In Sink Review (PC) – Sink or Swim
Miles
Co-op games are a tricky customer to satisfy. Make it too taxing and intense, you end friendships. Make it too easy, those with more game experience drop off almost instantly. When you’re up against the likes of Overcooked, A Way Out and It Takes Two, you have to nail it. In Sink is one of those co-op affairs that falls within the middle of the road.
Built for two players (you can’t play solo so make sure you have a buddy/partner along for the ride), you must communicate with flawless efficiency to succeed. Over a series of 8 levels you’ll crack codes, navigate mazes and probably have the odd argument or three. Who needs couples therapy when there’s joint puzzle rooms to communicate your way out of?
Will your friendship or relationship swim or (ahem) sink in this cooperative adventure? Let’s (ahem, again) sink our teeth into this one and find out.
N-Sink
Right off the bat, In Sink makes its intentions clear. There’s no story, dialogue or exposition of any kind. You and your buddy/partner control two cartoon figures through a series of minimalist levels. Each one acts like an extended escape room – solving one puzzle unlocks the next and so on until you reach the end, acquiring a jewel. Couldn’t tell you why, maybe they’re secretly kleptomaniacs or they’re just really enthusiastic Indiana Jones cosplayers?
Taking on the challenge with Kat, we worked through a handful of distinct locations. To In Sink’s credit, the distinctiveness of each mission is really cool. Overcoming a noir, black-and-white Police Station, then sneaking into a fancy French (I assume) museum, all preceded by breaking into a pirate ship of all things. Obviously we stole the booty, that’s the whole point.
What doesn’t work quite as well is the repetitiveness of some of the puzzle setups. By halfway, we’d had to mentally exhaust ourselves matching symbols and numbers a ridiculous number of times. While they’re not bad by any means, the sheer number of tiresome associations drew a little thin. Thankfully, In Sink has some more unique and engaging co-op dilemmas to keep things interesting.
Let That Sink In
One of my personal favourites was a maze format, whereby one player must guide another through a series of walled pathways with numerous dead ends. Only catch is, the maze is formed of two parts that are movable. Suddenly, the chaos of attempting to explain where the person in the maze to the person in the maze becomes hilariously nightmarish. These more unique challenges are where In Sink excels and where we had the most fun.
Alas, others become more frustrating exercises in tedium. The train mission in particular, we both found ourselves dumb-founded and totally lost. Finding a game frustrating on your own is one thing (looking at you, Dark Souls 2), but when that frustration is doubled with a whole other person? That’s a recipe for disaster. It’ll be likely that one of the pair will be better at solving each puzzle than other, but some are mundane even when they’re relatively understandable.
This gave In Sink a real up-and-down feel for us. A couple of times we logged off impressed and pleased with our teamwork. Other times we both audibly exhaled and could sense the other’s chagrin. Your milage will vary, but be aware that some of these puzzles are quite difficult and the actual way you’re expected to solve them isn’t always clear.
If We’re Sinking, We’re Sinking Together
In spite of the frustrations, In Sink was a nice way to spend time together. We high-fived a few times when we nailed a challenge and enjoyed the thrill of finally working out that irksome puzzle. On each conundrum, a five minute timer will pass, then providing rather obvious hints about how to complete the puzzle. This’ll help alleviate some potential game-halting problems, but we actually found the length of time a bit too long.
Often, it’s pretty clear you have no idea what’s happening within a minute. Spending another four stood looking at each other with a vacant mind is not conducive to a whole lot of satisfaction. It’s akin to being able to see the other person physically buffering, with the circle swirling and swirling. Credit where it’s due however, In Sink is chock-full of challenging puzzles and the intricacy required to create so many is impressive.
Graphically, In Sink has a relatively charming, minimalist aesthetic that emphasises colour and contrast more than pixels. It’s a fitting look for the kind of laid-back fun it’s delivering. Well, minus the non laid-back maths that’s required. All those lessons in Pythagoras and Trigonometry theory certainly didn’t do us much good – should we have paid attention in school more? Nah, it’s maths’ fault.
Sink The Shot
In terms of co-op experiences, I wouldn’t personally put In Sink up there with the classics like Overcooked, Moving Out or It Takes Two. The escape room structure has some genuinely great ideas and concepts. However, it falls back on repetitive design too often, relying on symbols, numbers or combinations. When it branches out it’s at its best, but unfortunately it goes off the boil a little too often.
With all that said, I still recommend it. There’s a real charm and energy about the game that I think is a nice way to spend an afternoon or three with your chosen companion. With simple controls, chilled art style and relatively straightforward structure, it’s easy for anyone to pick up and play. Whether they’ll be able to contribute to the puzzle solutions will be determined by their temperament and patience.
We also had a couple of weird glitches, like my interface freezing on the pause menu, requiring a restart. Kat was also kicked out of the game twice for seemingly no reason. Likely teething problems, but worth mentioning. Don’t just take my word for In Sink though, let’s hear from Kat too.
Kat
Our time with In Sink was going to be make or break really wasn’t it? We were either going to communicate really well, and it was going to be fun and happy and we were going to high-five at the end. Or it was going to be putting our house up for sale. I didn’t imagine an in-between, but weirdly, we had our moments. On the surface, there is a fun game here, it has a great concept.
Myself and Miles have delved into a few co-op’s together. In Sink felt like a space of its own. The unique nature of the other person not seeing the other person’s viewpoint was both hella fun and hella testing my patience. However, that was more our communication more than the games fault! It felt like we were in the crystal maze and actually I had a lot of fun. When we got it right there was almost this intense satisfaction of teamwork and like you’d been picked as the gold star pupil for the day in class.
I think this is the highlight of In Sink. The puzzles at the beginning are fun, and they certainly do not hold your hand when you get deeper into the levels. Having each area hold it’s own is a great concept to stop players from getting bored too quickly. It also means that if you dislike an area, you’ll swiftly move on to the next. There was only one occasion where we didn’t know what to do, and our impatience for waiting for the hints got the better of us and we tapped out. But each area is a good length of time and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
You get a real sense of achievement when you know your at the end game point of an area. Each puzzle is different enough in the areas that you don’t find yourself already guessing what is going to be next. There will be surprises after surprises, and you sometimes walk into an area thinking you will have no hope of working out what to do, and then you do. Whilst visually the game leans on the side of basic, I think it’s simplicity adds to the fun. Whilst I don’t think this game as much replayability as once you know, you know. The game does lend itself to being a fun co-op adventure for the short term!
In Sink is available now on PC via Steam (review platform).
Developer: Clock Out Games
Publisher: Kwalee
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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