The Forgotten City is a Game Worth Remembering – Gamepass Journal

• Game: The Forgotten City
• Developer: Modern Storyteller
• Available On: Xbox Series X/S, X-cloud
• Cloud Saves: Yes
• Played On: Series X, via streaming via Chrome browser and Samsung Galaxy S8
• Completed: Yes
• Must Play, Try it, Pass?: Must Play

I never know how much to give away in reviewing or talking about a game. Obviously, an article like this aims to talk about the game with other people who have already experienced it, but maybe a larger role in getting some people to play it who have not. That is because this game is good and it should be played and discussed. So what I’ll do is tell you as much as I did going into it before moving on to a more spoiler-filled discussion of the game.

The Forgotten City is a time-loop game set in an ancient Roman City. That City is based around one rule: if any person commits a “sin,” then everyone in the town dies. The game is mostly about talking and puzzles based around the so-called Golden Rule. The game’s actual plot was a great mystery that evolved over the six or so hours I spent in the City. The mystery of who will commit the sin and when is enticing and kept me watching everyone with suspicion. The story is filled with surprises from there, and I highly recommend you try it out for yourself. I think you should play it.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

Forgettable Gameplay Mixed with Smart Design Decisions

The Forgotten City is 96% about talking to people about their lives, beliefs, and problems. This part is excellent. The rest of the game comprises light puzzle-solving, platforming, and combat. The developer definitely knew their strength was writing dialogue and an intriguing mystery, and the game relies heavily on speaking to NPCs.

A big part of the DNA of this game that I have not mentioned is this Game was originally a Skyrim mod. The version available on Game Pass and for purchase on most systems today is a new version built from the ground up, but you can still feel some of the bones of Skyrim in a lot of the gameplay. Some of these mechanics taken from Skyrim are obvious, like the sneaking. The sneaking in this game is almost identical to Oblivion/Skyrim down to the eye icon showing up when crouched. The sneaking doesn’t feel great, but to be honest, I am not sure when it was ever necessary to use.
A far worse transfer from Skyrim is the combat. This game has what feels like Skyrim combat, just slower and even more boring. Luckily there isn’t very much of it in this game, but I am unsure why the developers included it at all. When combat does appear, it is not engaging as it consists primarily of shooting at a few enemies in cramp hallways. It isn’t really challenging, but it is also so clunky that it doesn’t make you feel powerful either.

However, this game is smart about avoiding the smaller frustrations building up. Most of the combat sections do not need to be repeated ever. The walking/running can be slow. To fix this there are zip lines around the City to help make getting around easier. This helps keep repeated time-loops from getting tiresome. Who cares if it doesn’t make sense that there are zip lines in a Roman city, it makes the game better. Another brilliant choice is a character that can tell what to do based on what you learned from previous time loops. This makes it so while that NPC is completing what you already have done, you can go off and explore another mystery. As a result of these smart choices, the game never felt like a drag.

Memorable Musings

The game’s setting is a small but beautiful Roman town. This compact setting could be tedious in a longer game, but the familiarity mixed with mastering the NPC’s routines makes it an enjoyable place. It is beautiful, and walking around the City looking at all the architecture was great for a history nerd like myself. The attention to detail is impressive considering the small team who made the game, and if you choose to play with a particular background, you can even get some extra historical details.

While these days historical accuracy is touted by any game with a historical setting, this game really paid attention to the details, and the Roman setting feels whole. Roman citizens will defend their traditions and beliefs as someone from that time would, not as someone who thinks and acts like a 21st-century person in a toga. The historical touches make the City feel like it is in a real-time place despite being completely fictional. For example, there is a group of Christian “cultists” in the City. Anyone you ask directly will vehemently deny being Christian because of recent events in Rome, those being the fire Nero blamed on Christians. However, keeping your eyes open allows you to find hidden clues to identify who is lying and dive deeper into the citizens.

The classical setting meshes well with the game’s focus on philosophy. The game is focused around “the Golden Rule,” a moral law that states no person in the down may commit a sin, or everyone will die. This naturally opens up conversation with the NPCs on the nature of sin, whether humans are destined to make mistakes, and whether it is possible to be objectively good. While it is a game with limited choices in each conversation, the writing is almost universally excellent, and most conversations are compelling enough not to skip through.

The excellent writing is backed up by solid voice work. The performances are nuanced enough to properly gage when a character is lying or has something to hide. Given that there are only 23 NPCs in the entire game having good writing and voiceworks makes them endearing rather than boring.

The game has four endings (something it tells you once you get any of them), and part of the fun is figuring out how to trigger each one. For example, when I figured out how to create a time paradox by killing the person responsible for the time loop, I felt smart, and the rest of the game’s endings created a similar feeling. None of the game’s puzzles are that difficult, but it is good at having accounted for many of the actions the player can take and how that would affect the time loop and Golden Rule. Likewise, the final ending allowed me to exhaust all the questions and rhetorical weaponry I had on the God of the Forgotten City. The game is truly memorable and knows perfectly when to let the player solve its final mystery.

The Forgotten City was the Best Experience I have had Streaming via Xcloud

I played the Forgotten City primarily on my Series X. It ran great on there and I though the lighting looked excellent. The game was not a graphical marvel, but looked good and ran very smoothly.

Similarly, the experience streaming the game to my phone was equally smooth. Normally when I play a 3-D game via Xcloud there is some lag or texture pop in or some other technical issues. That did not happen when I played the Forgotten City. Given I am using the same internet I assume either Xcloud is getting better or the Forgotten City runs better on streaming. I can’t really tell you which it is yet. I plan on trying more games on my phone so hopefully I can tell if the entire service is getting more stable or if it was just the game.

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Gamepass Journal is a chronicle of some of the games I play via Xbox’s Gamepass. This is not meant to be a full review of the game I am covering; I may not even complete some of the games I write about in the future. Instead, this is meant to be my impressions, general feelings, and whatever else i want to talk about after I play a game on Gamepass. I hope this will enable me to play and write about more games than ever and ultimately enjoy my time with games more.