The Sinking City 2 gets a full overview trailer ahead of its August 18 launch
A Ukrainian indie studio is releasing one of this summer's more intriguing horror games on August 18, and a new overview trailer shows exactly what to expect. The Sinking City 2, developed by Kyiv-based Frogwares, is a full genre shift from its 2019 predecessor — trading detective sim for survival horror. It arrives on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S at $49.99 for the Standard Edition, deliberately undercutting the typical $70 AAA release.
Not your typical sequel
The game is set in the 1920s in Arkham — a fictional New England town rapidly sinking beneath floodwaters, its residents all looking deeply suspicious. Detective Calvin Rafferty arrives searching for his lover, Faye Bennett, whose soul became trapped in a "dream realm" after a failed occult ritual. The setup is pure Lovecraft, and the atmosphere leans into it hard.
Gameplay-wise, the comparison the studio reaches for is early Resident Evil: limited ammo, oppressive environments, puzzle-solving, and enemies that are sometimes better avoided than fought. Rafferty earns "Dream Essence" by completing tasks and solving puzzles — a currency used to unlock special abilities that open up new approaches to problems.
The overview trailer, released August 13, runs long and covers all of this in detail. A free one-hour Steam demo is also available right now if you want to try before you buy.
The price and the backstory
Frogwares self-publishes after a 2019 legal dispute with French publisher Nacon over royalties, per gagadget. That independence shows in the pricing: CEO Sergei Oganesyan has said accessibility matters more than maximizing margins. The Standard Edition is $49.99 / £41.35; a Premium Edition runs $59.99 and includes additional content, notes Gematsu.
The game was built by a team of 90-plus developers working through wartime conditions in Ukraine — infrastructure damage, power cuts, and staff dispersed across the country and abroad. Frogwares also switched to Unreal Engine 5.8 just two months before launch.
Pre-orders are live now on Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, PlayStation Store, and Xbox. The game launches August 18, 2026.
