Wow. Picked this up on a whim after hearing smatterings of praise from people I trust and was pleasantly surprised with what I found here. It's hard to go into details about why I enjoyed it without spoiling certain things but suffice it to say I was thrilled to find a modern adventure game with an engaging narrative and great cast of characters behind it.

The central mystery was well thought out and certainly kept me guessing as I pieced the puzzle together. The (canonical) ending was especially charming and really felt like I was rewarded for my efforts in a big way.

That being said, the addition of combat in the gameplay loop could have either been vastly improved or taken out completely as I didn't feel like it added anything and more often than not just felt like an excuse to spice things up as you're investigating and interrogating.

Sidenote - learning that this game was originally a Skyrim mod created by a former lawyer made a lot of things about this make sense in retrospect so major kudos to him and the rest of his team.

9/10

I went into this one expecting a pure 90's styled adventure game like Myst but instead I was pretty constantly surprised by how the game veered into other genres without staying on them thematically for too long.

The Forgotten City is a time-loop adventure game about the ethics of human morality, the intrigue of generational shifts in religion and mythology, and gazing at elaborate architecture just because it makes the body feel good. Which is to say, it's a game obsessed with classical expression, visual decadence, and philosophical thought.

It's a hard game to talk about without spoilers but the brief version is: there is combat, there is a little bit of horror, and there are multiple answers to the central intrigue of the game that ensure even canon answers, much like morality, don't ensure perfect solutions.

If you like adventure games it's a stellar attempt at utilizing and modernizing that genre. If you like history, especially with focuses on Roman philosophy, politic, and mythology, then this is one of the most enjoyable game experiences you can find in that vein. And if you like interfaces and mechanics similar to modern Bethesda games like dialog-choice driven NPC conversations, light dungeon crawling, and environmental story-telling, then you'll have fun with this one over the course of a weekend. I only really recommend avoiding this title if you absolutely despise one or all of these descriptors.

The combat feels like an afterthought and I wish it didn't exist; I think the idea of being able to negotiate/talk your way out of everything with prior knowledge is more than enough. Also as a very minor gripe, the controls are set in such a way where you can't sprint and jump at the same time, which irritated me during the limited sections of platforming and climbing. But besides that, these guys have the right idea on how to make a good time loop puzzle game with an interesting narrative and discussion. I think they've done it even better than The Sexy Brutale in fact. The epilogue is a great catharsis, and overall I'd say this is a nice snug little game if you're just looking for an interesting take on walking simulators with puzzles.

P.T. started the trend of subtle horror games. No scary music, looping hallways and rooms, or needing to notice any changes to move on. Exit 8 is exactly this. A single white hallway in a subway tunnel has a couple of turns, and it loops endlessly unless you notice changes. There is no story, no background, and no character development. Just this single white hallway, and you need to get to exit 8.

Your only sign of progress is the yellow exit sign, which increases in number as you make your fourth turn. If that sign goes back to zero, you missed an anomaly. When you see it, you are supposed to turn around and go back the other way. Anomalies can be really obvious, like lights being turned off, open doors, or a single man walking towards you doing something different. Other subtle ones can be the floor tiles, a security camera light, or a poster changing. You might get really frustrated at first, but keep going. Memorization is the key to getting the job done. Once you know exactly where everything is supposed to be—how many doors, posters, etc.—you will finish in under an hour.

The horror elements are subtle and not forced. A moving object, no music, and just the hum of the lights and footstops. Maybe a creaking door might make you jump. You can stop, take your time, and check the main hallway for changes. Running full force all the way through will make you miss things. You have to turn around to see a few anomalies anyway. If there aren't any changes, you keep moving on, and sometimes this can really make you feel like quitting. You will think time after time that the hallway is fine, but then you will notice something new and just keep moving on. Don't let that sign resetting to zero keep discouraging you.

The graphics use Unreal Engine 5 and are nothing special, but the atmosphere of the sterile white hallway makes it creepy. A lack of music and most sound effects makes you feel on edge all the time. The single-footed man makes you very uneasy every time you pass him. All you want to do is get to exit 8, and the intensity might make you miss things as you become more and more anxious to get out. This single-looping hallway might drive some people nuts.

Overall, The Exit 8 is a fun game that lasts a couple of hours at the most. There are only two achievements, and once you see all the anomalies, there is nothing left to do except maybe do self-timed speed runs. Some may find this a simple tech demo, but I think more horror games need to go this route. It's only a few dollars, and possibly getting some friends around to help spot things can make this a fun party game as well.

If I were to take FEZ at face value, then my thoughts would be pretty brief: it’s a damn good puzzle-platformer game with a hella strong core, taking a 2D interconnected world and twisting it and turning it to achieve greater heights. It’s never particularly difficult or challenging, but it’s fun; reaching new areas is intriguing, and getting the cubes is ultra satisfying, and in a way, I’m kinda glad it never tries to have really hard sections or some sort of final challenge, because even tho I’m sure that’d be cool, and I would really love to see this dimension-shifting mechanic taken up a notch, I also think the way that it is makes the world feel much more organic than it otherwise would, and sells the idea that this is an experience more about the act of exploring than traversing perilous sections.

However, taking FEZ at face value is impossible, or at least it is for me. FEZ is the jumps and beautiful sounds and sights of its adorable ruined worlds as much as it is the secrets that lie within.

I have talked about my fascination with the ancient world and the mysticism and desire to learn that comes with simply witnessing it, whether it is the remnants of a bygone civilization or the remains of an animal that walked the earth hundreds of millions of nights ago. FEZ has a ton of the former and not much of the latter, but what it shares with both of those is that feeling.

The feeling of stumbling upon something you shouldn’t even be able to understand, of seeing the carvings in the wall and the very code that holds reality together and finding answers behind it—it’s satisfying to beat a platforming challenge and get to a chest with a key in it, but it’s equally, if not even more fulfilling, to fit pieces of the puzzle hidden yet in plain sight.

Spirals of purple marble endlessly repeating, secrets to be revealed by feathered friends or written outside of the game itself, tongues that can be completely translated, and moments like what happened to me where I solved a puzzle by complete chance by just fucking around moving some blocks; connecting the deepest secrets of the world through the addition of the Anti-Cubes alone was an amazing decision. Even after pulling apart layers on top of layers to get some of them, I still feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s in here, what can be found, like an excavation that just has begun.

Every step is a new discovery, and making it to each of the main hub worlds opens a new horizon, from the oldest depths to the stormiest peaks, and it’s all so… tranquil. The wonderful, beautiful pixel art mixed with the outstanding OST, it compels you to keep going, to see juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a lil’ more, to keep going a bit further, only to be met with a teleporter, going back to the hub, and repeating that process over and over again. It says a lot when, in the year 2024, a game that uses QR codes or 4th wall breaks to solve puzzles doesn’t make me groan; on the contrary, in fact, it manages to fit into that secret uncovering process tremendously well.

There are pieces that don’t quite fit: the fact that quite a few of those more hidden puzzles end up being a combination of LT and LR inputs is a bit disappointing and misses the mark on what other Anit-Cube quests accomplish so well, and there’s some even weirder stuff like annoying void squares that appear randomly and aren’t anything more than a dumb annoyance or how entering doors may just crash to desktop randomly, which isn’t part of the experience, mind you, and it takes you completely out of it sometimes. It only happened once to me, but this being a problem present years later is a bit disappointing, to be honest.

It's a cube quest that a few times can be a little disappointing or frustrating, but that’s something I can easily look past when the rest of it is so stellar that the act of opening doors is the most exciting fucking thing ever. It invites to wonder and imagine, and there’s so much to be solved and found that, after hitting credits, I feel like the exploration can go even further…  Oh, and also, Gomez’s design and name is the best fucking thing ever and there’s no contest, the most basic-ass lil white dude and I love it, look at his smile!

Adventure is out there, and it carries mysteries with it, it’s about time someone solves them.