How long to beat
How long is The Sinking City 2?
8–12 hours for a typical playthrough, based on 12+ editorial reviews published at launch (August 18, 2026). Frogwares deliberately kept it compact — here is the breakdown by playstyle:
| Playstyle | Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Main story, rushing | 7–8 hours | EarlyGame finished in about 7 hours; possible if you skip optional content |
| Main story, typical | 8–12 hours | The most common range across 12+ reviews (Finger Guns ~10–11h, PC Gamer under 15h) |
| Completionist | ~16 hours | All 8 optional investigations, safes, weapons and upgrades (Gamesurf) |
| New Game+ replay | +8–10 hours | Ex Oblivione mode adds new narrative content and lore documents |
What affects playtime
- Optional investigations: 8 side cases (each tied to an achievement) add several hours. See the achievements guide.
- Difficulty: higher difficulties slow combat encounters; Story difficulty speeds them up.
- Exploration: safes, E.R.C. crates and upgrade kits reward detours — the walkthrough marks all of them.
- New Game+: the Ex Oblivione mode adds new lore documents and narrative content, so a second run is not identical — ending & NG+ guide.
Is it too short?
Reviewers are split. Most call the pacing a strength — no padding, no filler. A minority of the more critical reviews (GamingBolt 6/10) felt the runtime exposed the thin combat variety. Full verdicts on the reviews page.
Playtime data from named editorial reviews (EarlyGame, Finger Guns, PC Gamer, Gamesurf and others), compiled August 19, 2026. Methodology: Sources.