Forgotten City – Spotlight

Alright, Indiana Jones-esque ruin diving meets Groundhog Day-esque time loop – yay or nay? If yay, then let me tell you about The Forgotten City. You’re stumble upon these ruins that lead you to a portal that leads you to a city with a Golden Rule – many shall die for the sins of one. Which means, if one person commits a crime, the entire city gets wiped out. You survive, of course, by jumping back into the portal and resetting time. The catch – you need to solve the mystery of this cursed place and try to figure a way out.

What follows is one of the most well told mysteries in gaming, with great characters, excellent dialogue and dialogue options, and some really clever game design mechanics. The Forgotten City started off as a hugely popular Skyrim mod, and is now it’s own game, with a new Roman setting, a new engine, improved UI, and tale that sucks you in minutes after you start playing.

Pros:
Great writing
Memorable and diverse characters
Clever gameplay systems
Choices matter

Cons:
Poor facial animations
Some rough textures

Score – 9/10

About:

The Forgotten City is a mystery adventure game of exploration and deduction, and a re-imagining of the critically acclaimed mod that won a national Writers’ Guild award and racked up over 3 million downloads.

Travel 2,000 years into the past and relive the final days of a cursed Roman city, where if one person sins, everyone dies. Combat is an option, but violence will only get you so far. Only by questioning an intertwined community of colourful characters, cleverly exploiting the time loop, and making difficult moral choices can you hope to solve this epic mystery. Here, your decisions matter. The fate of the city is in your hands.

• Explore an open-world ancient Roman city with historically authentic art, architecture, costumes and customs
• Investigate a gripping, non-linear mystery with multiple endings
• Become entwined in the lives of richly detailed, deeply interactive characters
• Grapple with moral dilemmas which have life-and-death consequences
• Play as whoever you want, by choosing your character’s gender, origin and backstory
• Solve problems with reason, charm, bribery, intimidation, violence, or by cleverly exploiting the time-loop

Enjoyed the mod?
If you liked the mod, you’re going to love the stand-alone game. We’ve taken the best elements of the mod, re-written the script, which is now more than twice the length of the original at 80,000+ words, and added plenty of exciting new twists, endings, and surprises. Walk the streets of a brand new city. Get to know re-imagined characters. Solve challenging new puzzles with new gameplay mechanics, and enjoy an all-new orchestral score and professional voice acting. This is the story we always wanted to tell, for you to enjoy all over again – and again.

The Forgotten City may have evolved from a mod for an action RPG, but like the mod, this game is in a totally different genre. It’s a mystery adventure game, developed by a core team of three people. If you don’t go into this expecting a Triple-A action RPG, you’ll have a much better time!