Lovecraftian detective 'em up The Sinking City out now

The Lovecraftian detective-o-horror RPG The Sinking City launched today, inviting us all to leave this glorious heatwave and venture into a half-drowned city where things lurk in the flooded streets and even on dry land people have a touch of that Innsmouth look. It's, like, okay, according to Alice Bee's The Sinking City review. Despite her hesitance to recommend it, I am still curious. Not many fancy 3D games let us wonder around cursed cities so I have a soft spot for the ones we have.

The Sinking City is made by Frogwares, the gang behind all those Sherlock Holmes games.

"Without the weird Lovecraftian bits, this is a slightly janky, slightly grindy detective game that does some interesting things in a very atmospheric depiction of a profoundly depressed town," Alice said in her review-concluding protracted sigh. "Taking them into account, I don't know! I was confused and uncharmed by the whole thing, but I still haven't untangled my brainnoodles. At least I've told you how they got tangled. Goodness, I was very interested in The Sinking City. I really wanted to love it. But I'm afraid rain may have stopped play this time."

Ah, fair, fair, sure, sure. But you do get to putt-putt a boat around a partially flooded city, investigate oddness, and be puzzled by the game's ham-handed attempt to confront Lovecraft's racism.

The Sinking City is out now on the Epic Games Store for £48. It's published by Bigben Interactive. The Steam release is due to follow once the year of exclusivity Epic bought runs out.

Vidboy Matthew recently had a look at the game too: