The choices along the way

The Forgotten City has traveled quite the road getting from its humble, but no less impressive beginnings as a mod for Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Launching in 2015 to critical and even award-winning acclaim the mod went on to receive 3,000,000 downloads and now six years later having broken free from Skyrim, developer Modern Storyteller has remade their opus into a standalone game. And what a game it is, having more freedom than using preexisting levels the team has moved their adventure from the ruins of Dwemer and into the bright and shinning halls of ancient Rome.

When you begin your adventure in The Forgotten City you awaken on a river and are quickly directed to an ancient ruin to find Al. The game sets the mood right from the onset, as you make your way through the ruins you pass golden statues. All of the statues are different and in various positions, some are kneeling in pray, others are running, some look to be shouting but what is clear is something is very wrong with these people. As you clear the final hallway and walk into a portal that beckons you, you are thrown back in time 2000 years to an underground Roman city. Upon arriving and meeting the first of about 23 of the most impressive cast of characters depicted in a game in quite a while. It’s here that you will learn about the ominous sounding “Golden Rule”, and while you are directed to go speak to the magistrate you can decide to go off and explore on your own. The town magistrate explains that he brought you here in order to help him stop someone from breaking the “Golden Rule”.

MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $29.99

Choice is a huge part of The Forgotten City, one might say that it is indeed at the very heart of the game. The “Golden Rule” in this seemingly normal town is “The many shall suffer for the sins of the one”, which means each citizen must wake up and choose to be the best versions of themselves. No sin can be committed by any one person without every person paying the price. Thus, the reason why the magistrate desperately needs help in saving this city. As much as I want to go into detail and talk about this game, in order to save you from spoilers I will be intentionally vague going forward. Trust me, the less you know about specifics the better your overall experience is going to be.

The Golden Rule not only drives the narrative but will shape how you play the game as well. As you meet the various citizens and learn different secrets and other useful information you are able to carry it all through to each run. You see, you too will now be judged the same as the townsfolk. So, if you steal something, everyone will pay the price and I must say what happens is really cool. I am not going to spoil any of it, but the first time was pretty impressive to see what bitter fruit my crime had wrought; luckily the game allows you to retain any items or knowledge you might have gained. But then as you talk to people they wonder how you know a certain secret, or how you were able to secure an item. You will use these instances to advance your investigation and open up new narrative options; if it wasn’t already obvious this game is meant to be replayed. While the game has limited combat, its not very difficult at all. You will have more difficulty as you progress and the day ends and “wipes” and you have to make it back to the time portal in one piece.

The various personalities that you will meet over the course of your adventure will really drive that desire to play multiple times and remove the feeling of “samey-ness”. Each of the characters you meet aren’t just carbon copy NPC’s but each felt as real as anyone you’ll ever meet in real life. Listening to one woman explain about her faith and why she moved to the city will make you feel for her, until she slips up and refers to ‘God’ in the singular which of course is a major faux pax in Rome where there was a hierarchy of Gods. Which of course makes her a suspect, but then you have to think ‘if she’s a Christian she wouldn’t steal or kill anyway’ and the game will allow you to explore that train of thought. The conversation system is really well done and in fact my overall issue with the game is that the fantastic interactions with each character is usually marred by mediocre facial animations. Given the subject matter of the game one can’t help but make a comparison to Rockstar’s investigation game L.A. Noir, which of course boasted facial animations good enough that you can spot when a character is lying based on ticks and things. Now of course it is not fair to think this is going to look as good as a mega developer like Rockstar, but the animations are sadly just bad at times.

Which is a shame because graphically this game is truly a sight to behold, the Forgotten City employs a historically accurate depiction of a Roman city; complete with villas and even a public forum. The shine of the golds, and marble walls and surface’s really help to keep you immersed and the minimal HUD helps with that too. The city is a mix of architecture from the area; Roman, Greek even some Egyptian can be seen in various buildings. One of the things I loved about this game was how the developers really made the city feel “lived in”. As you explore the city you will find little tablets, cups, bowls etc that can be examined and usually will have some lore or other information that helps sell the realism of this city. The various mix in architecture makes sense because as you explore and begin to talk to its citizens, you will see that even the people are a mix of folk from the area. In a time when inclusion is more important than ever before its really great to see the developers showcase a multi-ethnic community.

I really enjoyed unraveling the mystery that is The Forgotten City. The setting is beautifully displayed graphically but the real cherry on the top is the narrative itself. Talking to all of the characters, and figuring out the order in which to do things ala Groundhog Day is one of the most rewarding experiences you’ll have this year. Even those fans of the old mod will find a fresh experience here, as the development team has expanded and even changed things from the original. I really can’t recommend this game enough, even with the lackluster facial animations this is an experience that shouldn’t be missed if you value narrative; in particular mysteries.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.