Oakmont is a spooky place. Arriving on muddy, flooded streets, it quickly becomes clear that this city, perhaps once a bustling portside metropolis, is in the grip of something truly sinister. What is it? No one knows. But it’s causing madness, inciting violence, and its tendrils are beginning to tear at the edges of your vision. this is sinking cityFrogwares’ 1920s-set RPG is one of my favorites ever made.
You are Charles Reed, a World War I veteran turned private investigator. You have been summoned to Oakmont by the mysterious Professor Johannes van der Berg. He is an eccentric gentleman who promises to analyze the visions that Reed, who survived the sinking of the USS Cyclops, had. As you trudge through the muddy waters, you find yourself in the employ of giant Robert Throgmorton. He’s the head of Oakmont’s founding family, and as you might expect, he wants to uncover the cause of the flood that gave the town its nickname, “The Sinking City.”
As with all the best survival horror games, you’ll find yourself rummaging through drawers and cabinets like an amnesiac looking for something vaguely resembling a weapon, especially when you’re running low on ammo. As you try to uncover the city’s secrets, you’ll encounter otherworldly creatures and wild humans. Even if your detective senses stop working, you can still use your supernatural vision to unlock magical rooms and piece together crime scenes. It reminded me of Nobody Wants to Die in many ways, so Critical Hit Games may have taken inspiration from that.
But lurking around every corner something. Travel by boat through the city, some routes completely blocked off, others leading you down dark, winding alleys. Escape from what lurks in the unknown becomes even more difficult, and you’ll need to rely on your map to get from A to B safely.
But my favorite is good old deduction. As an LA Noire savant, piecing things together using evidence from various crime scenes is part of the fun of detective games for me, and given its surreal setting, you come across some fun oddities. Just be careful. They will probably bite.
If I sell you a ticket to Oakmont, I’m not responsible for the limbs you end up losing. But perhaps the fact that you can get The Sinking City Remastered (just released earlier this year) for $12 instead of $39.99 will help soften the blow. It’s part of Humble’s extensive Frogwares bundle, which also includes several of the developer’s Sherlock Holmes games, with the creepy Lovecraftian Sherlock Holmes The Awakened being my personal favorite.
To get The Sinking City Remastered, you’ll have to buy the $12 / £10.76 bundle, but considering it includes 11 other Frogwares titles, worth a total of $264 / £200.94, I think this is a pretty good deal even if you don’t play any Sherlock games. You can welcome God by simply clicking the button below.
Frogwares is currently working on The Sinking City 2, which moves the action to the infamous city of Arkham, home to the Deep Ones. It recently suffered a delay and was pushed back to “early 2026,” but I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next, even though I feel like I might not like what I found.
