The Sinking City Remastered

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A detective, a drowning 1920s town and the madness that came with the flood.

Platforms: PC, PlayStation, Xbox
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (4,345 of 5,763 reviews positive); Metacritic 71 for the original on PC
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse or a controller (full controller support).
Made by: Frogwares
Released: 2025

Get it on Steam GOG PlayStation Store (PS5)Xbox (Series X|S)

What frightens In flooded Oakmont, Massachusetts, a private investigator chases cults and visions through rotting streets and sunken buildings; grotesque creatures crawl out of the water and the dark, and looking too hard at the truth costs him his sanity, which shows itself in hallucinations.
Content: violence, gore, strong language, suggestive themes.

The Sinking City Remastered is Frogwares' Lovecraftian open-world detective game rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. As private investigator Charles Reed you work cases across the half-flooded town of Oakmont in the 1920s, piecing together evidence while monsters from the deep and your own failing mind close in.

About The Sinking City Remastered

The Sinking City first came out in 2019 from the Ukrainian studio Frogwares, the makers of the Sherlock Holmes games. The Remastered edition arrived in May 2025 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, relit in Unreal Engine 5 with 4K textures, ray tracing and a photo mode, plus improvements to controls, combat, game balance and tutorials. Owners of the original on those platforms got it free.

You are Charles Reed, a private investigator haunted by visions, who comes to Oakmont, Massachusetts, a town half swallowed by a strange flood. The streets are canals, the people are suspicious and often strange, and cults and old families keep their secrets. You explore the open town on foot, by boat and in a diving suit, gather clues, reconstruct scenes and decide what they mean; cases can be solved in different ways, with different endings.

The horror is H. P. Lovecraft's. Monsters spawned by the flood lurk in flooded houses and infested quarters, and you fight them with 1920s weapons and ammunition that also serves as money. Reed's sanity drains as he faces the unnatural, and as it falls the world around him warps with hallucinations.

It suits players who want a slow, investigative horror more than a pure action game, and who like Lovecraft's mix of small-town decay and cosmic dread. The sequel, The Sinking City 2, came out in 2026.

How to play The Sinking City Remastered

Buy it on Steam, GOG, the PlayStation Store or the Xbox Store.
Take a case and travel through Oakmont on foot or by boat to the places it names.
Search scenes for clues, use Reed's visions to reconstruct what happened, and connect the evidence to reach a conclusion.
Craft ammunition and medicine, and fight or avoid the creatures in infested areas.
Watch your sanity: rest and use antipsychotics before the hallucinations take over.

Screenshots

The Sinking City Remastered screenshot: the detective steers a small motorboat down a flooded, lamp-lit street at night

The Sinking City Remastered screenshot: the detective aims a revolver at a tall, many-limbed creature in a muddy street

The Sinking City Remastered screenshot: a shotgun aimed at a crawling, flower-headed monster in a dim office

The Sinking City Remastered screenshot: ghostly white figures replay a past event around the detective in a dark warehouse

The Sinking City Remastered screenshot: a man in a hat stands in the rain on a wet street beside an old car

Tips

Ammunition doubles as currency, so do not waste shots on what you can avoid.
Read the newspapers and archives in town; they point to addresses the game will not mark for you.
Mark locations on your map yourself as you learn them, there are few hand-held markers.
Keep a stock of sanity medicine before heading into infested zones.

Questions

What is the difference between The Sinking City and The Sinking City Remastered?

The remaster rebuilds the 2019 game in Unreal Engine 5 with new lighting, 4K textures, ray tracing and a photo mode, and adjusts controls, combat, balance and tutorials. Owners of the original on PC, PS5 or Xbox Series got it free.

Is The Sinking City Remastered on Switch?

No. The remaster is on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S; only the original 2019 version came to Switch.

Is The Sinking City scary?

It is more creeping dread than jumpscares: a drowned, decaying town, unsettling people, monsters in the dark and a hero who sees things as his sanity drops.

Do I need to know Lovecraft to enjoy it?

No. It tells its own story, though Lovecraft readers will recognise many places and ideas.