The Sinking City review – Lovecraftian detective game has cult appeal

PlayStation 4 (version tested), Xbox One, PC; Frogwares/Bigben Interactive
Disturbing moral dilemmas and gruesome beasts abound in a deliciously gothic flooded city

Video games have enthusiastically mined the oeuvre of gothic author HP Lovecraft, but The Sinking City might just be the most Lovecraftian game yet. Based on two of his stories - Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth - it is set in the city of Oakmont, Massachussetts, in the early 1920s.

Oakmont has suffered a cataclysm that has isolated it from the rest of the American mainland and flooded half its streets - but it's no Venice. Eternally grim and rainy, parts of it are infested by weird creatures called Wylebeasts that emerged from the sea, and its citizens - who include the fish-hybrid Innsmouthers, the Ku Klux Klan and various religious cults that are equally nasty and deluded - are a hostile bunch.