The Sinking City: Day One Edition - Xbox One

Being a detective is tough work at the best of times, but when mad cults and strange fish people lurk around every corner and you have to deal with occasional bouts of insanity yourself you're really up against it.

The Sinking City is set in a Lovecraftian 1920s. The place is, of course, a coastal town on the east coast of America. The tides there are rising, and they're bring strange and supernatural occurences with them. You play as a detective as what the developers are characterising as an 'open investigation game'.

With the developer in question being Frogwares, the team has some previous with this sort of thing. They developed a recent series of Sherlock Holmes games and many of the systems from those titles find their way into The Sinking City. Players piece together an account of the crime using boards of evidence gathered, suspects and motives. Once you think you know enough, you can make an accusation. The game won't hold your hand, however. Don't expect flashing prompts when you have enough evidence - and if you get it wrong, that's on you. That gets even trickier when cosmic horror is creeping up from the ocean floor and you keep getting hit with disorienting bouts of madness.

Similarly, you won't have your hand held as you navigate the town of Oakmont. There are no waypoints or predetermined routes to follow, it's on you to navigate the environment. The aim is to make you really notice the world and, consequently, find yourself immersed in it. Frogwares even worked with architects to get the look and feel of the place right. You might not consciously notice the attention the studio has paid to things like port layouts and how arterial and side roads connect, but the studio is hoping that subconsciously these will be the details that make its locations feel real.

The Sinking City is not for the faint of heart, but for those brave enough to face it there are mysteries and horrors to be uncovered. more