The Forgotten City is a mystery adventure role-playing game that explores the existential existence of man and the law. It was first released as a mod entitled The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mod in 2015 before its official release in 2021.

Developed by Modern Storyteller and published by Dear Villagers and Film Victoria, this game is built around beautiful sceneries of ancient Rome and Egyptian architecture. Built on the Creation and Unreal Engine 4, The Forgotten City is a single-player game compatible with Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and Stadia.

Interactive And Dynamic Gameplay

The game is based on an ensemble of characters, and they all have different roles to play. The game starts as the protagonist wakes up after being rescued from floating down the Tiber River in Italy. His savior asks him to look for her friend, who had disappeared while exploring some ancient ruins. As you go ahead to the ruins, circumstances lead you to the era of the Roman Empire, where you have to explore the city. In doing this, you meet an old man who warns that the city is under the protection of the gods, and if anyone sins, their punishment will be inflicted on the whole city. There is no clear instruction on the sin, but the gods’ punishment is clear.

For every sin committed, the city’s guardian statues will spring to life and turn the surviving residents of the city into solid gold. You can hear the voices of the previous inhabitants whispering around you as you play through. You go through the city, reading puzzles and solving mysteries.

Combat is an option in this ancient cursed world of The Forgotten City, but there is a limit to where you can get with it. You will go far by questioning the community of characters in the city and making difficult moral choices, and since no one knows what the main sin or sins are, your decisions matter and could spell doom for the whole city.

Every time you break the Golden Rule and the city inhabitants turn into solid gold you can run back to the starting point and return things to normal. The good thing is that you still keep all the inventory you have won. With this new knowledge, you can run over new conversations with characters and use reasoning, charm, bribery, or intimidation to advance in the game.

The Forgotten City is not the longest adventure game out there. You can go through most of the exciting sections in 10 hours, but the game is designed to pull you in, making you want to explore the many threads and see where they lead. You can also rush through the game, but you would be missing many interesting bits.

Character Development Is Second To None

I have played multiple games with thorough character development before, but very few come close to The Forgotten City. The characters are so self-aware and interactive that they could knock you off balance. You will quickly discover that every character has motives, problems, and opinions and has devised a way to work around the Golden Rule. You quickly become entwined in their lives of rich details and ancient senses.

Another great touch is that when you retrace your steps, you can send an NPC named Galerius to run off and do all the previously completed quests for you instead of performing each task again. This brings you up to a day every time you need to restart. That is one of the perks of having a well-meaning but impressionable man on your side.

The character development goes beyond the NPCs, as you can role-play anyone. You can choose your sex, race, and backstory and explore The Forgotten City with that lens. As stated earlier, The Forgotten City is not built around combat. It is sprinkled appropriately with some exploration and platforming to improve the game’s pace.

Grand Beautiful Graphics With Attention To Details

The Forgotten City is built on a superb re-enactment of the ancient city of Rome. More precisely, it is a mixture of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Sumerian architecture, finished with authentic art, costumes, and customs. This design shows the grandeur of the ancient city, and it is indeed beautiful to walk through. The buildings are historically accurate, featuring villas and public forums, and the city features aqueducts that provide easy access across it.

Behind this grand scale of the city, some of the best parts can be found in the smaller items littered around the buildings as decorative pieces. You can pick them up and examine them closely. They are labeled with interesting or educational tips that make the world feel interesting. The attention to detail makes The Forgotten City feel like a virtual excursion through a renowned civilization.

The only downside to the graphics is the conversation with city inhabitants. These characters’ facial expressions and mouth movements fall short of expectations, leaving them with stiff performances. It is quite sad for a game with exquisite and well-voiced characters. This flaw could be fixed in future updates, but a game built around stimulating conversations with city inhabitants needs a lot of improvement.

Impressive Orchestral Score And Voice Acting

The soundtrack of The Forgotten City is predominantly an orchestral score. It fits perfectly into the ancient world and marries properly with the story being told. The voice acting is professional and very impressive.

Playing The Forgotten City, you will find multiple endings to this gripping story. The developers spent a lot of time and effort to avoid a linear storyline and make it a truly stimulating mystery. It is great to see developers combine the best parts of the mod with a rewritten script over twice the mod’s length. Infuse that with exciting twists, endings, and surprises; you get a game worth playing repeatedly.