Frogwares has been through the wringer (and is still going through it). It has been in a year-long battle with former publisher Focus Home Interactive for the rights to its games back after the Publishing and Distribution Agreement expired in 2019; only last year did it get the rights back for The Sinking City, and there is still some messiness there. In the midst of this, in 2022, Russia invaded Frogwares’ home country of Ukraine. Despite blow after blow, Frogwares is not giving up on its games. The Sinking City 2 was announced last year, and today marked the beginning of its Kickstarter journey. There is also a new gameplay reveal trailer and developer deep dive to share more insight into the survival-horror sequel.
You read that right: The Sinking City 2, unlike its action-adventure predecessor, will be full-blown survival horror. It is a new direction for Frogwares, but it is committed to pivoting to a horror-first focus. Set in a Lovecraftian 1920s United States city, a supernatural flood has driven out everyone but the most deranged folks and brought in decay and Eldritch monsters.
“When we announced The Sinking City 2 back in 2024, we stated this is going to be our chance to shift our studio into creating games that are more ‘horror first’ focused and the results we’re all seeing internally are extremely promising,” explains Frogwares Publishing Director Sergiy Oganesyan in a press release. “We’re not ditching our investigation roots entirely but the chance to spread and challenge our norms has really helped the team grow. We’ve placed combat and exploration first while still keeping an air of investigation that adds depth but is entirely optional.”
Here is the new gameplay teaser for The Sinking City 2, featuring combat, exploration, and the optional investigation:
From Frogwares, here are The Sinking City 2’s key features:
- Fight to Survive: Use an arsenal of 1920s-inspired firearms and melee weapons to fight against Eldritch-inspired admonitions.
- Explore The Decaying City of Arkham: A world of decaying mansions, flooded markets and abandoned hospitals that you’ll explore by foot and by boat.
- Find and Use What You Can: Scrounge for limited resources and balance a finite inventory as you decide what to bring and what to leave behind.
- Choose to Investigate Further: Solve optional cases and puzzles that let you investigate your surroundings deeper to uncover secrets, alternate options, and more lore.
- A Twisted Lovecraftian Tale: Experience a morally grey and captivating story focused on personal loss and woven around the Lovecraftian mythos of cults, rituals, and incomprehensible creatures.
Here is the five-minute developer deep dive about the current state of development; it also shows off some additional in-game footage:
Frogwares first turned to Kickstarter for a safety net while developing Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened. It ended up tripling its initial goal. The studio again turns to Kickstarter with The Sinking City 2 for the same reason, also wanting to add additional features and connect directly with its fans.
“After 3 years of this horrid war hanging over our daily lives, we’ve learned to adapt, though it has never been easy,” states Frogwares CEO Wael Amr in a press release. “In 2023 when we released Sherlock Holmes The Awakened with the help of Kickstarter and our loving fans, we built ourselves a safety net that saved us more than once. From power outages and the need for team members to relocate on short notice, to having to pause development for days, this safety net was crucial. Given that The Sinking City 2 is a far more complex and demanding game, we’ve decided to take the same route as before.”
There are various tiers of pledges available for The Sinking City 2 on Kickstarter but the real focal point of The Sinking City 2’s campaign is two special physical editions that will only be available for Kickstarter backers. Both start with a digital code for the same plus any day-one and post-launch DLC, plus the physical items. The Limited Edition includes a steel case, Arkham postcards/stickers, embroidered patches, a thank-you letter, and a metal Cthulhu poster. The Collector’s Edition includes everything from the Limited Edition, plus a 150-page art book, the soundtrack, a 10″ Deep One figure, a pinup poster, and an occult keychain.
Developed and published by Frogwares, The Sinking City 2 will be released for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X later this year. The Kickstarter campaign, which has already smashed its goal without a few hours of opening, runs for one month.
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