Lovecraftian Horror Breaks Through In a New THE SINKING CITY Trailer

About two years ago, we learned that a game developer by the name of Frogwares Studios (the company responsible for a series of reasonably popular Sherlock Holmes games) was working on an open-world game based on the work of HP Lovecraft. Called The Sinking City, the game was described thusly:

"The Sinking City is a game of investigation genre taking place in a fictional open world inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft. 

The player incarnates a private investigator in 1920s, who finds himself in a city of New England, Oakmont Massachusetts. It’s currently suffering from extensive waterflood, and its cause is clearly supernatural. The city trembles on the brink of madness. Can you investigate this beleaguered town and untangle the tragic extent of its failings or will you be driven beyond madness yourself?"

We've kept tabs on the project ever since learning about the game (it's an open-world HP Lovecraft game, how could we not?), and are pleased to report that The Sinking City now has a release date: March 21st of next year. 

Oh, and it's also got a new gameplay trailer. Let's take a look:

OK, so, this footage isn't looking quite as sharp as the Call of Cthulhu game currently being developed by Cyanide Studios (see footage from that game here), but that's alright: graphical presentation always seems to take a bit of a ding when you're working in the open world arena. 

And by the way, Frogwares sounds serious about this open world thing. Says Eurogamer:

"The Sinking City focuses on exploration and detective work - with the game making the most of its open-world structure to give players a wide array of options when it comes to pursuing evidence and leads during their investigations.

"We are serious when we say there will be no handholding, no markers on the map, no instructions in your diary," Frogwares previously said of its design approach to the game, "You find evidence and talk to people to find something to push you forward."

We're into everything going on here, and will absolutely be giving The Sinking City its day in court when it arrives next March. In the meantime, we'll continue looking forward to Cyanide's The Call of Cthulhu, and will continue hoping that both titles manage to nail all the dread, cosmic horror and unspeakable monsters that make Lovecraft's work so indelible (we're assuming both studios will be leaving Lovecraft's casual racism out of their titles). Stay tuned for more on both of these titles as further updates roll in!