You’ll have to pardon me for succumbing to the cliche that “the city is the main character," but Oakmont certainly is. The other half, the part still somehow keeping its head above water, still feels like it’s drowning. Half of the city’s roads are underwater and only navigable by boat. It feels like it’s hard to breathe while standing on its rain-slick streets. The environmental texture of Oakmont, the sinking city itself, is choking. Suffice it to say, I think Frogwares is coming from a good place in its handling of the topic. This is not a treatise on early 20th century racism in America. But I’m largely impressed by Frogwares’ interrogation of these racial and ethical dilemmas. And in the end, nobody’s gathering around a campfire to sing Kumbaya. In fact, it makes several clear points indicating that the racists are the bad guys.
No, The Sinking City doesn’t embrace Lovecraft's racism. Rather than ignore this fact, developer Frogwares includes it. He happened to be a literary genius as well as a moral failure. Racism sucks, and it just so happens that H.P. Those last two, in particular, are topics The Sinking City doesn’t shy away from. The largest thematic difference here is that The Sinking City goes back rather faithfully to the source material. Or Skyrim’s Cultists in the Dragonborn DLC. And while (oh no!) The Eldritch Horror (oh my!) still occupies a seemingly niche literary space, The Sinking City is more than happy to resurface this tentacled boogeyman in video game form. Just like Mass Effect’s Reapers. Sure, Lovecraft died penniless and in obscurity, but he is credited with inventing cosmic horror. Lovecraft introduced us to Cthulhu over 90 years ago. I’m not sure there are going to be multiple branches leading to happy endings. Psychosis, night terrors, yelling in the streets, standing wordlessly facing the corner - these are the mental health symptoms that the Cthulhu Mythos likes to employ, but not necessarily explore solutions to. Cthulhu, in general, would love for mankind to just die off entirely, but wouldn't mind if everyone had to check into a mental asylum first. Cthulhu, for the uninitiated, which includes me, is a distant unknowable godlike creature, with an octopus head and a hankering for destroying all of humankind. The Sinking City is indeed a detective game, wrapped in the tentacles of the Cthulhu Mythos.
It’s a testament to the loving-and possibly cult-like-craftsmanship that went into The Sinking City. The fact is, despite having a significant amount of jank (and the jank is significant), this game has spun me 180 degrees on the issue. Whether that’s an indictment of my poor taste in horror and mystery is not important. But after The Sinking City? I like them both. Before The Sinking City, I didn’t like H.P.
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