The Sinking City 2 Controller Support and DualSense

The Bluetooth problem

The most common The Sinking City 2 controller support complaint on PC has an official answer: DualSense features do not work correctly over Bluetooth. Connect the pad with a USB cable and they behave as intended.

This is worth knowing before you start a session, because the symptoms — missing haptics, adaptive triggers doing nothing — read like a broken game rather than a connection mode.

The audio-to-controller bug

Official fixIf all game sound suddenly comes out of the DualSense speaker, open Windows audio output settings, switch the output to the gamepad and then back to your headset or speakers. That is Frogwares' own documented workaround.

It is a Windows audio-routing quirk rather than a game bug, and it affects other titles too — but it shows up here often enough that the studio documented it.

Keyboard and mouse bindings worth knowing

• Stomp: Ctrl, or the lower side button on your mouse. This is the finisher for downed enemies — why it matters.
• Focused aim: the mechanic behind Frogwares' advice to shoot weak points, and the biggest ammunition saving available.
• Tutorials: Pause Menu → How to Play, the studio's own answer for "I forgot how to do something".

Controller versus keyboard and mouse

Both work well in The Sinking City 2. Mouse aim is meaningfully better for the weak-point shooting the game rewards, which makes keyboard and mouse the efficient choice on higher difficulties. A pad is more comfortable for exploration and boat traversal, and the DualSense feedback adds something to a horror game.

Since difficulty is switchable at any time, this is a comfort decision rather than a performance one for most players.

Prompts and remapping

The game shows prompts for the pad it detects, so a DualSense connected over USB displays PlayStation glyphs while an Xbox pad shows its own. If your prompts do not match your hardware, the game has detected a different device — usually a virtual controller created by input software.

Bindings can be reviewed in the options menu, and the in-game tutorial reference lives under Pause Menu → How to Play, which is where the studio points players who have forgotten a control.

If your controller is not detected

1. Use USB. Especially with a DualSense.
2. Close competing input software — Steam Input, DS4Windows and similar tools can conflict when layered.
3. Verify game files — the standard first step for any odd behaviour.
4. If the controller is still not working, check Steam's controller settings and any custom remap for the game specifically, since per-title overrides are easy to set accidentally.

Steam Input and layering

A recurring cause of odd controller behaviour on PC is layering: Steam Input applying a configuration on top of a third-party driver, on top of the game's own support. Each layer works alone and they conflict together.

If your inputs are doubling, drifting or ignoring a binding, disable everything except one layer and test again before assuming the game is at fault. Verifying game files afterwards is a sensible second step, since it is the studio's own first move for unexplained behaviour.

On console

PS5 supports DualSense features natively with no cable required, and the Xbox versions use standard pad support. The USB caveat on this page applies to PC only, where the connection method is what determines whether the extra features are exposed.

Platform comparisons are on the PS5 page and the Xbox page.