The Forgotten City - Review

[HiddenX]

The Adventuregamers checked out The Forgotten City:

The Forgotten City

The Forgotten City began its life as a mod for The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim that was so popular it was downloaded over three million times. So it only made sense for indie developer Modern Storyteller to revamp and upgrade it into a standalone game, and I'm happy to say that the result is a fascinating mystery adventure, regardless of whether you're familiar with the mod on which it's based. Set in a cursed city of ancient Rome, it features strong voice performances, beautifully detailed visuals, terrific writing, and a fun time-looping conceit that not only makes for a great gameplay experience, it will leave players pondering the questions it raises about authority and morality.

You wake up near the Tiber River with no memory. The hooded stranger who found you unconscious asks if you wouldn't mind going into the Roman ruins nearby to find a man named Al. You oblige, and after taking a moment to customize your character's gender, skin tone, name, and background (Archaeologist, Soldier, Fugitive, Amnesiac, each of which has its own strengths and weaknesses), you step inside and immediately fall through the floor into a pool of water under the city. Before long you find Al, who has been transformed into a golden statue and hanged by the neck. An inscribed stone tablet from Al warns you against venturing further; he tried to set things right, but he failed and he'd rather not have someone else meet the same fate.

[...]

Our Verdict:

Uniformly excellent writing, acting, and audio-visual presentation of an ancient Roman city and its imminently doomed citizens make The Forgotten City a mystery well worth solving - and the clever time-looping mechanics make your investigation a lot of fun.

Score: 5/5

More information.

 

[henriquejr]

5 out of 5 !?!?!?!?

So they're saying the game is perfect ?

 

[JDR13]

Well, the site specializes in adventure games, so they probably get pretty excited when a good one comes along. They also gave Disco Elysium a 5/5.

That doesn't means he thinks it's perfect though. He does mention being disappointed that your character's background doesn't matter much.

 

[Ripper]

5 out of 5 !?!?!?!?

So they're saying the game is perfect ?

I think when you have a five-star system, 5 can't mean perfect, but just in the highest tier.

 

[Couchpotato]

I prefer sites that got rid of the score system and just tell you if it's worth a buy.

 

[henriquejr]

I prefer sites that got rid of the score system and just tell you if it's worth a buy.

I don't disregard reviews whose verdicts are of "Buy - Not Buy" kind, but if a reviewer is using a score system, I prefer it in a scale out of 10 or out of 100.

 

[Redglyph]

The score is just another clue like the pros/cons and what the reviewer says. "Overall it’s near-AAA-quality stuff" and other remarks show the guy really liked the game, but why? From his other reviews, he seem to like adventure games, a good story, exploring, freedom of play and investigations. Maybe this game had just the good alignment of features for him, he didn't give 5/5 to any other games he reviewed (a couple got 4.5).

It does look quite good, even if I wouldn't qualify this as near-AAA (perhaps 10 years ago, but not today). Which doesn't bother me one bit.

I was worried by the big quest pointer in the preview but apparently it's an option and there is no map, so good points there. But the time loop feature is not something that appeals to me.

 

[crpgnut]

time loops in games just seem to be an excuse to reuse art assets most of the...time.

 

[Telstar]

Well, the site specializes in adventure games, so they probably get pretty excited when a good one comes along. They also gave Disco Elysium a 5/5.

This definitely puts them on a bad light
I hated DE so much.

 

[JDR13]

This definitely puts them on a bad light
I hated DE so much.

I didn't care for it either, but I can see how it would appeal to some. For me, it's just too slow and text-heavy.

I sort of get the same vibe from The Forgotten City. It seems like more of an adventure game than an RPG. I haven't actually tried it yet though.

 

[Telstar]

I don't mind adventure games if the plot and dialogues are great (and make sense).
Still following this.