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The Forgotten City review: a lean mystery that builds Rome in a dayIf you don’t like how the die falls you can cast it as often as you like
If you don’t like how the die falls you can cast it as often as you like
Picture the scene: you wake up at the side of a river and a stranger, who is reluctant to tell you their name, is like, “Can you go into the ruined city and find my mate please?” Five minutes later and you find yourself stuck in a time loop in a small Ancient Roman settlement from 2000 years ago. It’s not just you who’s trapped, either. There are several people stuck in this underground city that you fell into, and you’re all under the threat of turning into gold statues if even one of you does something wrong. This is the situation inThe Forgotten City, a time loop mystery adventure that does not, unfortunately, feature a dialogue option for constantly swearing and weeping as a reaction to the situation. 0/10 for realism.
High scores for everything else though. I didn’t play theimmensely popular Skyrim modthat later inspired this standalone, which probably helps one to enjoy The Forgotten City more. But it does stand alone very well. Not a pudgy toddler hanging onto the Dragonborn’s ankles, this; no, it is a sturdy Roman legionary, lean and muscular.
The Forgotten City Makes You Feel Clever | My Fav Thing In… (The Forgotten City Review)Watch on YouTube
The Forgotten City Makes You Feel Clever | My Fav Thing In… (The Forgotten City Review)
The relatively restrained cast and location size means this is achievable without having to follow quest markers all the time. Domitius the gladiator is usually doing push-ups in the courtyard in front of the villas, for example, so if you need to yell at him about something, you know where to look. Sentius and his daughter chill in his villa. The different shopkeepers are all in the forum. Bingo bango.
The game does make time for a couple of branching side bits that you only visit once - a romp through a mansion and a similar romp through some underground tunnels that turn into an optional survival horror-ish creep-fest - but for the most part you know exactly who is where, when.
The logical nature of this very supernatural mystery, combined with the clarity of the location and lack of hand holding from the game, makes you feel like a big smarty pants. And you also always know what you want to do. With every go at the loop you have a solid project in front of you: I want to get the medicine from Desius the price-gouging shopkeeper, so I can save Julia from being poisoned, and ifshelives I can save someoneelse, and so on. But do I try and get together enough money to buy it? Or is it easier to just steal it, reset the loop and start again?
Anything you have on you when you’re hurled through the portal, you keep. So if you steal a key to someone’s locked house on one loop, you can unlock the door and waltz in on any subsequent ones. The Forgotten City is also set up so that you can do these things in almost any order, which must have been pretty hard to do, and means two people playing could have quite a different experience of the story. You also get a lot of bandwidth for what counts as a sin. As long as you don’t physically harm someone or steal their stuff, you’re okay. Which does become its own topic of debate in the story…
This is the forum. Golden statues from rule-breaking societies past litter the whole place. When you’re not looking, they turn their heads towards you. It is very creepy
But at the end of your six to eight hours, you’ll have had a fun, satisfying and historically informative time. You’ll also start to mutter, “The many shall suffer for the sins of the one!” to yourself every time you drop a slice of buttery toast on the floor in real-life. While The Forgotten City is a bit rough around the edges, it’s a fantastic proof of concept, and its small team. Watch this space for whatever ModernStorytellerdo next.
