The Sinking City 2 Review: Frogwares Shifts to Survival Horror with Bite

Frogwares’ The Sinking City 2 has ditched its detective-auger roots and leaned hard into survival horror, trading open-world investigations for tighter horror pacing, limited resources, and environmental puzzles. The result is a game that feels like it belongs among classic spooky staples—while still carrying enough smart design to keep the tension—and the gunplay—interesting throughout.

Key takeaways

• The Sinking City 2 switches from the first game’s detective open world to a survival horror structure.
• The story begins in Arkham after Calvin Rafferty says goodbye to his partner Faye, with alarms signaling a final evacuation.
• Difficulty ranges across four modes, and the lowest option can add full damage immunity or even immortality.
• On Xbox Series X, performance holds up well, while PC optimization is more inconsistent (especially on AMD due to missing FSR support).
• Character progression is tied to skills unlocked via “talent points,” and a new game+ mode called Ex Obliviante carries over skills while adding extra starting advantages.

Arkham takes the spotlight—Oakmont does not

The original The Sinking City was built around Oakmont: a flooded, sprawling city that invited exploration and experimentation, with players moving through buildings full of secrets. The Sinking City 2 instead starts in Arkham, and while the opening is dramatic—Calvin Rafferty leaves his home to search for a book meant to wake Faye—his journey quickly shifts away from the kind of open, city-wide roaming that defined the first game.

Very soon, the atmosphere is defined by evacuation chaos. Sirens blare as radio announcements claim it’s the last evacuation from Arkham, and anyone left behind is on their own. During travel by boat, the game suggests what’s happening to residents through sounds and aftermath rather than direct spectacle, with Calvin arriving after events have already unfolded.

Where the first title leaned into creeping dread and madness, this sequel leans more toward classic survival horror vibes. A large hotel stage early on illustrates the change: after a big party and a siren performance, notes left behind imply guests turned on each other. The reviewer’s takeaway is blunt—this kind of intensity would have hit harder if it occurred before Calvin could only observe the aftermath.

Arkham itself appears only briefly as a space to explore. The early preview includes at least a church and the hotel, and the game adds additional locations such as a fire station and an old print shop. After that, the journey becomes more corridor-driven, moving from a hospital hallway experience into a fish market designed like compartmentalized blocks, evoking the look-and-feel of similarly staged horror environments.

The main plot—Calvin’s attempt to save Faye—doesn’t land as strongly for the reviewer, who found the central thread familiar and less involving than the side stories encountered while walking, reading notes, and talking with a limited set of NPCs. Those smaller encounters are portrayed as the most reliable sources of desperation and insanity, while Calvin himself often feels emotionally detached despite the Lovecraftian setting.

Survival horror systems: limited inventory, strong gunplay, and useful audio

The Sinking City 2 commits to survival horror mechanics, particularly through inventory management. Early on, Calvin starts with only six inventory slots, and the backpack can be expanded up to twenty. That small capacity forces constant trade-offs—sometimes returning to a hideout specifically to stash crafting materials for ammunition and medical supplies. Even weapon-related tools can complicate decisions; for example, certain cutting restraints occupy two slots at a time, meaning players may need to discard other items before unlocking new safe rooms.

Combat is also designed around resource pressure rather than pure escalation. The game doesn’t require fights every time, and enemies don’t drop items that would make every encounter mandatory. When battles do happen, players can choose from a variety of firearms including a pistol, shotgun, submachine gun, rifle, and grenade launcher. The reviewer highlights the rifle for long-range work, but they personally got the most satisfaction from close-quarters shotgun blasts followed by finishing damage with a boot.

Gunplay is presented as noticeably improved over the first game, with weapon-specific feel and visible impact. Enemies can be blasted back or launched away by explosions and shots, and weapon upgrades enhance effectiveness. One example: the shotgun can be modified with a topor-shaped muzzle attachment, boosting damage output in tandem with a melee-boosting skill that triggers when the magazine is empty.

Some fights do become overwhelming, especially during the fish market segment where enemies arrive in continuous waves. The reviewer also suspected the encounter expects players to have a grenade launcher—an item that can be obtained during that section—though their own launcher remained locked away in their stash.

Audio plays a major role in tension. Safe rooms feature a calm music track from a gramophone, while outside of them the soundscape shifts into silence broken by moving objects and enemy noises. The reviewer strongly recommends headphones to make the atmosphere “thicker” and more oppressive.

Puzzles, progression, and the Ex Obliviante new game+ push

Puzzles are a high point, with environmental investigations taking center stage. The reviewer says the investigative feel from the first game is reduced—there’s no longer the same emphasis on assembling clues into a complete evidence set—but the surrounding spaces still support coherent, varied puzzles. Solutions involve reading messages and paying attention to locations that get marked on the map.

Unlike some horror titles where puzzle loops can become repetitive, the reviewer reports never feeling bored during the run. Even basic actions like finding code combinations for locked doors and opening new passages are framed as having enough variation through environment and setup to avoid fatigue.

Still, there’s friction in localization. One side puzzle became unsolvable without switching the game language to English, and the reviewer adds that it would have required a fishing expert to figure out otherwise. Aside from that incident, the overall playtime was about ten hours, though the length can shift with player skill and chosen difficulty.

Progression is built around talent points earned by correctly matching evidence and through optional tasks. After completing the game, players can unlock more talent options through a mode called Ex Obliviante, which functions as a more generous “new game+.”

Ex Obliviante keeps previously unlocked talents, but also resets the run with extra momentum. It’s enabled via “spooky achievements” that grant spooky points, which can then be spent in the main menu under additional content. Those points can be used for concept art, character outfits, and flashlight lighting colors. They can also purchase weapons that spawn immediately in the stash, including the possibility of starting with a grenade launcher that comes with infinite ammo (still requiring reloads). Inventory size does not carry over, and weapon upgrade states don’t transfer, but notes can be found from the beginning.

The mode also adds eight extra documents tied to Calvin and Faye’s personal life, with the reviewer noting Calvin reacts in a distinctive way—creating unease because these papers fill a gap the reviewer felt was missing from the base game.

Talent counts are significant: the reviewer lists 15 standard talents and seven “elite” talents, with four elite options only available after finishing the game once. Calvin’s mask supports equipping three standard talents and one elite talent at the same time, but some standard slots require unlocking at a cost. Skill descriptions, however, are criticized for being too vague—examples include wording like “for a short moment” after weapon changes or dodges—making it hard to judge exactly what players gain.

Finally, the reviewer argues that optional content isn’t truly optional because it feeds progression systems. While the game offers extra cases, puzzles, and containers with keys, skipping them undermines point gain from tasks and makes it harder to build an ideal setup—especially on higher difficulties where every resource matters. For players who want to avoid replaying content, the reviewer suggests this design choice can feel like an illusion of choice.

Performance and platform differences: console stability vs PC optimization gaps

The Sinking City 2 is built on Unreal Engine 5, and the reviewer’s expectations were cautious given past performance patterns from Frogwares. In the preview the game ran “okay,” but not perfectly. On consoles—specifically Xbox Series X tested by the reviewer—the game runs smoothly and looks good, with textures that don’t appear heavily blurred. Some elements take roughly two to three seconds to load at higher resolutions when loading a save.

Frame rate stability is emphasized: even during intense moments where hordes rush in during key story sequences, performance does not drop in a noticeable way on the console.

PC performance is less consistent. Other reviewers reported that in 1440p on an RTX 4080 paired with a Ryzen 7 7700X using Ultra settings with DLSS set to Quality, the game struggles to maintain high frame rates. The reviewer provides an average expectation: Arkham’s opening area averages around 80–100 frames, while the hospital-heavy segment averages closer to 50–60 frames.

AMD owners face the worst situation. The game reportedly does not support FSR at the time of review, with the cited reason being that AMD wasn’t prepared with an update for Unreal Engine 5.8. Without upscaling, maintaining ideal frame rates on PC becomes far more demanding, while consoles remain the safer bet.

Verdict: a sequel for survival horror fans, with a few localization and UI issues

The Sinking City 2 is not a rework of the first game—it’s a complete shift. The open-world exploration and detective gameplay have been removed, replaced by a survival horror experience built around combat choices, constrained resources, and environmental puzzles. The reviewer frames the transition as successful: gunplay is satisfying, the horror structure supports decision-making, and puzzle design is strong.

For survival horror players, the game is presented as an easy recommendation to keep on the radar, though PC users are advised to wait for optimization updates. Console players are framed as better protected from stuttering and crashes.

Fans of the first game’s detective style may feel disappointed, especially given criticisms of Russian?—the reviewer instead points to issues like the need to improve Polish localization, overly general talent descriptions, and a main plot that can feel forced into a world the reviewer wanted to explore more freely.