Around 45 hours have passed since I pressed "Play" for the first time and now The Sinking City is completed. If you love detectives you will probably like the game, if you love detectives and Lovecraftian horror you will probably love it. But there is a catch...
Pros:
- The city. Oakmont feels gorgeous, the overall abnormality of everything feels omnipresent, you cannot escape it but only to dive deep into it.
- Main quests and some of the side quests. They are really interesting to follow, you never know what secrets you may uncover.
- Detective system. Here you check every detail on a crime scene, you use your special powers to see more then you connect those details in your head. Boy, it feels very satisfying.
Cons:
- Open world. The city looks incredible but if you take a closer look you will notice that nothing happens... anywhere. The city feels like a empty shell. And it's big. And since you have to navigate it A LOT, it turns into going from one fast travel point to another.
- Bullets as money. I love how it sounds but the game doesn't use this feature whatsoever. No trade happens anywhere, you find all you need when looting chests so this feature is unused.
- Craft system is too unrestricted. By the end of the main quest you will have 6 guns, you can craft bullets and medkits on the go, even during the fight, so it basically means that you are almost invincible. You can survive 99.9% of fights which, to my mind, doesn't work well with the concept of Lovecraftian horror.
- Some side quests. They are boring af, "read a note but kill monsters first" style. Repeat around 20 times.
Conclusion:
The Sinking City feels awesome and brings true joy with its uneasy atmosphere of overall madness, fascinating city, great detective system and captivating quests. Unfortunately, later the city turns out to be big but empty, some quests are very boring and fights bring no fun. You will enjoy the game for 10-20 hours but generally avoid staying in Oakmont for longer.