The Forgotten City Reviews
For fans of storytelling, The Forgotten City is a solid recommendation. Freed from the shackles of Skyrim, the full game tells a captivating story elevated by clever and humorous writing. With the interesting time loop mechanic creating further situations full of comedy and intrigue, settling down across a few evenings with The Forgotten City will delight. We just wish the combat was either improved or not there at all, and the technical setbacks weren't quite so rampant.
The Forgotten City is a consistently engaging mystery that I couldn't help but get trapped in. It features an amazing blend of narrative mystery buoyed by some fun bouts of exploration and light combat, just enough to really break up the pace. It's a game that encourages you to put pressure on its established boundaries to see what you can break and change. There's a brilliant web of mystery within a time loop that you can manipulate, delivering some great and clever commentary around a whole bunch of topics. Seeing how far Modern Storyteller has come from "The Forgotten City" mod to this full game makes me beyond excited to see what Nick Pearce and the team come up with next.
With that said, I still highly recommend that anyone who loved the original mod that inspired The Forgotten City or anyone that just likes a good story-driven title play this game. The time loop mechanic, evolving dialogue, and myriad of choices and scenarios that occur make for one hell of a narrative ride, just keep your expectations of the combat low, or else you may be disappointed
The Forgotten City certainly doesn’t need to answer the philosophical questions that it poses before it’s allowed to examine them in a narrative context, but the ludicrously tidy conclusions to the main story and most side quests feel like substitutes for any deep engagement. The game handily transcends its mod origins and tells an ambitious and thought-provoking story, but it eventually reaches a point where it doesn’t seem sure how to end.
The transformation from mod to real game was long, but the final result fully convinced us. The Forgotten City is an intense and engaging journey, enhanced by an exceptional quality of dialogue and a script studied with great care and passion.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The Forgotten City is a brilliant piece of narrative work that feels like a time capsule of Skyrim's jank, revitalised with a gripping story that's just long enough that it never loses momentum. It is, as always, hard to fully recommend a Cloud Version of a game that's available elsewhere in a more concrete form, but if you're accepting of the associated 'risks', this is a well-presented and brilliant time loop game and well worth a play.
The Forgotten City expands upon the original concept of a small mod and has been developed into a rich and well-balanced experience. While its gameplay is simple, its narrative and atmosphere shine through. A great game from start to end, The Forgotten City is a perfect gem for gamers who love a mystery. More than that though, it’s a fantastic game that explores the complexity of morality and challenges players to do the same long after its completion.
As far as time loop games go, The Forgotten City has the Midas touch. It’s easy to see just how much care has gone into the story of the game so that it not only pulls the player in, but dares them to test the possible realities. The characters all feel real and they drive the player to find the truth before the Golden Rule is broken and the loop must reset. The developers have been careful to create a narrative that, while repetitive in practice, still keeps the player engaged in the wider narrative of the world through exploration and discovery. Combat in the game remains questionable, but the gold bow is its saving grace. If you’re after a game that will keep you guessing as you move closer to the truth, then The Forgotten City is fittingly worthy of your gold.
The Forgotten City boasts a rich gameplay experience that lives up to the ingenuity of its clever premise. As a role-playing choice-based mystery, the game offers a compelling narrative with some engaging existential questions at its center. With four distinct endings, it gives players a decent enough amount of leeway for approaching moral quandaries. And as a way of both solving puzzles and fixing mistakes, the time travel mechanic is worth its weight in… some sort of precious transition metal.
This game doesn't give a blanket pardon or condone the actions of any state, instead inviting players to ask by what means and to what end the rules of a state and society are created. The Forgotten City implicitly and explicitly goes to bat for the value of education, and it provides a good time while it does it. We all like to think we know something of the world that came before us; seldom is it that a videogame spun out of an adventure in another fantasy game provides an opportunity to truly learn something.
Fans of adventure games, RPGs, and philosophy should book a trip to The Forgotten City ASAP, but they need to prepare to lose themselves once they arrive.
The Forgotten City tells an immersive and incredible story. Combined with the beautiful city itself, the secrets of Modern Storyteller's first official release beg to be unraveled.
Clearly The Forgotten City is a game that speaks to those who revel in conversation. Those RPG fans who’d prefer not to fight or lash out, but converse and take a more steady, expository approach to finding a solution. It’s no exaggeration to say that the mythos Modern Storyteller both utilize and borrow from here is both surprising and satisfying with where it ends up heading. And while the narrative’s conclusion can come off too immersion-breaking or plain ridiculous for one’s taste, the caliber of writing for the most part is no less impressive for a game of this physical scale.
The Forgotten City is a beauty to behold no matter the eye, a deeply contemplative story matched with wonderful puzzles based in classical antiquity.
Something along those lines.
The Forgotten City is praised for its excellent storyline with multiple endings that can bring tears to tears. Maud even won an Australian Writers Guild Award and won the award for Excellence in Narrative at the 2021 Australian Game Developers Awards. In addition to this, 18 voice actors were involved in the work, and the original soundtrack was written by an entire orchestra.
Based on a mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it’s great that The Forgotten City has been expanded upon and given a chance to truly shine as a standalone product. The writing is stellar, and the whole affair is so unique and interesting that you can’t help but get sucked in, attempting to find a way to put an end to The Golden Rule once and for all. Not all of the endings available are particularly gratifying, but follow The Forgotten City through to its true ending and you’ll be left with an experience that you won’t soon forget.
All in all, The Forgotten City has surprised us with how engaging it is. The time loop mechanic is used to great effect and works much more than a simple gimmick, and the standout is the writing, which keeps you invested line after line. It's not a home run, with some overall clunkiness to the game and certain segments that could easily have been stripped out, but it's definitely a 10-12 hour adventure worth taking, with many paths and possibilities to uncover.
The Forgotten City succeeds at drawing you into a mystery and using time travel mechanics very effectively. As a narrative adventure, its strong cast and engaging setting help bring the city to life. The game may not always look great and some of the endings are rather abrupt, but it's a trip back in time worth taking.