The Sinking City 2 Revealed, Arrives On PS5 Sometime In 2025

Developer Frogwares has revealed The Sinking City 2, the long-awaited sequel to its Lovecraftian 2019 original. Described as being a survival-horror game, The Sinking City 2 will arrive on PS5 sometime in 2025.

Announced during an Xbox Partner Preview event, the sequel leaning more into the horror aspect is a sign of a significant shift between the games, something made even more evident with the reveal trailer, and the first images we’re seeing.

The studio goes further into this shift in an Xbox Wire interview, where head of publishing Sergey Oganesyan points to the shift as being an evolution from the first game.

“The Sinking City is one of our most successful titles, because of our stronger horror genre leanings and the setting. For us, it was kind of a breakthrough, and we are super excited to work on a full-scale horror game.

We have created quite a few detective adventures in the past, so now we’re going to mix things up to keep doing what people love from us – meaning story-rich experiences – while still being able to evolve.”

Oganesyan also shares more details about the game, like how it’ll be set in the mid-1920’s United States in the city of Arkham, though it doesn’t seem like Batman will be on the case here.

Regarding the protagonist seen in the trailer, Frogwares doesn’t actually reveal who that is yet.

A choice made to keep this sequel a story still connected, but separate enough that it doesn’t get into the mess of The Sinking City’s multiple endings and choosing one specific one as the canon going forward.

“We wanted to create a story and setting that wasn’t burdened by what we created in The Sinking City, especially since players have various endings they favoured or considered the ‘true ending’.

This way we can let existing fans come back into this world fresh, while anyone who never played the original game can also step in without feeling like they are missing a big chunk of the story.”

As a survival-horror game, players can expect combat and exploration to take center stage in The Sinking City 2, another big shift into how this sequel is leaning in a new direction.

“Combat and exploration are the main focus now, with the horror setting more prominent. We’re also going to be smarter with our city design, making our world smaller to keep things flowing better.

We’ve been hard at work focusing on making sure our combat is now central to the game. With this then comes enemy design, to ensure there is a strong visual horror element.

On top of that, we also have our level design, story, and world design all leaning a lot more toward horror, so overall it’s a much stronger push in this direction.

As for the detective work, it’s still there but now through a revamped system that makes it all optional. Players can now choose to investigate clues, knowing that in return they may get info that helps them progress differently.

For example, engaging in some additional sleuthing may yield information on how to weaken a formidable boss or help you discover an alternate route that you had no idea about.

You could, of course, progress without this knowledge, but it will be potentially easier or more engrossing to do so based on info you’ve deduced.”

Needless to say, a lot is evolving, as Oganesyan put it, from the first game. Hopefully we’ll have some information on a release date soon, even if it is still at least a year away.

Source – [Xbox Wire]