Frogwares announced The Sinking City 2an upcoming Lovecraftian survival horror film set to be released in 2025.
The sequel to The Sinking City focuses on combat, exploration, and story as you navigate the decaying Lovecraftian city of Arkham in 1920s America.
The infamous city of Arkham is plagued by supernatural flooding, with decay and horrific monsters emerging from its streets, a semi-open world filled with decaying mansions, flooded marketplaces, and abandoned hospitals. As you progress, the floodwaters will rise, changing the layout of the location as you return to Arkham. As you explore, you’ll scavenge for limited resources and balance your limited inventory, deciding which items to keep or discard.
There’s a new standalone story in the game, and unlike the one told in the original game, you’ll find a morally gray story that revolves around the Lovecraftian mythology of cults, mutated creatures, and inscrutable gods. You’ll use 1920s-style guns and melee weapons to fight these nightmarish monsters.
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To help uncover the dark mysteries that lead you to the abandoned city, you can solve puzzles that lead to a deeper investigation of your surroundings to uncover secrets, alternatives, and additional lore. While you can choose to become a cunning detective, this feature is entirely optional.
“We want the investigation aspect to be a rewarding part of the game for those who want it, providing tangible gameplay rewards and aha moments rather than being a requirement for progression,” said Denys Chebotarov, the game’s executive producer. “By taking the time to piece together the clues, you’ll gain more knowledge and awareness of your options rather than encountering them by chance.
“We’re also doing this for our existing fans who have fallen in love with this feature so they don’t feel left out. For those who aren’t keen on combat and survival horror mechanics, we’ll also be offering a variety of assists features to help them.”
Frogwares says that with The Sinking City 2, it wants to shift the studio’s focus to “horror first,” and has been able to turn to Unreal Engine 5 to take advantage of everything it has to offer developers.
“The original Sinking City remains one of our most successful titles, most likely due to its stronger horror genre leanings and setting,” said Sergiy Oganesyan, the studio’s publishing director.
“We’ve created quite a few detective adventure games in the past, but now we’re going to mix things up and keep doing what people like us for – meaning story-rich experiences – while still being able to grow. It’s exciting, but There are risks, too. We’re an independent studio that’s been known for its detective games for 24 years. But we need to start taking bolder actions. The industry is changing around us, and we want to secure the studio’s future.”
With Ukraine still at war, Frogwares is taking The Sinking City 2 to Kickstarter, where you can help with the game’s development once the crowdfunding phase is launched. The Kickstarter campaign will help create a safety net for the studio and help secure some additional features for the game.
“At this stage we understand and adapt to reality, but the ongoing war adds an ominous layer of uncertainty and the additional funding will help us deal with potential disruptions, in addition to helping fund the various additional capabilities we hope to implement. In addition, said Frogwares CEO Wael Amr.
“Our previous game, Sherlock Holmes, was entirely developed and released during the war. Through Kickstarter and our backers, we built ourselves a safety net that has saved us more than once. From months on From outages resulting in our electrical infrastructure being targeted to team members needing to relocate on short notice, this financial safety net has proven invaluable to us. As a result, we now need to provide City 2 does the same thing because the game is larger and more complex.”
The Sinking City 2 will be released in 2025 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.