The Forgotten City

 PC
User Score
8.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 170 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 130 out of 170
  2. Mixed: 30 out of 170
  3. Negative: 10 out of 170

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  1. Young_Nacho
    Aug 27, 2021
    4
    If your bar for quality has dropped so low to the point where this is some of the best writing in gaming, please seek help or play more narrative video games.

    For a game made for "Adults who like figuring things out for themselves" the mission path is extremely straight forward, and there isn't much thought required to get through the game. Just go with the blatantly obvious solutions    If your bar for quality has dropped so low to the point where this is some of the best writing in gaming, please seek help or play more narrative video games.

    For a game made for "Adults who like figuring things out for themselves" the mission path is extremely straight forward, and there isn't much thought required to get through the game. Just go with the blatantly obvious solutions or just cheese your way through it because the game breaks at the slightest hiccup. And aside from a single moment, nothing really feels clever. For a game with a timeloop mechanic, they do **** all to give you interesting puzzles or narrative beats to get around by using the timeloop. Most solutions basically play out with you choosing dialogue until you say the wrong thing. Then on the next loop you go back and say something different. And it's not like you really have much input either as the options are pretty rigid and several times the game would not let me say the one thing I very easily could have said to sway the conversation in my favor. It's so surface level and rigid that I can't fathom why anyone would think the dialogue or choices are interesting. I mean I literally got the "True" ending on my first run through and I didn't even feel like I did anything special to deserve it.

    Speaking of the ending, the big reveals in the last act are unbearably corny and play out like something you'd probably see in a random Gmod level. And despite coming out, what, almost a decade after the mod? It still looks a plays like a skyrim mod, though I'd argue the original mod's visuals almost fit better and Skyrim's facial animations are about on par with this 2021 release. I seriously can't believe this game was made in Unreal 4. It looks like it was made Unity, by people who don't understand lighting and post processing.

    I just don't understand what anyone sees in this game. The illusion of choice is paper thin, the ending is eye-roll worthy, and it's just kinda corny as a whole. The 4th wall breaking jokes are facebook level humor and having a "Karen" joke literally 2 minutes into the game does not set a great tone.    … Expand
  2. sex69
    Oct 8, 2021
    0
    There are too few supported languages. So it's not fun. It's annoying. Please support a lot of languages.
  3. felipemandarino
    Nov 14, 2021
    3
    NPCs are creepy and battle encounters feels like some unity rip-off game.
    Graphics are on the high side but I was expecting some kind of better GI or RT effects.
  4. TwoEars
    Jul 2, 2023
    1
    Jesus Christ what a buggy mess. Just play the Skyrim mod instead, it's free.
  5. Samvell
    Aug 21, 2023
    4
    Massively overrated. For a game that relies so heavily on dialogue, the dialogues themselves aren't all that good. Voice actors do their best to elevate this material, but there's only so much they can do. This game wasn't written by a professional script writer, and it clearly shows.
    This whole timeloop mechanic is very tedious. I have no idea how both this game and Outer Wilds are some    Massively overrated. For a game that relies so heavily on dialogue, the dialogues themselves aren't all that good. Voice actors do their best to elevate this material, but there's only so much they can do. This game wasn't written by a professional script writer, and it clearly shows.
    This whole timeloop mechanic is very tedious. I have no idea how both this game and Outer Wilds are some of the most well-received adventure games of the last five years, despite the timeloop implementation being equally as awful in both of them.
    The journal is a joke. It lets you put a tracker on a quest you wanna follow, except half the time this tracker doesn't work and you have to navigate on your own. I hate this kind of approach. You either let a player track every quest or none of them. The way it's done here, it just creates confusion.
    The graphics are nothing to write home about. A tad more fidelity than you'd expect from your typical indie game, but still nowhere near enough to compete with big budget contemporaries. I couldn't help but think that instead of these "pretty" graphics and fancy voice acting they could've invested more funds and effort into the actual gameplay, quests, etc. Take, for example, Age Of Decadence, which, yes, looked way behind times, but it had a much better writing, actually interesting characters, more and better quests, even more locations variety. Better score too. The soundtrack in The Forgotten City is basically just stock "ancient music" and lacks severely in originality and memorability. Once again, if we're talking smaller budget, indie titles, take something like Enderal, which had a massive 5-hour long OST with tons of memorable tunes.
    Overall, this game is an admirable attempt, but still a letdown in so many ways. The developers clearly bit off more than they could chew. Perhaps they should've started with something more lowkey, prove themselves and gain more experience, before undertaking something so ambitious.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

21
#21 Best PC Game of 2021
45
#45 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 30, 2024
    100
    The creators from Modern Storyteller, have done what others can't - they have managed to turn a successful modification into a standalone game that is receiving acclaim on all sides. Excellent production values (especially for an indie game) meet with well-crafted and original game design to create a truly unique experience. [Issue#317]
  2. Games.cz
    Nov 30, 2021
    80
    A brilliant game that’s all about conversations. You get stuck in a time loop which sounds potentially frustrating but actually isn’t because you don’t have to repeat yourself in any way. It’s just a shame that the game’s a bit ugly and the puzzles a bit trivial.
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  3. Riot Pixels
    Oct 17, 2021
    78
    Modern Storyteller did right by rewriting its popular mod for a new world. Aside from some rookie mistakes and an apparent lack of budget, the story is exciting and memorable, and I really did not want to leave this cursed city. I definitely wouldn’t mind a few additional quests.
    Read full review
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