Developer: Clock Out Games
Publisher: Kwalee
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
In Sink – Review
Although the vast majority of our reviews concern single-player titles, we can’t ignore the social aspect of video games. Even the venerable Pong was originally a multiplayer-only game. Most multiplayer games pit players against one another though, and completely co-operative titles are in the comparative minority. Now, as much as we like outspeeding our friends on a kart track or beating the snot out of one another, there’s something to be said about working together to achieve a mutual goal. Whenever a game comes out that offers exactly that, it inevitably grabs our attention. Enter In Sink, Clock Out Games’ two-player escape game. Eager to find out whether this was the kind of game that strengthened friendships or ruined them, we grabbed the nearest buddy we could find. Were we in sync (get it?) or did it all go down the drain?
Story
We can be very brief about In Sink’s story: there isn’t any. At the start of the game, you and your buddy find yourselves in a hub area of sorts, and you’ll need to tackle eight different areas in order to escape. The individual areas are quite varied: the tutorial level takes place on a ship, but you’ll also find yourself at a film-noir-inspired crime scene, a museum, on a train, and even at the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Graphics
While In Sink doesn’t feature an actual narrative, the game excels in environmental storytelling through its visuals. Each of the areas that you visit is vastly different, and there are tons of sight gags and easter eggs to discover, including an RV that may seem very familiar to fans of Breaking Bad. Things are kept deliberately simple in terms of visuals, despite the massive variety when it comes to the environments. There are several reasons to justify this. The simplistic visuals allow the game to clearly nudge the player towards the puzzles without distracting them too much, and things aren’t too taxing on hardware. That’s very important in a game designed to be played online, as lag can really wreck the overall experience. Fortunately, our time with In Sink played out buttery smooth.
Sound
There’s not a whole lot that we can say about In Sink’s soundscape, as it is a low-key affair. We can only say that that’s a good thing in this case, as most of the time you’ll be engaging in direct conversation with your fellow player. There is no voice acting in the game, as it is mostly a language-free affair. The sound effects are decent enough, but they won’t be setting anyone’s world on fire.
Gameplay
Before we get into the nitty and gritty of In Sink’s mechanics, it’s a good idea to take a look at everything surrounding the cooperative puzzle gameplay. Asymmetrical co-op games aren’t an unheard of concept these days, with the most famous example being It Takes Two. Of course, In Sink’s escape room-like experience is a very different beast from the action platformer that is It Takes Two, even if both games feature asymmetrical puzzles. In Sink is much closer to The Past Within, another co-op puzzler that we had the pleasure of reviewing last year. Both games put communication and puzzle-solving front and center. The main difference? We were able to play The Past Within locally on the same couch on Switch, with each player having their own screen. In Sink is currently only on PC, and in most cases, you’re locked to online play. No matter how you slice it, it’s a massive difference, especially in a game where communication is so important. We’re not against online co-op play in the slightest; we’ve played through the entirety of It Takes Two with a partner that was thousands of kilometers away and we had a blast.
The main difference is just how reliant In Sink is on direct communication with your partner. All puzzles are presented wordless and without explanation. Fortunately, figuring out what to do typically is straightforward, with the challenge coming from how to do it. A good example of this comes in the second area of the game, where players are presented with a maze. One player has to make it through, while the other one needs to form a path and guide their friend through. The caveat here is that timing is almost as important as communication, and there is always a slight delay when communicating online. Having a solid connection and decent audio equipment is important, even if it’s not part of the game itself. Many of the puzzles are typical escape room fare, such as having to decipher codes or matching patterns. However, since In Sink isn’t limited to the (financial) restrictions of real life, the game can present these familiar elements in a larger-than-life manner.
Should you find it difficult to figure out what a puzzle expects, there is an in-game hint function, although there were some instances where this didn’t help very much at all. That’s something that’s common for this sort of game, but it’s worth mentioning nonetheless. On the upside, the individual puzzles are very intuitive, and don’t require massive leaps of logic to figure out. Additionally, the controls are also very intuitive, and while In Sink is a puzzle game first and foremost, there is also some light platforming to be done here and there.
Just how long playing In Sink will take you depends more on how well you can cooperate with your partner. As the game is broken up into eight separate areas, it means that you won’t need to tackle it all at once. While your setting may change drastically, there’s only so much you can do with puzzle elements after all. The inherent familiarity that comes with puzzles sharing elements is a good thing, because it means both players easily understand what must be done. The downside is that puzzles can start feeling drawn out or repetitive after an extended play session, so playing In Sink over several sessions is preferable. This brings us to the game’s pricing. Based on our experience, a single area takes roughly an hour to complete.
That may make the €13.79 RRP seem like you’re getting plenty of bang for your buck. Unlike It Takes Two, which lets a friend play regardless of whether or not they had their own copy, each player needs their own copy of In Sink, however. While you can technically play this one with a stranger, the communication requirements make that idea seem either very impractical, or a very weird way to make a new friend. Another thing to keep in mind is that, like many escape games, the replay value is practically non-existent. It’s a double-edged sword, because compared to literally any other activity you can do with a friend, In Sink is very fairly priced. Just keep in mind that this is probably a one-and-done game.
Conclusion
As far as co-op puzzle titles go, In Sink doesn’t bring anything particularly new to the table, but in all honesty, it doesn’t need to. It’s a solid virtual take on classic escape rooms that takes advantage of not having to deal with pesky real-life restrictions to create its environments. Here’s hoping that In Sink eventually makes it to the Switch, because if there’s anything The Past Within taught us, it’s that this kind of game becomes even better when played on the couch with your buddy next to you.
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