The Forgotten City

The Forgotten City is a marvel of mystery and mythology - a love letter to fans of historical dramas with supernatural twists.

The Forgotten City offers a story which has much to reflect on, in an environment filled with compelling characters, and intriguing mysteries to solve. It makes for a fresh experience, being accessible for both veterans of adventuring and role playing.

It’s easy to point out what The Forgotten City does right — mechanics, progression, story, gameplay, dialog, quests, atmosphere, design, voice acting, etc. — but hard to say what it does best, because it’s all supremely well done. With a wildly imaginative concept executed perfectly and poignantly, The Forgotten City will please anyone with an interest in history, philosophy, mythology, or just a good, tight exploration story. The Forgotten City is my top contender for GOTY 2021 — a distinction I don’t foresee being toppled. This city without sin may not have any exits, but that’s just as well, since you won’t want to leave anyway.

The Forgotten City is a beauty to behold no matter the eye, a deeply contemplative story matched with wonderful puzzles based in classical antiquity.

The Forgotten City tells an interesting story and uses a unique timeloop mechanic. Sadly, from a technical perspective, there is a lot that went wrong, going from bugs to weird animations. Nevertheless, we cannot stress enough how much we enjoyed this game.

The Forgotten City rewards your inquisitive mind with equally satisfying rewards at every turn, making its time-travelling tale one not to miss out on.

If you are looking for something unique and fresh in Adventure department, The Forgotten City might be your best shot. The name alone builds up enough suspense and mystery to excite the fans of the genre.

Regardless of the visual shortcomings, The Forgotten City stands tall as a unique game that pulls you in with its world and words. I got a huge kick using time travel as a detective tool and found many of the characters to be delightful to chat with (even if they hold many dark secrets). If you are in the market for a different type of game that pushes you to stitch together a story in different ways than you would expect, don’t sleep on this inventive experience. It’s one that you won’t soon forget.

It must be pretty obvious by now that I love this game. I love the effort that went into it and the expansive scope of its contents. I love how easy the gameplay is to grasp and how complex its plot becomes. I love the surprises and mysteries, and how each character is so full of soul. History buffs will have hours of spotting little details and accuracies, and fans of a good old-fashioned mystery will be kept up all night by the perplexing curse that has befallen this town.

The Forgotten City does a fabulous job exploring interesting moral quandaries through excellently written dialogue and characters.

Deftly written, smart, and consistently clever, The Forgotten City makes for a rousing, spirited adventure that is well worth taking part in. I wish it were longer, but that doesn't do much to knock what has been accomplished here.

The Forgotten City just feels so satisfying to play. You'll constantly be solving little mysteries and discovering new secrets to hit you with some immediate gratifications, all the while working on the larger puzzlers and tangled storyline to reach the end.

The Forgotten City may not be an entirely new game, being an adaptation of one of the most renowned Skyrim mods, but it's still a very intriguing narrative adventure that can entice players with its writing and original story premise.

An intriguing mystery adventure with outstanding writing and performances.

Diverting mystery adventure with an impressive, historical setting and a strong focus on its multi-layered plot.

A brilliant game that’s all about conversations. You get stuck in a time loop which sounds potentially frustrating but actually isn’t because you don’t have to repeat yourself in any way. It’s just a shame that the game’s a bit ugly and the puzzles a bit trivial.

It’s a very good game, but it was tailored for a specific audience. If you put the story above everything else, you’ll have a great time playing The Forgotten City. However, if you’d like to feel the adrenaline rush at least once in a while, it’s probably not a game for you, because there’s barely any action here. Oh, don’t be afraid of the whole time loop thing – this integral mechanic is forgiving and won’t erase your progress without a serious reason. If it resets, it’ll be a consequence of either wrong choices or a conscious decision. [10/2021, p.32]

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.

In exploring the past so thoughtfully, it has established itself as a name to watch in the future. [Issue#363, p.121]

The characters are not only memorable, but the questions they and the overall story raise go beyond plot twists for the sake of plot twists. There’s care and an attention to detail worth celebrating here. Roman culture isn’t simply a cool historical backdrop, customs, behaviours, what we now know of the times can be found and felt in every corner of the world. And in many of the conversations you’ll have.

With top-notch writing and screenplay, The Forgotten City manages with disconcerting ease to embark the player in a gripping, supernatural and historical tale. A success that is not necessarily obvious from the first moments, when the technical shortcomings of the title (some display problems, animations not always at the top) and the very many dialogues may be put off. But this first impression quickly fades when entering straight into the cursed city of the Modern Storyteller studio, where the famous golden rule is likely to result in the death of all its inhabitants if one of them between them commits the least sin. This initial idea thus gives birth to a whole lot of reflection, on the human condition as well as on the culture of each one, and will bring the player to face many reversals of situation, all well brought up. A very pleasant surprise for fans of the investigation / adventure game.

The Forgotten City abandons its mod form, grows and adds content to become a standalone game. The atmosphere of a Roman city trapped in a time loop returns to envelop us with new mysteries and enigmas scattered on the road to truth.

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 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.

If The Forgotten City is based on a mod initially designed for Skyrim, it knows how to detach itself from it to become a work in its own right. It is not an action game, even if it offers some, but a game of reflection and rhetoric. It offers us an interesting story that relies on the exploitation of a time portal and philosophical questions that are not without meaning. Even if the charming graphics sometimes lack depth and suffer from insufficiently detailed textures, the faces are neat and the soundtrack is good.

Modern Storyteller did right by rewriting its popular mod for a new world. Aside from some rookie mistakes and an apparent lack of budget, the story is exciting and memorable, and I really did not want to leave this cursed city. I definitely wouldn’t mind a few additional quests.

The Forgotten City is a great game, even more if you think it's built by 3 people. They deserve more credit and more money, because this game is full of good ideas and a very interesting lore.

The Forgotten City brings out the adventurer in all of us and showcases just how capable mods can be. While the runtime is kept short, multiple endings increased replay value for a few more days spent in the ruins. In addition, there’s an impressive degree of detail put into these characters that only falters in some aspects of the general gameloop. Regardless, I’m looking forward to what this game encourages modders to produce in the future.

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.

The Forgotten City is quite interesting as a new release that’s actually an enhanced and expanded mod that retains all of its key elements while being offered to players who might not be familiar with Skyrim. Despite the performance issues, it’s an adventure that will fascinate until the end, and the riddle surrounding The Golden Rule is one worth solving.

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.