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]
General information
- Official wiki
- Steam Community Discussions of the Nacon release
- Steam Community Discussions of the Frogwares release
Availability[edit]
Version differences[edit]
- 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.
- Digital pre-orders included Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter, Chicago Organ Grinder, Extra Skill Point DLC, and two days of early access.
- Necronomicon Edition included Worshipers of the Necronomicon and Investigator Pack DLC.
- Steam version published by Nacon included Worshipers of the Necronomicon and Merciful Madness DLC built-in.[12]
- Deluxe Edition published by Frogwares on Steam included all DLC.[13]
Monetization[edit]
DLC and expansion packs
| Name |
Notes |
|
| Worshipers of the Necronomicon |
Extra side quests - Breaking News, Blood from A Stone, Mystic Tomes.[14] Completing the latter grants the Cultist outfit. |
|
| Merciful Madness |
Extra side quests - Darling of Fortune, Fool's Gold and Defunct Brain Cylinders.[15] 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.[14] |
|
| Chicago Organ Grinder |
A golden submachine gun available in the inventory from the start of the game.[14] |
|
Extra Skill Point
Experience Boost |
An extra knowledge point and 500 XP available from the start of the game.[14] |
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Microtransactions[edit]
| 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[edit]
Skip intro videos[edit]
|
Remove the video files[16]
|
- 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[edit]
Configuration file(s) location[edit]
Save game data location[edit]
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Use an external tool to fine-tune FOV[16]
|
- 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.
|
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Increase FOV by making it vertical through a config file[24]
|
- 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.
|
|
Edit the config file[25]
|
- 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[26]
|
- 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[24]
|
- 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.
|
|
Disable bloom through the config file[26]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.BloomQuality=0
|
Chromatic aberration[edit]
|
Disable chromatic aberration through the config file[27]
|
- 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[edit]
|
Disable depth of field through the config file[28]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.DepthOfFieldQuality=0
|
Film grain[edit]
|
Disable film grain through the config file[26]
|
- Go to the configuration file(s) location.
- Open
Engine.ini in a text editor.
- Add the following lines:
[SystemSettings]
r.Tonemapper.Quality=0
|
| Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
| Separate volume controls |
|
Master, SFX, music, voices, ambient, interface. |
| Surround sound |
|
[32] |
| Subtitles |
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| Closed captions |
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| Mute on focus lost |
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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[edit]
Issues unresolved[edit]
Game stuttering[edit]
Multiple high-end hardware users have reported stuttering unrelated to FPS drops.[33][34][35][36] The developers acknowledged the issue.[37]
Issues fixed[edit]
Crashing at gun pickup[edit]
AMD users have 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.[38]
|
Crashing at boat interaction[edit]
Pressing A on an Xbox 360 controller to get on the protagonist's small boat may cause the game to crash.[39]
|
Press X to get on and off the boat.[40]
|
Other information[edit]
| Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
| Direct3D |
11 |
|
| Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
| Windows |
|
|
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Middleware[edit]
|
Middleware |
Notes |
| Physics |
PhysX |
|
System requirements[edit]
| 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
- ↑ 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.[11]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 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
