The Forgotten City Review

2021 seems to have a distinct time travel theme going on. Between Death Loop, Twelve Minutes, and The Forgotten City, if you’re a fan of time loop mystery games then you’re up to your eyeballs. Having just finished Twelve Minutes myself, The Forgotten City was almost at a disadvantage going in, given I might burn out on the concept part way through. To my surprise, that didn’t happen and I instead walked away impressed with yet another fantastic effort by a small dev team.

In fact, if the visuals weren’t already a bit of a giveaway, The Forgotten City is actually a stand-alone game based on a Skyrim mod of the same name – a mod, mind you, that won a national Screen Writers’ Guild award for its script. I had heard about it when I was in my 39^th modding phase of Skyrim, but I was never into modding beyond the visual stuff and so I never played it. Having ironically forgotten about it, it was brought to my attention by one of my readers and so I decided I’d not make the mistake of skipping it again. Much like my review of Twelve Minutes, I’ll be doing my best to dance around spoilers, so forgive me if it doesn’t end up being as detailed as some of my other work.

The Forgotten City kicks off with you awaking on the edge of a river and are greeted by a stranger who pleads with you to enter some nearby ruins to look for another person who hasn’t returned since leaving some time ago. Of course, as luck would have it, upon entering the ruins you fall into a trap – quite literally – and eventually end up in a portal that leads you to the would-be Forgotten City. You soon discover that you’re obviously not in Kansas anymore, and after a summoned meeting with the local leader, you’re tasked with solving the great mystery that’s plagued the City and doomed it and its citizens. You see, someone in the city is about to break The Golden Rule and should that come to pass the city and its residents are doomed to an ill-fated end. It sounds a bit juvenile at first because of the golden rule association, but there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye and like any good mystery the devil is in the details. You have limited time and are also bound by the golden rule yourself, but there’s a silver lining to this whole thing. The leader has discovered a method of opening a portal that allows you to reset the day, thus allowing you to continue your investigation. Convenient, no?

That convenience is the very core of The Forgotten City. It’s what allows you to go about your business solving the mystery while having a safety net of sorts, but it also plays other roles as well. You’ll be spending the majority of your time talking with the various citizens of the city, learning about their past as well as their life within the city to try and sort out the intricate tapestry of intertwined fates among the residents. Exploration of the city is of course also pivotal, but that’s mostly within the context of your interactions with other citizens. While it sometimes feels like you’re just being the local busybody, character interactions are wonderfully done, and it was exceedingly rare for me to feel bored even after extensive dialogue sessions.

It’s certainly not shocking that the original Skyrim mod would have won awards for its writing because it’s remarkably well done. Whether talking about dialogue or the story itself, all of the writing is sharp and oftentimes feels several steps ahead of you even when you think you’ve figured it all out. Some heavy-handed moments perhaps could have used a bit more cloak and dagger to get a better result regarding discussions with other characters, but those moments were few and far between. Most of those rough spots centre around philosophical discussions that are trying to reach a very specific endpoint and so the illusion of choice in the dialogue options can be a bit frustrating when you catch on to what they’re ultimately funnelling you toward. Despite those few moments, I can only say that I wish more games had such well-written dialogue and dialogue trees because The Forgotten City has become a new standard in that regard for me.

The game itself plays a lot like you’d imagine given its Skyrim roots, complete with occasionally wonky physics. I was pleasantly surprised when I was unable to truly break it in any meaningful way which I was certain I’d be able to due to its origins. There’s not a lot for it to get wrong, however, as it is predominantly a game of going from point A to point B and talking to other characters. That’s not to say there isn’t some very light platforming and other elements at play, but generally, it’s a simple game that does what it needs to do adequately without any real fuss. For what it is, the visuals are surprisingly good as well with skin textures and tasteful lighting being highlights. You can absolutely identify it as being born of Skyrim but that’s not really a bad thing after the polish provided. The voice-over work, however, is really very well done across the board and rightfully so, given the quality of the writing. Each character is so distinctly presented, and many interactions get as close to feeling like a real conversation as I’ve experienced in a game despite the obviously fictional setting.

There’s really not a great deal to complain about when it comes to The Forgotten City. I supposed if I had to really nit-pick about something it would be that I could have used a few more puzzles to break up the dialogue-heavy segments despite the dialogue being so enjoyable. The City just feels a bit underutilized in spots and that might have been a solution to getting more out of the space. Beyond that, one of the multiple endings available was a bit too obtuse to obtain, and if popular Google searches are to be believed, that seems to have been a common point of confusion. It’s just an overall incredibly well-made game and a testament to how skilled many modders are out there. In a time where many of us feel like there’s nothing to play, we’re in one of the most prolific indie development ages in gaming history and The Forgotten City is a prime example of just that. If you have any love for good writing or a great story, I can easily recommend picking it up and taking time for a spin.