accidentally fill the inventory with crafting guff and not have room for something I needed. It’s a pain, and as in most games with crafting systems bolted on, the crafting doesn’t add anything except literal filler. How about instead of finding healing herbs and chemicals then combining them to make medicine, I could just, y’know, find medicine?
After the first area you travel to a hospital, and a couple of other staple survival horror locations after that. To my surprise you never return to the flooded streets, never have a chance to clean up sidequests you skipped, never open additional places to explore or find out more about the NPCs you left behind. I expected to see more than a sliver of the Dreamlands too, but instead the whole story ends in a rush, and then you’re back at the start for a New Game Plus that doesn’t let you keep your inventory upgrades.
There’s a decent survival horror game you can wrap in under 15 hours here, one I mostly enjoyed while I was playing it, even if the finale had me asking, “Is this it?” An improvement over the original then, if an incremental one. Maybe the third time’ll be the charm.