Following a strange, lengthy legal battle over The Sinking City, Ukrainian developer Frogwares is finally following up with a sequel that's set to go full survival horror, and this time the studio is taking its project to Kickstarter because "the ongoing war adds an ominous layer of uncertainty."
The Sinking City 2 is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S in 2025, and Frogwares says it marks the start of a new direction for the studio. That's partly due to the switch to Unreal Engine 5, but it's also about a genre switch. Where Frogwares' previous games had largely been detective stories, The Sinking City 2 is expanding into the survival horror genre.
Frogwares says in a press release that the sequel will feature a "semi-open world" where you'll have to "scrounge for limited resources and balance a finite inventory." This sure sounds like traditional survival horror in the classic Resident Evil mold. There'll be optional puzzles that let you uncover secrets, and while the investigation systems will return, playing detective will similarly be a skippable feature.
- After a years-long battle with its publisher, Ukraine-based studio reveals first gameplay footage of survival horror sequel The Sinking City 2, launches Kickstarter, and hits $100,000 goal in hours
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Notably, The Sinking City 2 is set to hit Kickstarter "soon." As CEO Wael Amr explains, "at this stage, we have learned and adapted to our reality but the ongoing war adds an ominous layer of uncertainty, and the additional funds will help us deal with potential disruptions on top of helping fund various extra features we would love to implement."
Amr notes that "our previous game, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, was fully developed and released during the war. Through Kickstarter and our supporters, we built ourselves a safety net that saved us more than once. From power cuts as our electrical infrastructure was targeted for months to the need for team members to relocate at very short notice, this financial safety net proved invaluable to us. So we need to do the same now with The Sinking City 2 as this game is vastly bigger and more complex."
The first Sinking City was originally published by Nacon, but a dispute between the publisher and Frogwares led to the game being delisted from Steam back in 2020 - and a long, strange battle involving DMCA takedowns between the two companies ensued. The dispute was only resolved recently, as The Sinking City returned to digital stores just this year.
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened was also funded in part through Kickstarter, and Frogwares used active mortal shells to help promote the final days of that campaign.
