It is astonishing to see how much The Forgotten City has evolved since it showed up in the gaming scene as a great Skyrim mod. In a year I personally didn’t feel was particularly strong for gaming, this one is easily GOTY material for me. Fantastic experience from start to finish. This is time loop done right, really well executed, and in fact it might be my favourite time loop game ever. But TFC does a lot more than that: it weaves an incredibly enthralling, captivating story that you engage with pretty much from the start, full of subtle symbolism and historical nods; it features a ton of likeable characters who help fully immerse you in the narrative you’re experiencing; it boasts great physics, particularly with the statue mechanics which was something I hadn’t seen executed in quite the same way before in any game; it wraps itself around an awesome atmosphere and sense of wonder, whilst at the same time bringing this cosy, quasi-familar vibe to the city you spend your time in, making it feel great to navigate through; it offers a surprising level of replayability, especially for an indie (I recommend you play again to get at least the ‘true ending’ if you don’t get it in your first run); and most importantly, it’s impactful enough to stay with you long before you finish it.

The smaller issues it comes with - some jank, the fact that the characters take too long to turn around to talk to you, the overly basic combat which might be a bit off-putting to some - are ultimately nowhere near enough to create any real problems to harm the overall experience you get playing this game. And because of that, The Forgotten City is something I strongly feel everyone should play, because it’s a game I strongly believe everyone would enjoy. 9/10.

I remember this game back when it was a Skyrim mod. It is pretty cool to see this become a standalone title. I saw some MATN videos on this game that made me interested in it and I am always up for games set in Ancient Rome.

You can tell this game came from a Skyrim mod. The gameplay is pretty simple, mostly just walking and talking, there's some bow based combat, and all of it still has that Skyrim DNA in it. That's not a knock against Forgotten City, but the controls will definitely feel familiar. They smartly minimize how much time you spend in combat, because it's pretty basic. The bow shoots well enough, but it's not something to lean on. There's only about 3 combat areas in the whole game, the rest of the time the bow is used to solve puzzles.

Most of your gameplay is spent conversing with people, especially at the beginning. And unlike modern Bethesda games, how you talk to people does matter. If you call someone a bastard, they will take offense and stop talking to you and you'll lose the ability to gain any further information from them. There are a few occasions where you can be having a polite conversation with a person, then ask a seemingly innocent question that they take an unproportioned reaction to.

The graphics of this game are actually pretty good considering it's an indie game. The Roman city looks beautiful to explore. The people are animated in a way that almost reminds me of the early Fallout games. They are expressive, but do hang out in the uncanny valley. The women look a little like they came out of a porn animation. The voice acting however is top notch. I can't think of anyone who was bad. Of course, the Romans are all "BBC Romans" with English accents, but it works. Everyone has great characterization, Galerius is just a straight up bro.

Luckily, if you do mess up, you don't have to live with your decisions for long. The main hook of this game is you are stuck in a time loop. So, while you may have upset the local guard this time, next time around you can start from scratch. Well, not entirely from scratch. Every time you start over you get to keep your inventory, and you can delegate all the tasks you've completed in past loops to your bro Galerius. The time loop system is really well thought out here. It never gets too stale or cumbersome. You always have a general idea of what is expected of you and the trail and error of nature of this time loop is fun, not frustrating.

The time loop is based on preserving the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you'd have done onto you". Even one person breaking that rule by sinning leads to the whole town being turn into gold. So, you're going to break the loop a few times, because to get some of the items you need involves sticky fingers. And if you don't break the Golden Rule, someone else in town will by day's end. You are tasked by the Roman governor to find out who will break the Rule and stop them.

From the start of the game, you can tell there's not something quite right about everything. You awake in present time being pulled from the river by Karen and she mentions another man wandered into the woods a few hours ago and hadn't returned. Before you go to find him, you have a very basic character creator. You can play as a man or woman and you can either be an archeologist, soldier, or inmate. I picked archeologist as it gives you a few extra details as you play.

You find an old abandoned Roman ruin that has a portal that warps you back to the Roman city during it's heyday. As you talk with the locals you obviously realize something isn't quite kosher in the Alamo. They all seem to have a similar backstory and the city is filled with gold statues of past inhabitants that watch like eerie sentinels over the city. Some residents use them as props and decorations, which is kinda clever. As you start to peel back the mystery, you start seeing what the truth really is.

Besides unraveling a mystery, this game also goes out of it's way to teach you some history, which I love. I think the developers were also students of Roman history. You can interact with statues and paintings to get little blurbs and people will tell you a little bit of history if prompted. It does sort of mess up the pacing of conversations when a NPC will be like, let me explain how the Roman legion operated or here's the story of Sissyphus, but I can overlook it for the joy of being educated.

Okay, so this here is the spoiler territory, skip to "All in all" to avoid it. If you have a rudimentary understanding of Roman religion and myths you'll have a good guess what the 1st twist is by moment one. You are pulled from the river by a woman in black named Karen. In a clever bit of humor, she is embarrassed to tell you her name. Modern sensibilities makes you assume it's because of the Karen memes, but she seems indifferent to them. She also mentions she has a job with an endless commute. So, yeah Karen is Charon, which I've heard pronounced with the silent H. That means you and all the other Romans you meet are dead & in the Underworld. How you died, at least as an archeologist, is a bit goofy, but it works for the story. Every Roman in the city also mentions being awoken in a river by a stranger and sent to these ruins. It's about halfway through the Underworld twist is revealed and that leads you to picking one of the 4 possible endings.

The canon ending is a little lame, but a fun, corny kinda lame. You break into the Temple of Pluto, God of the Underworld, which is actually a massive spaceship. Turns out Pluto is basically an ancient alien. Now, I am usually against this "Assassin Creed precursor race" kinda BS, but they pull it off well here. They went for the more History Channel vibe of Ancient Aliens. And it wasn't the plot twist I was expecting the game to make. I figured either the Roman governor or the high priestess would actually turn out to be some deity that was living amongst the people. Which the governor does own up to pulling a bit of a Tranquility Lane thing.

After you argue with Pluto about the ethical contradictions of his Golden Rule, he decides to let you return to the land of the living, along with all the other citizens of the city. You get back to your time, meet Karen who owns up to being Charon, and then jump to one year later. You are at a museum exhibit dedicated to the book you wrote on your experiences. It turns out the people in attendance are the citizens from the Roman city. They were returned to your time instead of their own. Again, it's corny, but I was still kinda happy to see them all.

All in all, this game has come a ways from being a Skyrim mod. It is a fun game with a great time loop mechanics, stellar voice acting, love of history, and an engaging story. It's not a long game, but the price isn't too steep, so you get your money's worth.

2nd Game Completed in 2024

This GAME, my dudes. So first of all, you can't really discuss this game too in depth without going into some pretty major spoilers, so I'm going to start at a pretty surface level before diving into spoiler text in the last half or so.

I was told to go into this one completely blind in by a few folks who had played it, and I actually watched a Jacob Geller video essay on it - which did spoil it quite a bit for me - and deliberately waited a couple years to pick it up to ensure I basically forgot them. And I do strongly, strongly recommend going in COMPLETELY blind, and without a guide.

So how do you know if you'll like it? If you like ancient history and/or mythology, narrative-focused games where choices matter, contemplations on philosophy and politics, or any of that, I strongly, STRONGLY recommend this one. The best touchstones I can think of are the dialogue system of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, and the event planning of Majora's Mask. The Forgotten City is a small game, something that will probably take 6-10 hours to beat on a first attempt feeling around in the dark, but it's got an incredible density of content. Honest to the gods, it puts nearly all AAA games to shame in terms of the sheer complexity of its event-planning and dialogue system... There are games out there that take 100+ hours to beat that can't touch the complexity of this game's narrative structure with a 40 foot pole. In fact, this is one of those games that may ruin bloated, open-world games for you, because it really contextualizes just how much of those games are padded out with empty voids of nothing with content sprinkled conservatively throughout.

But despite the complexity, everything in this game is incredibly organic. It all just makes sense if you're paying attention. I was able to complete a strong majority of the game without any sort of guide, and had I not wanted to ding off certain trophies, I would have not needed one at all. That's frankly an incredible achievement on its own. That's something I was not expecting.

The characters are excellent too, with incredible voice work really driving home who these people are and making you care about them; wanting to see the good ones succeed, and see the nasty ones fall.

So, on to spoilers. This is for folks who have beaten the game and want to hear some musings about what it all means.

SPOILERS START HERE

The way this game depicts the Greco-Roman pantheon, and by extension, the Egyptian and Sumerian pantheons from which those religions were built, was pretty damned excellent. FOR THE MOST PART. For folks who don't know, I consider myself a Rodnover - a Slavic pagan. I don't practice (and least not yet), and I see the gods as more allegorical than literal; personifications of natural forces of the planet that must be revered and worshiped all the same. But as someone who's ethnically Macedonian - that is to say, someone who is both Slavic and Hellenic by blood, and whose mother has British and likely Russian ancestry, I've always been utterly fascinated how most of Europe and Asia Minor had remarkably similar deities and beliefs before the Christians purged "paganism" across Europe and much of the world; more on that later. I have always known, in my heart, that just as my bloodline represents wildly different cultures, that no one perception of the gods is the definitively correct version... Every one of our ancestors was feeling around in the dark, finding the most sensible ways to contextualize the world around them. And that's something this game makes HEAVY commentary on. At least until the ending.

I can see what they were trying to do with their depiction of Pluto. I do. They were trying to both say, "Woah, we don't want people to think this shit is actually real" and "Wouldn't it be neat if we did a sci-fi twist?" But the Ancient Aliens thing is incredibly problematic, as it's usually used by conspiracy-minded sorts to strip agency and autonomy from non-white ancient peoples. "Those guys on Easter Island surely couldn't have made those magnificent statues, it must have been aliens." It's widely recognized in anthropology to be a belief set rooted firmly in xenophobia, and even setting that aside, the big "reveal" completely undercut the spiritual connection I was having to this game. To be clear: It didn't ruin it for me. The game does eventually stick the landing, and I can absolutely justify it as, "Perhaps this is how a modern mind might perceive a literal god." But I shouldn't have to do those gymnastics. This was in bad taste. So were comments at the end where a Christian character ostensibly says, "I'm so glad we drove off the last of the Pagan gods." YOUR PEOPLE LITERALLY SLAUGHTERED MILLIONS IN THE NAME OF DESTROYING THE PAGAN GODS AND REPLACING THEM WITH YOUR RELIGION, SHUT THE ACTUAL FUCK UP. Like this whole ending, as good as it was overall had too many of these moments where I, as a living pagan, started giving some serious side-eye. For all this game does to respect history and get facts right, I'm really shocked that nobody caught this as distasteful.

Kay, that's out of my system now.

This whole game has really reignited the flame I've always had inside me about wanting to learn more about my ancestors, and their pre-Christian beliefs. Unironically, I am actually doing some self-research on how to identify ancient Greek and Macedonian coins so I might have a toll to pay Charon, if such a being exists. I have contemplated heavily about the afterlife, and, when the time comes naturally, I am genuinely excited to take whatever journey awaits me with an open mind. But... Wouldn't hurt to keep an obol on me. Just in case. I also have a book on Rodnovery written by Perun Mountain, the foremost English-language source for information on modern Rodnovery. I wanna get my facts straight, make sure these existing belief systems are congruent with the modern world and my own subjective observations of it. While this may seem like a tangent, this is what The Forgotten City is ultimately about: Understanding the past, learning from it, seeing how beliefs change in the context of different times and cultures... And despite the attempted forceful eradication of these beliefs in the name of tyrannical monotheism, I think they contain knowledge we are missing. Like how to respect and revere our planet, and all its inhabitants - be they human (ALL humans), animal, plant, microbe... Maybe the old gods knew something wiser.

To sum up, this game really connected with me deeply. Spiritually. And that's a rare feat. It's a game that forces you to think, and not just in the context of preventing tragedy in the game world... But it lends you ideas and food for thought to bring into the real world. It forces you to confront what we understand of the past, and perhaps even attack the walls that divide us. Perhaps it is not fiction, that the sins of the one affect the many.

Put the most memorable side quest from an Elder Scrolls/a Fallout game into a particle accelerator and smash it into Outer Wilds and its time loop shenaniganry.

You're going to have a good time in other words.

'Don't get hit by an arrow' is certainly a good rule to live by.

My first immediate reservation when playing was a reluctance to sit through a largely dialogue-based time loop game. 'Dredging through exposition to get to the good stuff' was my expectation. How in the hell will that hold up against say exploring a bizarro solar system in a wooden spaceship?

That thought was in-part expelled when you, an out-of-time, accidental time traveller, first have the local magistrate of this locked-off, mystery 'Roman' city explain the fundamental premise. Someone is going to break 'the golden rule' and a mystery God will exact a corollary collective punishment on everyone in the city. This pre-crime/sin-based twist on a murder mystery is immediately reminiscent of a side quest like Oblivion's 'Whodunit?', only more intriguing and philosophical (in the vein of The Good Place).

However gripping the premise, I still anticipated a drudgery to individually approaching each character to solve this mystery. Thankfully - and if you can believe it - the game goes in many more fun directions than that initial introduction implies. I'm an utter sucker for worldbuilding and lore à la Paradise Killer. This scratches that itch but with a historical-myth edge.

The writing here is absolutely ace and frequently laugh out loud funny thanks to the fish out of water scenario. Some interactions are true standouts. Plot-wise there are great twists throughout and I loved the direction it went in ultimately. My only critique? It might go above and beyond to wrap everything in a very neat bow and leave nearly nothing unexplained for my taste. Certain concepts are drummed into you by multiple characters to make absolutely sure you weren't asleep the last handful of times and didn't have your eyes closed for that gameplay portion, but I know that neat bow will be a plus for many.

The full context isn't here, but trust me when I say this might be one of the best jokes in a game ever.

Yes, Forgotten City leans on very Elder Scrolls-esque dialogue choices/exposition (owing to its mod origins), but even here it makes some bold choices. Select the wrong option and you'll have offended that character for the remainder of that loop. Make certain choices and you'll fast track your way to a 'failed' loop. But the principle of persistent knowledge and inventory means failure and exploiting ending loops is actually essential - failing upwards of a sort. It's all very clever stuff.

Thankfully, much like Outer Wilds, exploration really comes into its own here. The detail packed city is ripe for unpicking. Like that game, you'll make notes in your head about the next thread to follow and the next experiment to run. Despite having nothing like ship physics pushing back against you for engagement, the playground nature is completely intact here.

The only caveat here is some understandable work by the devs to prevent some game breaking scenarios that removes some of the fun from raw experimentation. Nor are any of the threads as intricate and demanding as the puzzles from Outer Wilds. Essentially, however, we have a second and wildly different Outer Wilds-esque experimental time loop game here just two years later. Reasons to be happy indeed!

And running counter to my claim that there aren't experimental routes to take, **if there wasn't prompting from certain achievements then I wouldn't have followed some wild routes to some wild consequences. **These are the best of the game for sure.

One big downside of a dialogue-driven time loop game is that it misses out on the particular brilliance of Outer Wilds being almost a 'knowledge roguelike.' You collected knowledge not as some item or journal update, but within your actual head - such that when you yourself knew the game's solution then you can complete the game without looping once. Forgotten City more traditionally relies on your character's knowledge, so unless you go through the requisite steps to being your character up to speed, then you won't knock down most of the story barriers. In the team's defence, it's hard to see how they could have ever got round this! Also, without spoiling anything, I do actually like the loop optimisation that's offered through telling someone to do something in your stead...

As we all know from our Ancient Rome studies, in lieu of buses and trains you just roped it. Painful, but free.

What else? The presentation is surprisingly fantastic. It's not cutting-edge, but it more than makes up for that with just a spectacular level of detail and being so lovingly designed. Also, targeted work on where it would matter most. The faces of the characters, something you'll be watching mouth-flap for hours on end, are really spectacular - especially compared to something like Skyrim. For such a tiny team too, the presentation is nothing short of a miracle.

Voice work too. That this is fully voiced at all is fantastic, but apart from a few dramatic moments that fall a bit flat, this really is all stellar work. Again, given characters are so central to proceedings and have to replace Outer Wild's exciting planets, wormholes, etc as the mechanical driver of things, this was investment very well made.

The devs should be commended for swooping in with such a swift version 1.1 and seem primed for another update. The game puts most games to shame with its settings and included photo mode. Included in the first update was the option to turn off hints which are otherwise very neatly suggested via the voice of a mysterious benefactor. The change leaves your direction and what puzzles there are up to you. Something I'm grateful to have had in my first playthrough given there's excellent immersive sim-esque flexibility here for solving various scenarios, obtaining items, etc. Impressively, it manages to avoid the modern Deus Ex trappings of 'look at these three playstyle corridors.' Essential for the immersive part, wouldn't you say? Also, it's a relatively minor addition, but the choice of sex and background impacting as they do on a playthrough was great stuff.

As for combat, I know a certain portion of the audience might rather it wasn't here, but I really loved my time with it. I don't want to spoil too much about it, but the inclusion of a kick and environmental targets really make these sections a joy.

Forgotten City understands you bring a gun to a sword fight.

Outer Wilds, a game I haven't shut up about once in this review, was my 2019 GOTY... if you didn't gather. I mention it because Forgotten City manages to go it's own way whilst still channelling some of the best of that release. Superb presentation throughout and altogether unique both mechanically and in premise, Forgotten City proves a constantly interesting and compulsive play. The product of such a small team, Forgotten City has to stand among the best of the 'time loop playground' genre, which itself stands as one of the best genres in my books. It rarely gets better than this.

For those unaware this game started as a Skyrim mod, well, you can certainly tell from the graphics - which isn't a bad thing. The city is charmingly crafted and fun to explore, with plenty of hidden nooks and crannies to find things. There's a cast of diverse and unique characters to speak with. And the story itself is quite intriguing. There were some great twists in taking certain paths as well.

There's no particular order you have to tackle things in, and you can go through the time loop as many times as you want. So, that means there is plenty of opportunity to try out different things and either improve a situation or make things worse. There's 4 different endings and really no "wrong" way to play, so experiment and have some fun. Exploring and playing around with time is rather the highlight of the game - at least for me.

The only downside is that once you've explored all of the city and the story, the replayability isn't quite there - as the mystery is gone. I still plan to go through and see if there's anything I might have missed and try out some new ways to play, get more trophies, and the like. But the charm of this game is definitely in its original playthrough.

It won't come as a surprise that this game originated as a Skyrim mod with the same name. It's origins are apparent through the game play. When you interact with an object, it will be zoomed in and locked on screen; when you talk to someone the screen zooms in and locks them in an animation where they stare at you uncomfortably. Dialogue is handled through multiple choice menus that look very familiar. Combat is both sparse and janky (feeling also familiar). A part of me wishes that they used the Unreal engine to do more than recreate the Skyrim engine. To be fair, the Skyrim engine works and doesn't hamper the story or themes. It's serviceable.

The greatest strength is the writing and acting. You have close to thirty characters that are fully voice acted and realized as characters. The game focuses on themes of moral ambiguity and religion (there are strong atheist currents); while they don't bring anything new or insightful to the discussion, it is still presented in a sophisticated and thoughtful fashion. I have a few quibbles with the endings: the canon ending being defined as unambiguously good does undermine their central theme of the ambiguity of ethics. That said, I do like the ending and it is satisfying. Finally (VAGUE SPOILER SO SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU LIKE), Sentius telling you about the first ending does feel both contrived and inconsistent with his character. The hermit could have told you instead and it would have played better in my opinion.

It's fortunate that the writing and acting are so strong since that's primarily how you will interact with the game. It's a murder mystery and it is your job to figure out how to break out of the time loop. For better or for worse (likely another limitation and vestige from the Skyrim engine) all items and progress you find during a given time loop will carry over to the next iteration. This does make the game easy since you only need to conclude a given character's arch one time unlike Majora's Mask. It would have been more engaging to have to learn NPC pathing and be forced to engage with a cycle numerous times to change events. As it stands, progression is inevitable and the behavior of NPCs feels simplistic in comparison to Majora's Mask. Ironic given the hardware differences.

Besides interviewing would be suspects, there are some light dungeon crawling sections that will feel straight out of Skyrim. They aren't particularly interesting in terms of game play and they sometimes do feel repetitive but they do lead to interesting story moments. It does feel like a case of "we need combat or people will be bored." The game would have honestly been improved with these sections removed entirely but they aren't offensive just half baked at best.

Despite it's flaws, The Forgotten City is worth your time. The story alone is worth experiencing even if there are a few hiccups with the endings.

This game captivated me for an entire weekend while the in-laws were over. I stayed up late, woke up early, and snuck off during any downtime because I couldn't stop thinking about it.

It's an old Skyrim mod that was so popular, the guy behind it decided to remake it from scratch with the help of a handful of other people and I can't believe how gorgeous it looks, how well voice acted it is, and how well all of its complexities fit together with virtually no bugs. It's crazy how indie games are now the most reliable when it comes to releasing games in a clean state and we also live in a time in which indie games look absolutely phenomenal.

The concept of this game is this: You play as a person in modern times who goes through a portal to a lost Roman city 2,000 years ago. This city seems to be a utopia with no crime. Of course, that's only because if anyone commits a sin, the golden statues scattered around the city will come to life and kill everyone. The local magistrate says he knows someone is planning on committing a sin and tasks you to investigate. He knows this because he knows how to create a time portal that will take you back to the beginning of the day, and he has been living the same day over and over again.

If someone (including you) commits a sin during your investigation, the statues come to life and start killing everyone, the magistrate runs to create another time portal, and you go through it to start the day over again. This is actually a really cool mechanic, as it allows you to have several different conversations different ways to gather different information. If you piss someone off so that they will no longer talk to you, you can loop back and make the conversation go a different route. There is a lot of learning by trail and error in this game, and often you are required to make the same event to play out in multiple different ways to progress. For example, and mild spoiler warning, but there is a character who threatens to commit suicide. In one loop, I actually needed him to go through with it in order to progress. This is of course knowing you can save him later in another loop. In fact, I needed to save him later in another loop to gather some other crucial information.

This happens multiple times with several different scenarios and learning how you need to manipulate events is one of the great joys of this game. It's an incredibly complex web with many of your investigation leads bleeding into each other, requiring you to loop back and begin another cycle. And of course, there are several different ways to solve problems and there are multiple different endings as well. For example, if you need to get into a building you may be able to 1. Steal the key (which is a sin, requiring you to loop, but you get to keep the key!) 2. Help someone out to get the key 3. Threaten to sin to get them to give you the key or 4. Find a different way in.

It's also fun discovering what is considered to be a sin, as many things that seem to be immoral go unpunished in this game (which is narratively intentional).

Overall, it's a phenomenally sharply written and gorgeously presented indie game that feels like one big puzzle waiting to be solved. History lovers should really enjoy this game as well. It's on Xbox game pass, so if you have that you really should check it out.

The only problem I had was the ending that was considered to be the "best" ending felt a bit contrived to me. I'm specifically talking about the very end of the game, a museum section, where we learn every single character was able to travel to the present with you, and they're all just doing super awesome and each have 100% perfect lives now thanks to you. With how smartly written the rest of the game is, this just felt cheap and too "video gamey" to me. You know the "You did everything right, so absolutely everything is solved now and you are the most perfectest, bestest hero of all time" kind of ending? Yeah, that.