Early Review: The Sinking City

I'll be writing a few posts about The Sinking City given how large the game is. I play Charles Reed, a PI hoping to cure his eldritch visions and bad dreams by getting answers in Oakmont, a town half sunken in the sea. The game was developed by Frogware, a team set up in Ireland, which goes to show how far Lovecraft's influence has come. So far I've landed in the flooded town and finished my first case concerning the son of a local rich man named Throgmorton. An interesting name attached to a more interesting visage: the family claims to be married into royalty. It looks more like ape royalty. Strong jaws, deep voices, hairy brows, they look more bipedal primates than man. Then we have the Innsmouthers who are fish people with fangs and bald heads. You'd think two ugly people would get along but the Innsmouthers are immigrants fleeing after the police burned their homes down. Can't blame the police, the incidents in Innsmouth certainly warranted such terrible actions. 

And that's one of the aspects I like about the game early on. The locals are hostile, even racist to a degree. I wonder if it's to reflect Lovecraft's feelings or if it's of the times in the 1920s. There's this overbearing presence here caused by the town's perpetual rain. Racism, hostility, and a sinking feeling that something is wrong. All aspects of the works of Lovecraft. But good atmosphere can only take a game so far.

Let's talk about the bad, the horror. I know it's hard to build a constant fear in the player when it comes to games. I'm always impressed when it's pulled off like  Amnesia: Dark Descent or the Silent Hill games. In this "Sinking city" I'm barely armed with an army shovel and a few bullets.

But I don't feel fear. 

Maybe that wasn't the tone the makers were going for but seeing Cthulhu on the game's cover only cements my thoughts. Lovecraft horror has a difficult subtlety to it. Writers and designers automatically go for the monsters rather than the real horror. It's a struggle I'm having with my own work. The real horror is implied rather than shown and that's a difficult task. Even if the guns were removed from the game I doubt it would help. I see that they're trying for the limited ammo approach that the Resident Evil games but this game is a mixed blend. Tone is difficult to narrow down. I fear this game will fall into the cracks of obscurity like so many Cthulhu games of its kind. Which is sad because someone put in a lot of effort into it. 

Or maybe not. 

Frogware have successfully Kickstarted their sequel. Maybe second time's the charm. I just know that I want to avoid this blind blandness in my own work.