The Sinking City 2 Review

What works

Arkham is the standout. Flooded streets, hospitals, markets and ritual spaces create a coherent place that rewards careful exploration and backtracking.

Combat finally supports the premise. Focused weak-point shooting, scarce resources and meaningful weapon upgrades give each encounter a clear survival cost.

Puzzles fit the locations. Documents, symbol mechanisms and movable resources make exploration feel investigative without stopping the game for long deduction sequences.

What may disappoint

The detective systems are reduced. Investigation remains, but it is optional and more closely tied to rewards than the first game's case-solving identity.

The campaign is comparatively focused. Critics commonly place a standard run around the low-to-mid teens in hours, which can feel brief beside the original game's open-world sprawl.

Some technical roughness remains. Frogwares lists visual glitches, unstable low settings and some upscaling issues among the current PC known issues.

Who should play it

Play it for modern survival horror with Lovecraftian art direction. The combat, resource loop and compact hubs are the clearest reasons to enter Arkham.

Start with the Standard Edition if unsure. The full five-chapter campaign is included; Premium adds the separate Holloway Manor story and Arkham Field Kit.

Verdict

The genre change pays off. The sequel borrows familiar survival-horror structure but uses Arkham, optional investigation and Frogwares' writing to establish its own identity.

Our verdict: worth playing, with expectations set correctly. It is an atmospheric, focused horror adventure rather than a larger version of the 2019 detective game.