Today The Sinking City developers Frogwares released a new twelve-minute video featuring a section of gameplay and commentary from the Lovecraftian action investigation game.
You can check out the video down below, as it unveils more of the mysterious story surrounding the game’s setting of the 1920s city of Oakmont, Massachusetts that we’ve seen in trailers so far.
The game is set in an open world heavily inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. As a private investigator, Charles is brought to the strange city to investigate the unnatural flood that’s taken over some districts in the city.
The further Charles pushes into his investigations, the more bizarre and dangerous sights he unearths. It’s not long before the true nature of the city, and his own sanity, is called into question.
In the video we get to explore several districts of Oakmont that will be in The Sinking City. The developers have mentioned in their series of dev diaries on YouTube that they wanted you to be able to feel the class difference in the geography, and video does give you a clear sense of the wealthier and poorer areas of the city.
We also get to see Charles exercise his detective skills, as he interviews a suspect, takes notes, and examines clues during his explorations. One of the key moments of the video is his investigation of a mansion, showing his unique supernatural ability to reconstruct crime scenes from pieces of evidence.
As the commentary points out, using this ability is incredibly draining and has a huge impact on Charles’ sanity. After reconstructing the scene, he begins to suffer hallucinations. Sometimes his visions can be seen as helpful, while at others it’s clear he’s losing his mind.
On top of our protagonist’s unravelling sanity, we also get a peek at some of the unsettling creature designs set to be in the game. Charles whips out his shotgun to take on a swarm of scuttling, spider-like creatures, and later comes across a lumbering humanoid creature that looks like something out of Silent Hill.
The Sinking City will be available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store. While their original release date was set for March 21, Frogwares decided to postpone the release due to a crowded launch window, and will now launch on June 27.