The Sinking City is a third-person open world action-adventure game developed by Frogwares. It is based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
First released on June 27, 2019, and two days earlier for pre-orders, the game was published by Nacon and distributed exclusively through Epic Games Store.[1] Following a dispute between the developer and the publisher, the game became unavailable for purchase on the store in July 2020, and was self-published by Frogwares on platforms including Gamesplanet and Origin, offering paid content previously exclusive to Nintendo Switch.[2][3]
After a preliminary court ruling found the publishing contract termination by Frogwares unlawful, the developer had the game briefly available on Steam during the day of January 5, 2021.[4][5] The game returned to the platform on February 26 with Nacon as the publisher, followed by the developer advising against purchasing this version and accusing the publisher of piracy.[6] A copyright violation claim caused the game to be removed from Steam on March 2.[7][8] In response, Nacon referred to the earlier court order, and asserted that the contract between the parties allowed them to adapt and distribute the game.[9] The game appeared on Steam again in late June and rendered its existing save game data incompatible.[10][11]
General information
- Official wiki
- Steam Community Discussions of the Nacon release
- Steam Community Discussions of the Frogwares release
Availability
Version differences
- Day One physical edition includes a printed map of Oakmont, the Investigator Pack and Chicago Organ Grinder DLC.
- Deluxe Edition includes Worshipers of the Necronomicon and Merciful Madness DLC.
- Necronomicon Edition includes Worshipers of the Necronomicon and Investigator Pack DLC.
- Deluxe Edition published by Frogwares on Steam included all DLC.[14]
- Digital pre-orders included Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter, Chicago Organ Grinder, Extra Skill Point DLC, and two days of early access.
Monetization
DLC and expansion packs
| Name |
Notes |
|
| Worshipers of the Necronomicon |
Extra side quests - Breaking News, Blood from A Stone, Mystic Tomes.[15] Completing the latter grants the Cultist outfit. |
|
| Merciful Madness |
Extra side quests - Darling of Fortune, Fool's Gold and Defunct Brain Cylinders.[16] Previously exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version.[3] |
|
| Investigator Pack |
Daywear outfit, 21 crafting materials, first aid kit and antipsychotics consumables always available at the Devil's Reef hotel.[15] |
|
| Chicago Organ Grinder |
A golden submachine gun available in the inventory from the start of the game.[15] |
|
Extra Skill Point
Experience Boost |
An extra knowledge point and 500 XP available from the start of the game.[15] |
|
Microtransactions
| Type |
Notes |
| Cosmetic
| Investigator Pack DLC contains a character outfit. |
| Finite spend
| All consumable and cosmetic items are offered as DLC to own. |
Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
|
Remove the video files[17]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\TSCGame\Content\Movies\
- Remove or rename
Start_video_Frog.mp4, UE4_Logo.mp4 and UE4_Logo_BB.mp4.
- A game update may restore the files.
- The image-based intros will remain, although easily skippable with button presses.
|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
Video
- The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.
|
See the related Steam guide on changing the FOV per view by modifying a config file
|
- This method cannot change the field of view of interactive conversations.
|
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Use an external tool to fine-tune FOV in real time[17]
|
- Download the FOV changer.
- Launch the game and wait for it to load.
- Run the tool and press the buttons to increase and decrease FOV as instructed.
- Affects the field of view of interactive conversations.
|
|
Increase FOV by making it vertical through a config file[25]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[/Script/Engine.LocalPlayer]
AspectRatioAxisConstraint=AspectRatio_MaintainYFOV
- A significant increase from the default 16:9 value.
- This method cannot change the field of view of interactive conversations.
|
|
Edit the config file[26]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
GameUserSettings.ini in a text editor.
- Locate
FrameRateLimit=0.000000 and set the value to the desired FPS cap.
|
|
Enable TAA sharpening through the config file[27]
|
- This makes the game appear less blurry when anti-aliasing is on.
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.TemporalAACurrentFrameWeight=0.2
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen=1
|
|
Enable super-sampling through the config file[25]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.ScreenPercentage=150
- The 150 stands for percentage of the base resolution, equal to 1.5x. Any other value above 100 can be used.
|
Bloom
|
Disable bloom through the config file[27]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.BloomQuality=0
|
Chromatic aberration
|
Disable chromatic aberration through the config file[28]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines and save the file:
[SystemSettings]
r.SceneColorFringeQuality=0
|
Depth of field
|
Disable depth of field through the config file[29]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0
|
Film grain
|
Disable film grain through the config file[27]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.Tonemapper.Quality=0
|
Input
Audio
| Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
| Separate volume controls |
|
Master, SFX, music, voices, ambient, interface. |
| Surround sound |
|
[33] |
| Subtitles |
|
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| Closed captions |
|
|
| Mute on focus lost |
|
|
| Royalty free audio |
|
|
Localizations
- Language selection is only available from the main menu Gameplay settings.
| Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
| English |
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| Arabic |
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| Simplified Chinese |
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| Traditional Chinese |
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| Czech |
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| French |
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| German |
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| Italian |
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| Japanese |
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| Korean |
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| Polish |
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| Brazilian Portuguese |
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| Russian |
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| Spanish |
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| Turkish |
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| Ukrainian |
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VR support
Issues unresolved
Game stuttering
Multiple high-end hardware users have reported stuttering unrelated to FPS drops.[34][35][36][37] The developers acknowledged the issue.[38]
Save data incompatibility on Steam
Any save files made with DLC content, including files created in the February 2021 Steam version published by Nacon, are incompatible with the latest game version of that branch.[39][40]
Issues fixed
Crashing at gun pickup
AMD users reported crashing upon picking up the pistol at the starting location.
|
Set Post process to Low in the Video settings until after the pistol is picked up.[41]
|
Crashing at boat interaction
Pressing A on an Xbox 360 controller to get on the protagonist's small boat may cause the game to crash.[42]
|
Press X to get on and off the boat.[43]
|
Other information
API
| Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
| Direct3D |
11 |
|
| Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
| Windows |
|
|
|
Middleware
|
Middleware |
Notes |
| Physics |
PhysX |
|
System requirements
| Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
| Operating system (OS) |
7 |
10 |
| Processor (CPU) |
Intel Core i3 3 GHz
AMD Phenom X6 3 GHz |
Intel Core i7-3770 3.5 GHz
AMD FX-8350 4.0 GHz
AMD Ryzen 5 1400 |
| System memory (RAM) |
6 GB |
8 GB |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) |
35 GB |
40 GB |
| Video card (GPU) |
Nvidia GeForce GTX 760
AMD Radeon R9 380X
2 GB of VRAM
DirectX 11 compatible
| Nvidia GeForce GTX 970
AMD Radeon R9 290
4 GB of VRAM
Shader model 5.0 support |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Notes
- ↑ Unreal Engine 4 engine build: 4.20.1
- ↑ Despite being listed as DRM-free on the storefront, the game uses an account-based DRM and requires installation and launching through the Frogwares Launcher.[13]
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in
~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/750130/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (750130) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
References
