The Sinking City

The Sinking City takes place in the secluded city of Oakmont, Massachusetts in the 1920s, a place that is not marked on any map and few people know how to find due to its remoteness. Oakmont has a long history of association with the occult and many of its citizens are not only eccentric, but unabashed practitioners of occultism. Cultists in bloody ritual garb are an unremarkable sight on the streets alongside fishermen, average townsfolk, refugees from the destruction of nearby Innsmouth, the destitute and desperate and well-heeled members of the upper class. The town also developed its own unique dialect over the years, but the origin of many phrases is murky. Six months prior to the events of the game, Oakmont was inundated by a mysterious, persistent flood of supernatural origin that has submerged many of its streets and cut it off from the mainland. The Flood brought with it a dark force that inexorably instils hysteria and madness in the minds of the terrified citizens, along with a plague of otherworldly creatures attracted to death called Wylebeasts, and the struggling city is on the brink of collapse. In addition, droves of people from outside Oakmont who were reported missing have been turning up in the town, drawn by haunting, unaccountable visions.[5][6][4]

Charles Reed, a U.S. Navy sailor and World War I veteran turned private investigator, travels from Boston to Oakmont at the invitation of Professor Johannes van der Berg to discover the cause of the nightmarish visions that have been plaguing him since the disappearance of the ship he served on, the USS Cyclops. These visions are shared by numerous other people and are reported most frequently in Oakmont. Soon after arrival, Reed is also hired by Robert Throgmorton, the influential and physically striking head of one of Oakmont's leading families who has also been studying the visions, to locate Professor Harriet Dough, the researcher Throgmorton had tasked with uncovering the cause of the Flood.

While pursuing his primary investigation, Reed also pursues several other tangential cases which embroil him in the politics and conspiratorial machinations of the power players of Oakmont. He investigates a break-in at the storehouse of a charity organization called the EOD ("Everyone's Obvious Duty") and uncovers the perpetrator is a university professor who wasn't trying to steal the supplies being handed out by the organization, but rather poison them, because the EOD is actually the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a cult worshipping Dagon, the God of the Deep Ones, which is trying to expand its influence in town. Reed can either choose to turn in the poisoner or aid him in the hopes that the death of innocent charity recipients will sabotage the EOD's schemes.

Later, he is hired by local crime boss Brutus Carpenter after somebody drugged him in his own home, sent him to a morgue to be burned alive and then replaced him with an identical clone. Reed discovers Brutus' attempted killer was his own son, Graham, a wounded World War I army veteran who's fallen under the sway of the Church of the Lord of the Woods, a sect that worships Shub-Niggurath. Graham wishes to use his father's vast fortune to help the needy, while also advancing the sect's goals in town. Reed can choose to either kill Brutus and allow his son to take over the family or tell Brutus the truth, after which he has his own son killed and retakes control of his criminal syndicate.

Reed discovers Professor Dough was kidnapped by Innsmouthers working for Ebernote Blackwood, the last surviving member of one of Oakmont's grand families who are secretly Deep Ones. Ebernote's family raised him believing that he was one of the Chosen Few, people granted visions who would play a crucial role in the family's doomsday prophecy, but it turns out Ebernote wasn't Chosen, so his family abandoned him when they travelled into the Deep Ones' undersea secret society. Now Ebernote wishes to conduct a ritual to implant another Chosen's visions onto himself so that he can use the power to sabotage his family's foretold doomsday, out of spite for their abandonment. Professor Dough is one of the Chosen, but Ebernote fails in his ritual and the Professor dies due to the lack of a vital instrument called the Seal of Cthygonnaar. After Reed recovers said Seal, he can choose to allow Ebernote to perform the ritual on him or kill him to escape. Even if Reed performs the ritual, Ebernote is killed by a mysterious force that wishes to see the prophecy realized.

Reed goes to confer with Professor van der Berg, only to find him murdered and himself framed for the crime. Reed discovers the true killers were a gang called the Yellow Kings, who serve a deity called Hastur. They kidnapped the family of Glenn Byers, a man who looks remarkably like Reed, and threatened to kill his family if he didn't murder van der Berg. After rescuing the Byers family, Reed can either tell Glenn to turn himself in or frame Milton Pierce, the corrupt politician who witnessed the murder and testified Reed was responsible.

Reed's search for answers ultimately unearths a plot by one of the Great Old Ones to purge humanity. van der Berg is shown to be alive, as he is Hastur in human guise. He lures potential Chosen to Oakmont in order to unseal the sunken temple of Cthygonnaar, which imprisons Cthylla, the secret daughter of Cthulhu and Idh-yaa as well as the source of the Flood, Wylebeasts and the nightmares. Once Cthylla is freed, she will give birth to Cthulhu's reincarnation, resulting in Oakmont drowning in the sea and the world being destroyed by Cthulhu's arrival.

Reed is faced with a choice, leading to one of three endings:

• He can abscond to Boston with the artifact used to awaken Cthylla in an attempt to prevent the apocalypse from ever coming to pass. Years later, massive flooding has hit Boston, and van der Berg visits Reed in a bar as they witness the impending apocalypse together.
• Commit suicide to leave his destiny as the Chosen unfulfilled and thus delay Cthylla's awakening for a few more centuries. Van der Berg is shown centuries later waiting in the docks of Oakmont for another Chosen.
• Accept his destiny and unleash Cthylla, who then consumes him and ascends to the surface.

Nacon (formally BigBen Interactive) was licensed to distribute the game until April 20, 2020. The contract was terminated by Frogwares, on account of both intellectual property violation and lack of payment.[20] This resulted in The Sinking City being delisted from Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 digital storefronts on August 25, 2020 pending the resolution of Frogwares' legal dispute with BigBen. The Nintendo Switch version of the game remained available on the Nintendo eShop, as that version had been self-published by Frogwares.[21] The game was republished onto Steam in February 2021 by Nacon. Frogwares quickly denounced this re-release of the game on Twitter claiming that it was not the version they created, accusing Nacon of using a version that was "hacked" from their version of the game to change out certain assets and mask its origins. Fans of the game began to review bomb the re-release, in support of Frogwares. Nacon asserted that they have financially met the terms of their contract with Frogwares and that the developers were trying to change the terms of the agreed-upon contract,[22][23] and further that the contract stipulated that Nacon was the sole entity that could release the game on Steam, despite Frogwares' own attempts to release a version of the game without mention of Nacon. Nacon justified this clause in the contract for releasing the modified version of the game on Steam.[24] Frogwares issued a DMCA takedown notice to have this version on Steam removed on March 2, 2021.[25]

The game was nominated for "Best Action and Adventure Game" at The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards.[43]