Even if you’re not familiar with the modding community, you may have heard of The Forgotten City, the award winning Skyrim mod. Known for it’s outstanding dialogue, The Forgotten City wowed players with it’s deep and interesting plot, almost unheard of for a mod. Now, developer Modern Storyteller and publisher Dear Villagers have expanded and transformed The Forgotten City into a full stand-alone game, doubling the dialogue and creating a feeling that sets the game apart from it’s Skyrim roots. pulling the player deep into a realm of Roman intrigue and mysticism.
The Forgotten City is played in first person, but this isn’t a game focused on fighting. Instead, it’s a complex array of conflicting viewpoints that you as the player have to weave together to figure out who’s telling the truth, who’s not, and what exactly is going on in this ancient Roman city come to life. On top of that, you’re not exactly from Rome either. In fact, you’ve travelled in time to get here and perhaps solve the mystery of this city lost to time and filled with statues! The dialogue, narrative, and choices are the key here, and much like Skyrim, you’re left entirely to your own devices to decide how to proceed. Just don’t break the Golden Rule.
The city is massive and populated by almost thirty people, all working together, backstabbing each other, and generally being astonishingly human. The Forgotten City is at its best when dealing with the back and forth dialogue options that leave you pushed into a corner by your choices. The writing is simply superb and the characters all seem to have depth and personality. Notable historical research has gone into the design work and cultural responses from various characters and citizens such as Septimus, Garius, and the Priestess Equitia all seem to suit the time period. Granted, if you’ve got a doctorate in history, there might be some argument there, but aside from that, this is a superb fictional recreation of the stratification of Roman society.
There are a few weapons hiding about, but they definitely won’t be the focus of gameplay. There are also hovels, stables, cisterns, stables, gigantic temples and a lot more. Much of it is eye candy, but The Forgotten City manages to make you forget that there are only a few characters quite easily. Each conversation yields more clues, information, and options, and you’re quickly faced with making a variety of rather permanent decisions regarding the future of the city’s denizens. Do you break the rules to help someone in need and risk potentially breaking the Golden Rule? What happens if you do? What are your real options? The Forgotten City does a magnificent job of forcing you to make a tough decision to proceed and then deal with the consequences, some minor, some devastating. Morality makes the tension created by the plot so much sweeter and it’s easy to find yourself swayed by the plight of various city citizens.
In addition to the narrative, challenges to morality and decency, and the exploration available, characters are unique and interesting with animated, expressive faces. The grounds around the city and the various effects are fantastic and it’s easy to get lost just staring around the city here and there. The sound effects are excellent and the ample voice work is quite well-done too, as The Forgotten City is fully voiced and there’s a bountiful amount of dialogue! From the gorgeous vistas to the wrinkled brows of your fellow citizens trying to convince you they’re in the right, it’s obvious a lot of care went into the design of The Forgotten City.
This isn’t a game that simply guides you by the hand either. Instead, your options and enjoyment depend on both exploration and paying close attention to what various city dwellers have to say. Fail to listen to their words, heed their warnings, or make poor choices, and you might be trapped in the Forgotten City forever! Oh, and did we mention the time travel? Overall, this is a very polished narrative gaming experience and the script feels like it could have come out of a AAA studio. The writing is the shining beacon of The Forgotten City and combined with the gorgeous visuals, this is a game that should be on everyone’s Steam wishlist. The Forgotten City is currently scheduled for a July 28th release, so don’t miss it!
This preview is based on a digital copy of The Forgotten City provided by the publisher. It was played on an I7-8700K with 16 GB of DDR4-3000 RAM, an Asus GeForce GTX 1080 ROG Strix graphics card using Steam. The Forgotten City is also coming for PS4 / PS5, Xbox One / Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch.
