History VideoGame / TheSinkingCity

* ResourcesManagementGameplay: Downplayed; on the one hand, the game has what appears to be a very tight economy in which bullets are your currency as well as your ammo, combat often eats up more resources than you gain from looting a cleared area, and you generally have access to a fairly limited amount of overall resources. However, all this is thrown out the window by the fact that loot containers ''respawn'' their contents after you leave an area, allowing you to farm up to your max carry capacity at your leisure.

* ArtifactOfDoom: Throughout the story, Reed is investigating a deep sea expedition, where Professor Dough ended up stealing a strange mechanism that is needed to awaken [[spoiler: Cthylla]].

* ButThouMust: When Charles is asked to search for a woman's missing husband, his only options are to accept the job and take her golden engagement ring as a payment, or to agree to work for free out of sympathy, while outright rejecting the offer is impossible.

** Another small one is the ability to walk between areas and the supplies return to where and what quantity they were. So some hard to find items will replenish if you simply walk into two houses.

** Averted completely by Johannes van de Berg, who will not punish Reed at all if the player chooses to [[spoiler:shoot him in the head]].

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: When you die, you respawn with all your weapons, healing items, and scrap. Thus, you won't need to search for supplies.

* ColorWash: During the day you can expect more browns whereas at you get a sickly grey tint at night.

* DrivenToSuicide: a given considering who is driving the city crazy. A great deal of people can be found in their homes with ropes and bullet wounds.

* ImAHumanitarian: During a side quest you're sent to investigate a restaurant where customers have been disappearing. It's not hard to guess what's happened to them, but who exactly is eating them is still a surprise.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Played With. A lot of the prejudices present in 1920's America are not present, not due to any progressive movements, but rather out of the realities of living in Oakmont. Segregation, if it was ever present, was eliminated by the flood. People in Oakmont treat all local inhabitants equally regardless of skin color. Racism is downplayed and focused exclusively towards Innsmouthers and Newcomers. That said Oakmont is remarkably progressive towards real-life minorities. African Americans are not only present in all factions but in some cases in positions of power, and even run some of the central functions of Oakmont life. There is even a black member of the local KKK!

* ShootTheDog: [[spoiler: To punish Joy for talking about the city's secrets, Granny Weaver killed Joy's dog and turned it into a teddy-bear.]]

* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler:It is implied that Granny Weaver is more than just an urban legend, having killed Joy's dog and neighbors and compelled her not tell anyone about her, with notes claiming that she is the spirit of a witch that fled Salem.]]
** Mr. Van Der Berg is wearing a distinct yellow suit which hints at his true identity.

* AffablyEvil: Johannes van der Berg sure is a polite and charming fellow for being [[spoiler:a Great Old One trying to bring about the end of mankind]].

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: When you die, you respawn with all your weapons, healing items, and scrap. Thus, you won’t need to search for supplies.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Anna Cavendish plays up the image of being a good, charitable woman who's unaware of the true nature of EOD. In reality, she's knows full well it's actually the [[spoiler:Esoteric Order of Dagon]]. Even if Reed sides with her over her ex-husband, [[spoiler:she tries to have Reed killed then disappears]].

* DeadpanSnarker: Reed. A particular highlight is him demanding the grand wizard of the local KKK chapter show him a magic trick.

* EldritchAbomination: But of course. A proper menagerie of them, at that.

* IJustWantToBeSpecial: [[spoiler: Ebernote's whole M.O. His actions against the E.O.D., his desire to help Harriet and his attempts to save Reed are motivated by his desire to acquire the Dreamer's Seed for himself and become chosen. Doubles as a FreudianExcuse as he initially held a privileged position due to his mother's belief that he had the Seed, and was thus their messiah. When he was found to not only lack it, but any Deep One traits, his family became cold and resentful towards him to the point of disowning and abandoning him when they all returned to the sea. This starts his quest to acquire it to spite his family and the Deep Ones. He gets positively ecstatic if Reed agrees to the ritual, and tries to kill you if he doesn't. He almost succeeds, resulting in one of the few times the Deep Ones intervene directly.]]

* MotherOfAThousandYoung: [[spoiler: The Fecund Mother (also explicitly named Shub-Niggurath in one document)]], an eldritch creature worshiped by one of many local cults.
* MouthStitchedShut: Joy talks to Charles with her mouth sewn shut. Charles comments that it seems torturous or even downright illegal, to which Joy assures him that it's a local custom in Oakmont, and a punishment for something she did. [[spoiler:This is implied to be the calling card of Granny Weaver. Even after you complete the Silence is Golden case associated with Joy, she keeps the stitches in because she has two years left on her "sentence".]]

*** Marsh avenue is named after Obed Marsh, the man who started Innsmouth’s worship to Dagon.

* NaiveNewcomer: Charles is often referred to as 'newcomer' rather than Mr. Reed, and his complete lack of knowledge about Oakmont or its customs serves to fill the player in on what exactly is going on around here. Often people will respond to Charles' entry-level questions by commenting that he really is a newcomer after all.
* NiceGuy: Graham Carpenter is, apart from maybe Joy Hayden, the nicest and most considerate person in Oakmont. He's using his family's resources to feed starving people and shows commiseration with Reed over fighting in the Great War. [[spoiler:Even in death, his spirit appears to forgive Reed for whatever role he played in Graham's death]].

* NoodleIncident: The entire town won’t bring up Innsmouth unless really pushed. It makes sense in context since in the book the [[spoiler: entire town was wiped out thanks to Robert Olmstead.]]
* NotSoAboveItAll: During the first case, you can enter the room of a former railroad worker who has a model train. Inspecting the train will prompt Reed to go "Choo choo" before giving an embarrassed "Ahem".

** That said Reed is remarkable tolerant of homosexuality and understands why a person would want to keep it a secret, which was historically accurate for the 1920’s. He also expresses surprise that Anna has reached such a high rank in the E.O.D. and has a University Degree. To which she coldly remarks that “women can go a lot farther in Oakmont than on the Mainland.” Additionally, everyone smokes like crazy.

* ShellShockedVeteran:
** Reed served in the U.S. Navy during the Great War as a diver and was the SoleSurvivor of the USS ''Cyclops'' when it sank. The experience left him traumatized, and he spent a considerable amount of time in psychiatric care because of it.
** Graham Carpenter fought in the trenches of Meuse-Argonne and suffered a disfiguring wound to his face that forces him to wear a half mask. When Reed asks him about it, Graham politely says he'd rather not discuss the war.
* SherlockScan: His fragile mental-state allows Charles to look into the past to see events as they happened. He is also able to go into "concentration mode", allowing him to notice points of interest in his surroundings.

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: [[spoiler:Cthygonnaar]] instead of Cthulhu.

* TroubledSympatheticBigot: Throgmorton pins the city's slow decay on the Innsmouthers just as much as the Flood, and his vendetta only increases once Albert is murdered by one, but it is shown to come from a genuine desire to protect his city. Even if Reed doesn't come out and call him a bigot at the end of "Quid Pro Quo" -- which greatly upsets him -- he still urges Throgmorton that his refusal to welcome or help them in any way is only making things worse for everyone; disquieted, he says he'll think about the matter.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[spoiler:Johannes van der Burg (A.K.A. Hastur) and Cthylla. Johannes is involved in several of the main story cases Reed tackles, as he is guiding him to awaken Cthylla, who is the source of the flood and madness afflicting Oakmont. Since Cthylla is imprisoned, Johannes is TheHeavy of the story.

* BlueBlood: Throgmorton, Carpenter, and Blackwood made up the Grand Families, who act as defacto aristocracy of Oakmont due to their massive wealth and influence over the city. Furthermore, Mr. Throgmorton even claimed that his family's marriage to a royal family provided his lineage with social prestige and "exquisite" features.

* TownWithADarkSecret: And how. Oakmont is more secret than town and practically everyone you talk to is either in on these secrets or wholly oblivious. The biggest secret is [[spoiler:the town is built upon an abyssal prison which contains an eldritch being who can end the world]].

** By extension, there's also the Blackwood family, who are related with the Marsh family of Innsmouth and have been taking in refugees after that incident with the Esoteric Order of Dagon and the FBI some time ago. They share the same piscine deformities as the Innsmouthers as a result.

* ReligionOfEvil: [[spoiler: Esoteric Order of Dagon]] they operate outside the law and depending on your choices you can help them instead of revealing their corrupt dealings.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Played With. A lot of the prejudices present in 1920's America are not present not due to any progressive movements but rather out of the realities of living in Oakmont. Segregation, if it was ever present, people in Oakmont treat all of their native inhabitants as one race regardless of actually race, was destroyed by the flood. Racism is downplayed and focused exclusively towards Innsmouthers and Newcomers. That said Oakmont is remarkable progressive towards real life minorities. African Americans are not only present in all factions but in some cases in positions of power, and even run some of the central functions of Oakmont life. There is even a black member of the local KKK!

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: This is van der Berg's opinion and his justification for why he wants Reed [[spoiler:to open Cythgonaar and release Cthylla]]. He shows Reed museum of all the human atrocities committed in Oakmont to drive home his point.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: when you die you respawn with all your weapons, healing items, and scrap. Thus you won’t need to search for supplies.

* ArtifactOfDoom: Throughout the story Reed is looking into a deep sea dive. Where Professor Dough ended up stealing a strange mechanism that is needed to awaken [[spoiler: Cthylla]].

* BlueBlood: Throgmorton, Carpenter, and Blackwood made up the Grand Families, who act as defacto aristocracy of Oakmont due to their massive influence and wealth over the city. Furthermore, Mr. Throgmorton even claimed that his family's marriage to a royal family provided his lineage with social prestige and "exquisite" features.

* AndYourRewardIsClothes: As you complete main story cases and side cases, certain ones will award you with more outfits for Reed to wear. A couple of them are regaled to DLC: the Investigator DLC pack adds the "Dayware" outfit, while the Worshipers of the Necronomicon DLC adds a "Cultist" outfit.

* IJustWantToBeSpecial: [[spoiler: Ebenotes whole M.O. His actions against the E.O.D., his desire to help Harriet and his attempts to save Reed are motivated by his desire to acquire the Dreamer Seed for himself and become chosen. Doubles as a FreudianExcuse as he initially held a privileged position due to his mother belief that he had the seed as was thus their messiah. When he was found to not only to not have it, but any deep one traits, his family became cold and resentful towards him. To the point of disowning and abandoning him when they all return to the sea. This starts his quest to acquire it to spite his family and the Deep Ones. He gets positively ecstatic if Reed agrees to the ritual, as tries to kill you if you don't. He almost succeeds, resulting in one of the few times the Deep Ones intervene directly.]]

* RealityEnsues: At the end of ''The Shadow over Innsmouth'', the FBI raid the titular town. Turns out they couldn't arrest or kill all the citizens; those that escaped have been left homeless, forced to emigrate to Oakmont and live in a very prejudiced community.

* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: A big highlight for this game is that depending on the difficulty, there is ''very'' little handholding when it comes to finding mission objectives. They are not automatically marked on your map; you must manually add markers to your map using clues and evidence obtained from investigating areas, questioning people, and combing through records and archives. In other words, the game makes you think like a detective.

* DisproportionateRetribution: Robert Throgmorton makes no secret of hating the Innsmouthers. If you tell him Lewis Flynn, one such Innsmouther, murdered his son Albert at the start of the game, [[spoiler: he uses that as an excuse to plunge Oakmont into a race war.]]

* {{Cult}}: Two important ones appear in the gang, the [[spoiler: Esoteric Order of Dagon]] also known as the [[spoiler: EOD]] and the [[spoiler: Redemption Church]]. At the end you have to find one that thought [[spoiler: eating part of a supernatural stone]] would save them. In addition Charles can wear a cultist costume in the game.

* {{Cult}}: Two important ones appear in the gang, the [[spoiler: Esoteric Order of Dagon]] also known as the [[spoiler: EOD]] and the [[spoiler: Redemption Church]]. In addition Charles can wear a cultist costume in the game.

* {{Cult}}: There is cult that operates within the city and covers up some quests. In addition Charles can wear a cultist costume in the game.

* ShootTheDog: [[spoiler:Joy's neighbour Granny Weaver went insane, killed Joy's dog and turned it into a teddy-bear.]] Whether or not she is human or something else is yet to be revealed.