Sinking City 2

When one thinks of what a sequel is, one would imagine similar gameplay to the first game with elements added or removed to make the overall gameplay a better experience. Right?

I adored the first Sinking City. I enjoyed its detective elements, the open world, and the overall encouragement to uncover things instead of information just fed to you. The humanity of people trying to just survive in such odd circumstances was also a bright spot. The player character, named Charles Reed, was interesting and there wasn't any unnecessary romance elements to muddy the waters. It made the player read a map and figure out where things were. It made the player put discovered information together to figure out a solution. It even had a "choose-your-own-adventure" sort of element with decisions made. Combat was fine, but it was secondary to everything else, only used when it was an absolute must. It even had 3 possible endings based on the player's decisions. It was different to most everything else on the market.

Sinking City 2...has none of that. It doesn't have an open world. The main story is romance related. There aren't any detective elements. There's no map to find things on. Everything is fed to the player. There's also hardly any other characters in it. You have player character Calvin Rafferty, his sidekick/lover Faye Bennett, and only 4 other characters. Those other characters were wildly interesting, but we only ever spend no more than 15 minutes with them each. That's it. There's no active, live city. It is combat heavy. The only thing carried over were the Lovecraftian elements. Now, don't get me wrong, this game is gorgeous, but the combat just isn't that good and feels more like a Resident Evil 2 Remake clone than it does a sequel to Sinking City. Was the game bad? No, it isn't bad. However, I would call it deeply flawed and even disappointing. There was also only one ending...and it isn't good. Without spoiling anything, it makes the whole journey seem pointless. It felt like the same ol' Survival Horror, guns blazing type gameplay that we see most everywhere these days in the genre. I also must note that the DLC that has already been released is better than the entirety of the base game, in my opinion.

Now, it also needs to be pointed out that the Developer, Frogwares, is a Ukranian company in a location still in the throws of war. However, they are known for detective games, like the Sherlock series, not action packed survival horror. Unfortunately, it shows.

If you're going into Sinking City 2 after having played Sinking City and wanting more of that gameplay, you're going to be disappointed. If you're going into Sinking City 2 without having played the first one or loving the Resident Evil 2 Remake and wanting more of that similar gameplay, you'll have a much better time.