A pretty good mystery time-loop game, this is one of those games that's best experienced in just one or two sittings. A little strange and pretty easy, there's enough mystery to keep you going until one of its endings. It can be creepy at times, especially when things go wrong, but this is well worth a play
Kinda weird how simultaneously clunky and intricate this game is. I relished unfurling the mystery and loved how a system I thought was designed simply for ease ended up being vital to the story. Smart and fun.
It may not be the prettiest game I've ever played, but the writing is so finely crafted. I felt like I was playing a semi-open world Choose Your Own Adventure novel. The references to the Greeks, Romans, and "cultists" are exceptional and fit within the narrative quite well, but there are also references to more modern authors like Ursula K. Le Guin intermingling with the ethical concerns of the game's setting.
It's a great experience overall.
It's a great experience overall.
A fun time loop game that jumps the shark with a tacky and ridiculous ending.
A rather neat little game. You can definitely see the "seams" where this used to be a Skyrim mod, but Forgotten City more than stands on its own with a intriguing premise explored through a diverse set of characters. I will say the final ending was a bit of a letdown in how it drew from the same narrative well that a number of other games have, but it was still more than fulfilling.
Una magistral narrativa en forma de historia interesante y elaborada con bucles temporales, giros de guión y un escenario histórico muy atractivo. Joya de principio a fin. Otra enorme y grata sorpresa en lo que va de año 🤌🏻
Очень классная концепция, такая своебразная метроидвания, но не в геймплейном, а в сюжетном плане. Плюс это мой любимый жанр - сюжетноориентированный симулятор ходьбы с минимумом геймплея. Единственное, игра позиционируется наверное как детектив, но детективная часть очень слабая, просто бегаешь по квест-маркерам и смотришь сюжет. Я считаю, что здесь надо было либо полностью уходить в геймплей, как в Эндерале, либо в сюжет, как в Соме/Файрвотче, балансировать между двумя парадигмами у них не получилось.
Captivating storytelling that slowly unravels, with surprises at every turn. Unlike any game I've ever played! Slightly bogged down by technical issues and small inconsistencies in the story
Game is pretty decent nothing amazing and lacks a definitive ending
The charm is off the charts in this one. It often feels like its inner gears are turning in plain sight: lighting changes during loading screens, NPCs dropping everything and simultaneously congregating for events, floaty armless climbing and hovering over obstacles.
But these stick out and ground you on the origins of where this game came from, because so much else that it does is a lot smarter and more interesting than a lot of games that kind of look like this. It's lacking any kind of AAA polish (or whatever that means these days), but in return there's fantastic character writing and voice acting, an interesting overarching story that manages to weave a fairly extensive cast together, and a lot of restraint in its length.
Despite this, it's still a bit too big for its own good and a lot of things end up feeling kind of half baked. Having starter classes feels unnecessary, especially in how this game does it - you either get a gun, become faster or have "archaeological insight" to read graffiti and unlock some dialogue options. All these could have been combined and the gun could have been ditched and I don't know if it would change a whole lot. The world also feels just a little too big for its own good. While it's nowhere near the sparseness of say, Deadly Premonition, there's just a bit too much space between things sometimes, and it can make this world feel a little more empty than it should be.
The time loop mechanic also doesn't feel completely realized here. Games like Outer Wilds and Majora's Mask use a clock to give the world a timed routine, establishing when and where events will take place. Here, things just kind of happen whenever. The loop is reset whenever one breaks The Golden Rule, but days have little urgency to them when most notable events are triggered by your presence rather than the time of day.
But despite all these little things that it doesn't exactly nail, there's just so much to love here that ultimately I don't care too much. It's a game with which you kind of need to earnestly buy into its campy nature completely and let it take you along for the ride. It's goofy and clunky, but also frequently surprises you with just how complex and well thought out the game is.
But these stick out and ground you on the origins of where this game came from, because so much else that it does is a lot smarter and more interesting than a lot of games that kind of look like this. It's lacking any kind of AAA polish (or whatever that means these days), but in return there's fantastic character writing and voice acting, an interesting overarching story that manages to weave a fairly extensive cast together, and a lot of restraint in its length.
Despite this, it's still a bit too big for its own good and a lot of things end up feeling kind of half baked. Having starter classes feels unnecessary, especially in how this game does it - you either get a gun, become faster or have "archaeological insight" to read graffiti and unlock some dialogue options. All these could have been combined and the gun could have been ditched and I don't know if it would change a whole lot. The world also feels just a little too big for its own good. While it's nowhere near the sparseness of say, Deadly Premonition, there's just a bit too much space between things sometimes, and it can make this world feel a little more empty than it should be.
The time loop mechanic also doesn't feel completely realized here. Games like Outer Wilds and Majora's Mask use a clock to give the world a timed routine, establishing when and where events will take place. Here, things just kind of happen whenever. The loop is reset whenever one breaks The Golden Rule, but days have little urgency to them when most notable events are triggered by your presence rather than the time of day.
But despite all these little things that it doesn't exactly nail, there's just so much to love here that ultimately I don't care too much. It's a game with which you kind of need to earnestly buy into its campy nature completely and let it take you along for the ride. It's goofy and clunky, but also frequently surprises you with just how complex and well thought out the game is.
A decent game with a decently done time loop mechanic. While the game is mostly dialogue, it kept me invested throughout the whole thing. While I feel like the mystery was not something that gave everything learned a feeling of progress, it still gave a complete story. There was also a good amount of walking even with the shortcuts provided. While there were decent philosophical ideas provided, I don't think that It went far into depth in it. Would recommend it, if you like mystery games with a time loop mechanic and a decent story with decent philosophical ideas.
Probably the second best time loop game? What a treat!
galerius the goat
beautiful, moving, great concept
oh -- a friend told me i would probably like this game, because we both love "paradise killer." if you haven't played paradise killer, and you liked the forgotten city, please do check it out. and if you liked paradise killer and haven't played the forgotten city, same thing.
oh -- a friend told me i would probably like this game, because we both love "paradise killer." if you haven't played paradise killer, and you liked the forgotten city, please do check it out. and if you liked paradise killer and haven't played the forgotten city, same thing.
This review contains spoilers
The Forgotten City is a game of great narrative choices limited by outdated game design. As a mod for Bethesda’s Skyrim, it was defined wholly by existing mechanics that do not really suit the kind of game Modern Storyteller is trying to make here. The archery is hackneyed and the conversation system inorganic. Bethesda designed these systems to suit a very specific experience, one that feels uncanny in Bethesda games and certainly feels worse in replica.
The time loop itself brings players an opportunity to unravel a broad puzzle box. In learning the characters’ stories and influencing the events so that they might finally free all of these people who are trapped under the oppression of “The Golden Rule” players are given an immense amount of freedom. Mistakes are unpunished as the time loop will bring you back again to try once more. Slowly saving people, preventing catastrophe, and learning new important details drove the game forward at a brisk pace that these games can sorely lack. By the time the final revelations were coming about the game had hardly worn out its welcome, even if those revelations were largely nonsensical. I appreciate the attention to history, but the game just didn’t have the resources to bring the evil space god justice. Regardless, the somewhat corny ending where the characters you have come to know are found to be living well in the modern era is endearing and definitely recalls a fonder era of adventure games where everything just kind of worked out in the end.
The time loop itself brings players an opportunity to unravel a broad puzzle box. In learning the characters’ stories and influencing the events so that they might finally free all of these people who are trapped under the oppression of “The Golden Rule” players are given an immense amount of freedom. Mistakes are unpunished as the time loop will bring you back again to try once more. Slowly saving people, preventing catastrophe, and learning new important details drove the game forward at a brisk pace that these games can sorely lack. By the time the final revelations were coming about the game had hardly worn out its welcome, even if those revelations were largely nonsensical. I appreciate the attention to history, but the game just didn’t have the resources to bring the evil space god justice. Regardless, the somewhat corny ending where the characters you have come to know are found to be living well in the modern era is endearing and definitely recalls a fonder era of adventure games where everything just kind of worked out in the end.
The Forgotten City é criativo e interessante, embora herde um pouco do estilo desengonçado e duro da plataforma na qual ele se originou (como um mod de Skyrim).
Um microRPG no qual o foco é o diálogo e o encadeamento de eventos, sobre o qual não posso falar muito, porque sua experiência será melhor o quanto menos você souber sobre o jogo.
Jogue e divirta-se, porque vale a pena.
Um microRPG no qual o foco é o diálogo e o encadeamento de eventos, sobre o qual não posso falar muito, porque sua experiência será melhor o quanto menos você souber sobre o jogo.
Jogue e divirta-se, porque vale a pena.
The Forgotten City stars off with the worst part of the game, with some poor writing which includes a really dumb Karen joke. It gives a sour taste to the start of the game but thankfully the choice of name actually ends up becoming an interesting twist, but it’s a bad way to date your game at the very start.
This Karen has saved you from a river, and asks you to find someone called Al. Coming across some ruins, you fall down a large drop into a hidden ancient city, filled with gold statues of people, except these statues look like people frozen in time. Entering a portal, you end up hurled back in time around 2000 years into a mysterious ancient city.
The city has what the inhabitants call “The Golden Rule”. If any one person commits a sin, everyone will be wiped out (by some kind of god, the people there disagree on which one). Some inhabitants think this is just a way for the magistrate to control the people. The Magistrate knows (based on your appearance) that someone will break The Golden Rule within the next day, as he’s discovered a ritual that allows him to reset time.
In order to return to your own timeline, you are told that you have to stop this sin from being committed. While there is some combat in this game, the majority of the game is talking to people, discovering their history, motives and plans, as well as figuring out the puzzle of how the city works. If you fail, you have to rush back to the portal and start the day again, regaining your knowledge and any items you have collected.
Unlike The Outer Wilds, another time loop game, The Forgotten City doesn’t run on a clock, events happen by you triggering them (often by walking to the location where they happen), which gives the game a very relaxed feel for the most part, as you don’t need to rush around. One other thing which is extremely handy is that as you complete tasks, you can tell the first person you meet each day to do a load of stuff for you, so you aren’t constantly repeating the same things and can focus entirely on unravelling more of the mystery.
The writing (other than the one section at the start) is great, the 23 residents are mostly interesting (there are a couple that don’t do much) and it’s very satisfying learning how to manipulate events. I recently played Twelve Minutes, which is another dialogue-heavy time loop game, and in that it was a constant frustration that I couldn’t try any ideas or ask the questions I wanted due to the game’s limitations, but in The Forgotten City it seemed like most things I wanted to ask were there, and one crazy idea I had actually led to one of the game’s endings (there are four in total, although you really should aim to discover them all).
The Forgotten City has a very interesting mystery, with lots of great revelations and discoveries throughout, and a conclusion I was very satisfied with.
This Karen has saved you from a river, and asks you to find someone called Al. Coming across some ruins, you fall down a large drop into a hidden ancient city, filled with gold statues of people, except these statues look like people frozen in time. Entering a portal, you end up hurled back in time around 2000 years into a mysterious ancient city.
The city has what the inhabitants call “The Golden Rule”. If any one person commits a sin, everyone will be wiped out (by some kind of god, the people there disagree on which one). Some inhabitants think this is just a way for the magistrate to control the people. The Magistrate knows (based on your appearance) that someone will break The Golden Rule within the next day, as he’s discovered a ritual that allows him to reset time.
In order to return to your own timeline, you are told that you have to stop this sin from being committed. While there is some combat in this game, the majority of the game is talking to people, discovering their history, motives and plans, as well as figuring out the puzzle of how the city works. If you fail, you have to rush back to the portal and start the day again, regaining your knowledge and any items you have collected.
Unlike The Outer Wilds, another time loop game, The Forgotten City doesn’t run on a clock, events happen by you triggering them (often by walking to the location where they happen), which gives the game a very relaxed feel for the most part, as you don’t need to rush around. One other thing which is extremely handy is that as you complete tasks, you can tell the first person you meet each day to do a load of stuff for you, so you aren’t constantly repeating the same things and can focus entirely on unravelling more of the mystery.
The writing (other than the one section at the start) is great, the 23 residents are mostly interesting (there are a couple that don’t do much) and it’s very satisfying learning how to manipulate events. I recently played Twelve Minutes, which is another dialogue-heavy time loop game, and in that it was a constant frustration that I couldn’t try any ideas or ask the questions I wanted due to the game’s limitations, but in The Forgotten City it seemed like most things I wanted to ask were there, and one crazy idea I had actually led to one of the game’s endings (there are four in total, although you really should aim to discover them all).
The Forgotten City has a very interesting mystery, with lots of great revelations and discoveries throughout, and a conclusion I was very satisfied with.
While sometimes a bit jank (it was a Skyrim mod beforehand after all, also please turn off hints) the mystery of it all kept me hooked & guessing the entire time, and I ended up completing all of it in one sitting. It is the definition of quality over quantity, plus the game got me through a really shitty flu on New Years, that has to mean it did something right, right? Human are inherently hypocritical, our moral structures fallible, and we make countless mistakes every single day, but this can become our strength, as knowledge has always been built on them.
Galerius is best boy :) getting him that flower was worth it <3
Galerius is best boy :) getting him that flower was worth it <3
an absolutely lovely and very thought-provoking story experience
the gameplay jank only serves to make the earnestness of the developers' passion shine through even more. the positivity of the worldview on display here was infectious, i felt genuinely happy at the end of the game.
the gameplay jank only serves to make the earnestness of the developers' passion shine through even more. the positivity of the worldview on display here was infectious, i felt genuinely happy at the end of the game.
——时间循环与历史轮回——
由上古卷轴5同名MOD改编，在技术和动作方面和它的老师贝塞斯达一样落后，对时间循环机制的挖掘也不像星际拓荒那样完美纯粹，但仍旧在解谜和叙事上有着足够的巧思。
游戏通过前期几个日常任务自然而然地引入游戏中的角色和设定，在完成任务的过程中逐渐了解角色的性格与经历，并将他们连接成网，最终自然地走向故事的终局。全程反转不断，充满了对人类与文明的思辩。
游戏体量不算大，但很多任务都有着一定的自由度，比如想要得到某人的某件物品，除了帮他跑腿和据理力争之外，还可以用收集的钱币买下来，或者以重启循环为代价将它偷走。本作最大的特色是每次循环的一开始都可以让一名角色帮忙跑腿完成之前已经完成过的杂项任务，解决了这一类游戏繁琐重复的通病。 更有趣的是这个系统还融入到了叙事之中，让这名角色直接成为了人生赢家，并影响了结局的走向。
遗憾的是结局被粗暴地分成了完美结局和凑数的坏结局，没能触摸到这个小型结构的上限。
由上古卷轴5同名MOD改编，在技术和动作方面和它的老师贝塞斯达一样落后，对时间循环机制的挖掘也不像星际拓荒那样完美纯粹，但仍旧在解谜和叙事上有着足够的巧思。
游戏通过前期几个日常任务自然而然地引入游戏中的角色和设定，在完成任务的过程中逐渐了解角色的性格与经历，并将他们连接成网，最终自然地走向故事的终局。全程反转不断，充满了对人类与文明的思辩。
游戏体量不算大，但很多任务都有着一定的自由度，比如想要得到某人的某件物品，除了帮他跑腿和据理力争之外，还可以用收集的钱币买下来，或者以重启循环为代价将它偷走。本作最大的特色是每次循环的一开始都可以让一名角色帮忙跑腿完成之前已经完成过的杂项任务，解决了这一类游戏繁琐重复的通病。 更有趣的是这个系统还融入到了叙事之中，让这名角色直接成为了人生赢家，并影响了结局的走向。
遗憾的是结局被粗暴地分成了完美结局和凑数的坏结局，没能触摸到这个小型结构的上限。
Awesome little story, full of exciting twists and turns. Gameplay is fine but you're playing for the writing.
Really cool that was simply an additional modded mission of Skyrim created by three people.
I thought that lack of combat would bother me but not at all. The setting and story that took place was something else.
Played all 4 endings. Enjoyed this game.
(8.0/10)
I thought that lack of combat would bother me but not at all. The setting and story that took place was something else.
Played all 4 endings. Enjoyed this game.
(8.0/10)
I thought the writing in this game was really strong and took advantage of the premise to do some pretty interesting things. The game is fairly open but not so much so to be frustrating and wasteful of the player's time. This is almost the exact level of complexity in puzzle design (which is to say, not very complex but still engaging and clever) that I enjoy most.
The Forgotten City me acerta em cheio em várias coisas. Para começar na ambientação, que é uma das melhores representações que já vi da cultura romana. Fizeram um fidedigno trabalho antropológico criando personagens cujo comportamento moral esbanja autenticidade. Os devs claramente têm um forte embasamento em retórica, filosofia e política romanas, e souberam utilizá-lo para criar uma narrativa que te prende desde o início.
E te prende até o final também, mas não com a mesma força. Depois de vários tropeços de amadorismo compreensíveis no meio, e seções completamente desnecessárias de ação que não deveriam estar nesse jogo, a conclusão de sua trajetória pela cidade esquecida é... Memorável, mas não exatamente pelos motivos corretos. Mas interessante de qualquer forma. E o posfácio é bem satisfatório!
E te prende até o final também, mas não com a mesma força. Depois de vários tropeços de amadorismo compreensíveis no meio, e seções completamente desnecessárias de ação que não deveriam estar nesse jogo, a conclusão de sua trajetória pela cidade esquecida é... Memorável, mas não exatamente pelos motivos corretos. Mas interessante de qualquer forma. E o posfácio é bem satisfatório!
pretty good mind bending story for most of the game, the ending was actually kinda lame as hell tho so that soured it for me. story was compelling but that was about it for me, really just made me wanna play Majora's Mask or something
Unplayable stutterfest on PC
actually really enjoyed this game! mentions covid (ha...), but the world building and execution of time traveling are super fun! there's some combat which was surprising, but i heard it's not necessary.
Pro tip: Disable waypoints
The concept and setting are great but the execution was kind of lacking. Characters and writing are fine but nothing incredible. I never felt like I was solving anything, you basically just run around exhausting dialogue trees and following objective markers. The time loop mechanic is also poorly used.
There is some pretty bad pop-in, and annoying loading screens between certain areas but the game is pretty overall. I did run into a few bugs with NPCs floating, getting stuck in conversations, etc, but for the most part its technically sound.
Could've been great but it needed more time in the oven.
There is some pretty bad pop-in, and annoying loading screens between certain areas but the game is pretty overall. I did run into a few bugs with NPCs floating, getting stuck in conversations, etc, but for the most part its technically sound.
Could've been great but it needed more time in the oven.
História ótima e a progressão das quests são ótimas. O combate é meio mais ou menos mas n aparece tanto