History VideoGame / TheSinkingCity

''The Sinking City'' is an [[ConspiracyThriller Investigation]] ActionAdventure game developed by Frogwares, best known as the developers of the ''VideoGame/{{Sherlock Holmes|Frogwares}}'' AdventureGame series, and first released in June 2019. The game is set in an open world inspired by the universe of [[Creator/HPLovecraft H.P. Lovecraft]].

* BrokenAesop: Much of the game deals with the evils of racism (the KKK are sidequest villains) and the plight of the Innsmouth refugees. Every figure who engages in xenophobia is treated with disgust and Reed's dialogue always makes his low opinion of xenophobes clear. However, the Innsmouthers are followers of a ReligionOfEvil and heavily involved in the city's organized crime. Given the Deep Ones are historically villains in Cthulhu Mythos fiction, it also will confuse longtime fans of the setting. The Esoteric Order of Dagon is established as the "real" evil among the Innsmouthers but almost all of them are involved with it or at least sympathetic. It doesn't help that no matter how nice Reed is to the Innsmouthers, they ''will'' attempt to kill him multiple times.

''The Sinking City'' is an [[ConspiracyThriller Investigation]] ActionAdventure game developed by Frogwares, best known as the developers of the ''Sherlock Holmes'' AdventureGame series, and first released in June 2019. The game is set in an open world inspired by the universe of [[Creator/HPLovecraft H.P. Lovecraft]].

* BadassBystander: The local constabulary do a surprisingly decent job at putting down any wylebeasts that wander out of their infested areas and start running amok on the public streets.

* CityGuards: If you are not careful with your weapons, you can get into trouble with the local policemen patroling the streets.

** Reed is one of the unnamed protagonist of ''Literature/{{Dagon}}'', being a Great War Navy vet who lost his ship and discovered an unspeakable horror on an isolated island. [[spoiler:They can even share the same fate of committing suicide]].

** Equally hated by both Innsmouthers and Oakmont natives are newcomers, which are members of the outside world who have come in the aftermath of the Flood. This is because the majority of them are drawn by their terrifying dreams and most of them end up insane as well as homeless.

* GiantMook: The large, fat, centaur[=/=]centipede like wylebeasts are the toughest of the regular wylebeast types, capable of withstanding multiple grenades and almost your entire reserve of pistol[=/=]revolver ammo, with a weak spot in the throat that's almost impossible to get a clean hit on for some reason.

** During the TheSecretOfLongPorkPies investigation, upon finding a sink full of chopped up human body parts in a restaurant kitchen, not only is Reed's sanity unaffected but he even quips "I don't think the health inspector will be pleased". Not quite as bad as "[[VideoGame/CallOfCthulhuDarkCornersOfTheEarth This noosed broad has seen better days]]", but pretty close.

** You can find hidden brain cylinders, presumably left by the Mi-Go, containing the brains of figures from Lovecraft's works such as [[Literature/TheDunwichHorror Wilbur Whately]], [[Literature/PickmansModel Richard Pickman]], and [[Literature/TheThingOnTheDoorstep Ephrhaim Waite]].

** One of the hidden collectables in the game is "Deep One Gold", calling back to ''Shadow over Innsmouth'', where Marsh returns with treasure from the Polynesian civilization which first introduced him to the deep ones.

** You can find a note in Billy base mentioning some coordinates. These are the coordinates of R'lyeh.

** Played with. A lot of the prejudices present in 1920's America are not present, not due to any progressive movements, but rather out of the realities of living in Oakmont. Segregation, if it was ever present, was eliminated by the flood. People in Oakmont treat all local inhabitants equally regardless of skin color. Racism is downplayed and focused exclusively towards Innsmouthers and Newcomers. That said Oakmont is remarkably progressive towards real-life minorities. African Americans are not only present in all factions but in some cases in positions of power, and even run some of the central functions of Oakmont life. There is even a black member of the local KKK!
** That said Reed is remarkable tolerant of homosexuality and understands why a person would want to keep it a secret, which was historically accurate for the 1920's. He also expresses surprise that Anna has reached such a high rank in the E.O.D. and has a University Degree. To which she coldly remarks that "women can go a lot farther in Oakmont than on the Mainland." Additionally, everyone smokes like crazy.

** An Innsmouther run charity in Oakmont is called ''Everyone's Obvious Duty Is To Help Each Other'' which is shortened to the first letters of the first three words or EOD. [[BlatantLies It is in no way affiliated with any other organizations from Innsmouth with the same acronym such as The Esoteric Order of Dagon.]]

* SceneryGorn: The city a half flooded, and the remaining half looks like it is gradually rotting and crumbling away. Just from looking at it you can viscerally imagine how the place would smell and the feeling of moisture clinging on your skin.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Throgmorton considers the Innsmouthers to be criminals and evil doers, so he persecutes them horribly while using his influence to make the city as hostile to them as possible. As such, the Innsmouthers have to turn to crime as well as the Esoteric Order of Dagon to survive.

* SupernaturalHotspotTown: Oakmont is home to several different cults, with cultists walking around the unflooded parts of the city in broad daylight. It's also full of refugees from [[Literature/TheShadowOverInnsmouth Innsmouth]], one of the upper class families is the result of [[HalfHumanHybrid a union between a human and an ape]], and grottos around the city contain ruins pertaining to the Great Old Ones.

* UnusableEnemyEquipment: You can't take firearms or even ammo from killed human enemies, and on occasion you'll find weapons laying around but can't take them, only being able to acquire the shotgun, submachine gun, and rifle as specific quest rewards.

** There's an option to steal Sidney Stokes' secret bullet stash in "A Delicate Matter", which he was saving to get his mother a proper burial. The trophy / achievement text even ends with "[[YouMonster You monster]]". You can also turn him over to the police, which is at least justified by the fact he's a murderer.

Theh, in January 2024, Frogware announced that their legal dispute with Nacon had finally been resolved, allowing them to re-publish the game on Steam and GOG, in an UpdatedRerelease version. Along with the re-release, Frogwares also announced a new DLC for the game, called ''Merciful Madness''.

''The Sinking City'' is an [[ConspiracyThriller Investigation]] ActionAdventure game developed by Frogwares, best known as the developers of the ''Sherlock Holmes'' AdventureGame series. The game is set in an open world inspired by the universe of [[Creator/HPLovecraft H.P. Lovecraft]].

* BlueBlood: Oakmont is very traditionalist with an emphasis on bloodlines and thus, ruled by an aristocracy of Grand Families for their wealth and influence over the city: the Throgmortons are the central pillar of the community that fund establishments like the Oakmont Library and University; the Carpenters rule Oakmont's criminal underworld with an iron fist, the various encountered gangs answering to them in some form; the Blackwoods share kin with the Innsmouthers through the Marsh family and dominate much of the fish market. By the time Reed arrives in Oakmont, however, most of the Blackwoods (sans [[BlackSheep Ebernote]]) have disappeared, leaving the Throgmortons and the Carpenters as the remaining ruling powers.

** Averted by the electric fans, which although modern looking, were actually invented in 1882.

*** Yellow King Avenue is clearly a reference to Hastur, an EldritchAbomination he included briefly in a few stories.

* BlackAndGreyMorality: What the game's setting operates on. Although determining which folks operate on which side can be rather tricky and is often left up to the player to decide.

* AttackItsWeakpoint: The more advanced wylebeasts have glowing yellow weakpoints you can target to deal more damage, which is pretty important as they can otherwise soak up a very large amount of your very limited ammo.

[[caption-width-right:350:Toto, I don't think we're in Innsmouth anymore...]]