The Forgotten City

 Switch
User Score
8.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17

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  1. nusco
    Jan 30, 2022
    7
    The Forgotten City is a piece of 3D interactive fiction with optional action sequences. Unfortunately, it's only available on the Switch as a cloud game, even though it costs more (and looks worse) than many quality native games.

    Aside from the unjustified distribution choice, the game itself is quite good. It has been painstakingly crafted by a tiny team, and their love shines through    The Forgotten City is a piece of 3D interactive fiction with optional action sequences. Unfortunately, it's only available on the Switch as a cloud game, even though it costs more (and looks worse) than many quality native games.

    Aside from the unjustified distribution choice, the game itself is quite good. It has been painstakingly crafted by a tiny team, and their love shines through every detail. The story is intriguing: you end up in a mysterious underground ancient Roman city that is stuck in a time loop. By investigating the city's inhabitants, their secrets and their plans, you must find a way to escape the timeloop and return to your world.

    PROS:

    A COMPELLING CENTRAL MYSTERY: The premise of the game is a great hook: if anybody in the city commits a sin, then everybody dies. Why does that happen, and why do some specific actions count as sinful, while others don't? These questions stay mostly unanswered until the final moments in the game.

    KEEPS TWISTING UP TO THE END: The game has multiple endings, but it's worth reaching the "best" one for the twists it provides along the road. The final sequences might be somewhat naive, but they’re also an unexpected cap-off to the adventure.

    NOT YOUR AVERAGE GAME: Indie games often go places that triple-A games don't dare approach, and you don't get much more indie than The Forgotten City. From the ebbs and flows of human history, to the darker sides of religiosity, to well-developed disputes about the meaning of laws and morality, this game isn't afraid to introduce elements that you don't typically associate with gaming.

    CONS:

    IT'S IN THE CLOUD: The fact that this is a cloud game might be a showstopper for many players. I know that it almost was for me. Even on a 50 Mbps connection, the game was utterly unplayable on a TV, and still occasionally painfully choppy in handheld. The cloud might be a necessary evil for games such as Hitman 3, but the graphics in Forgotten City doesn't justify it in the slightest. This should not have been a cloud game.

    IT HAS MOST OF THE ISSUES OF CONVERSATION-BASED GAMES…: The problem with games based on conversation choices is that they tend to devolve into a systematic exploration of the conversation tree. The Forgotten City also has this problem, although it goes to great lenghts to alleviate it.

    …AND ALSO THOSE OF "DETECTIVE" GAMES: Many investigative games struggle to find a balance between holding your hand and letting you come to their own conclusions. Like other such games, the Forgotten City is often too on-the-nose with its hints. Sometimes I grasped bits of the backstory simply because my character got there before I did, and his deduction appeared in a conversation tree. Those moments made me feel like a passive spectator of the investigation rather than its protagonist.    … Expand
  2. Tortor
    Mar 30, 2022
    10
    I didn't sleep because of this game. I started playing in the early evening on Friday wanting to try a shorter game and thinking this would be something fun to dabble into for the weekend.

    Nope. Once I picked this up, I absolutely did not sleep until I finished the whole thing and saw everything there was to see. I did it all and got to all the endings you could and took my time with    I didn't sleep because of this game. I started playing in the early evening on Friday wanting to try a shorter game and thinking this would be something fun to dabble into for the weekend.

    Nope.

    Once I picked this up, I absolutely did not sleep until I finished the whole thing and saw everything there was to see.

    I did it all and got to all the endings you could and took my time with the dialog.

    Everything was just so well written and I got so invested in all these characters and where the plot was going. 8am the next morning with blood shot eyes I was absolutely so content.

    The character building in this was just so supremely done and what an amazing way to do world building.

    The pacing also never slows down also mostly because of the game mechanics kinda forces you to be a little anxious.

    This really was magical.

    The cloud version on switch worked amazing for me too. I have really good internet so I didn't notice anything unusual or slow downs.

    I found no downside to this game, it was perfect and had such an amazing presentation to tell this kind of story.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
90

Universal acclaim - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 6
  3. Negative: 0 out of 6
  1. GamingTrend
    Oct 11, 2021
    90
    The Forgotten City is an incredible game with meticulously crafted puzzles and an engrossing time loop story. While it has some quirks, this cloud version is a fantastic way to play the game thanks to the Switch’s portability.
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  2. TouchArcade
    Oct 6, 2021
    90
    The game has a lot of points to make about morality, and it never feels like it’s preaching. Rather, it comes off like a thoughtful examination of assumptions and the limits of social mores. The city may be forgotten, but this tale isn’t so easily put out of mind.
    Read full review
  3. Nintendo Life
    Oct 2, 2021
    90
    The Forgotten City is a brilliant piece of narrative work that feels like a time capsule of Skyrim's jank, revitalised with a gripping story that's just long enough that it never loses momentum. It is, as always, hard to fully recommend a Cloud Version of a game that's available elsewhere in a more concrete form, but if you're accepting of the associated 'risks', this is a well-presented and brilliant time loop game and well worth a play.
    Read full review
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