BEWARE OF POTENTIAL SPOILERS IN COMMENTS!
I played The Forgotten City for free via PS+ Extra and it’s one of my all-time favorite gaming experiences! I urge anybody who hasn’t played it yet but is remotely interested to not look up a goddamn thing about this game beyond this blurb of mine (because spoilers are easy to stumble upon) and play it ASAP!
What is it? It started as a Skyrim mod developed by a lawyer who wanted to make something that’s less of a game per se and more of an interactive story that delves into philosophical quandaries like the nature of morality. It’s a first person game where you go to an island and wind up in an ancient city of sorts. There’s a kind of groundhog day element to it and you have to figure out how to stop that from happening. It’s a bit of a mystery, but nearly all of the gameplay is running around and talking to various characters, all of whom have unique personalities. It’s like a really robust Fallout New Vegas mission, but without all the combat. You’ll probably get through it in 20-40 hours.
Okay, now that that’s outta the way, who wants to rant or gush about this little game?
I loved this game. I watched my wife play it since we like to solve puzzles together. I really loved the deep dive into history. Visually it was glorious. Also the story was so rewarding. It reminded me a lot of The Outer Wilds (only less complicated).
YES! The Outer Wilds does a similar “solve the mystery of the groundhog day scenario” thing. I haven’t beaten that yet, so I’m sure it’s praised for good reason. Majora’s Mask, Returnal, and Deathloop also do groundhog day mechanics, but none of them seem as profound to me. Like, I genuinely had to stop and think for a moment when somebody asked me whether I believed morality was objective or not.
Outer Wilds and The Forgotten City are the only games I know that pull off the time loop mechanic without being annoying and telling a excellent story at the same time.
I really wish there were more like these.
I played both and while trying to pull off similar things they are magnitudes apart in terms of literally any metric.
I guess tfc brings home the ancient history factoids consolation price.
Off course, they are vastly different games with just one common mechanic.
Yup loved it.
Wish there were more games like it, that focused on interacting with other characters.
I know that a lot of aspects of it have been done before, but I thought that the combination of those aspects here in one game made for an entirely unique experience! As for the character interactions and personalities, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such depth in a video game. Lots of games try to be almost exclusively about that single aspect, and I’m not sure they do it any better than this, including AAA titles! This game just had stellar writing imo.
How do we talk about something you just encouraged everyone not to read about or discuss because it would spoil it?
No, I said people who haven’t played shouldn’t read further because of potential spoilers. I was curious if anybody who had already played it had stuff they wanted to reflect upon.
I started playing it on Game Pass but got stuck and then it got taken off of Game Pass. I like detective games though so I’ll try to finish it at some point.
Ooh, please do! If you are on PC, it looks like you can find it for $10 right now
I was playing it in xbox. I think I may already have it on Steam from some sale or something but I just prefer to sit on the sofa as I work behind the screen all day already.
Understandable. With a Steam Link or a long HDMI, that might still be doable? Idk, it really depends on how your home is laid out. I have a gaming laptop (but it’s like 8 years old now lol) and can run HDMI to my TV if I want couch gaming on a PC. I’m kinda considering a Steam Deck but idk.
Love this game. For me it scratched the same itch as outer wilds and return of the obra dinn which are my all time favorites games.
Oh man, I really need to try Return of the Obra Dinn. It’s on my wish list for my wife and I to play through together. We’re just waiting for a good sale or for it to hit the PS+ free game list.
I had high expectation going in but I quickly found it flawed.
It’s enjoyable but the settings feels like a gimmick more than something brought to the very end. The people talk and feel like modern people in costume and there’s plenty of dialogues that betray a lack of attention toward credibility.
Spoiler
I respected the immersion in a world that for once was actively engaging with magic / religion and I was so so disappointed where once again I found they went for a rather bland and slightly offensive alien solution.
At least I had a great laugh at the museum where the most impossible of character path were laid bare in front of me.
Also you can’t save the assassin wtf?
7/10, wouldn’t drop my job for it again.
Yeah, it’s definitely lacking polish compared to AAA releases, but it blows my mind that one guy who knew nothing about making a game did nearly everything, but ultimately brought in two other dudes to help get it all together. I actually really loved the alien idea, though. It’s interesting to think that the gods we have been worshipping for millennia not only truly exist, but are not of this world. And it’s awesome that that explains consistent religious teachings across cultures and times! I also really enjoyed the early question of whether the golden rule is real or just a fabricated threat to keep the people under control and Sentius in power, which is a legitimate question for religion and politics in our own world.
Yes! The Forgotten City is a great game, I really enjoyed my play through.
I enjoyed it a lot. It’s no Outer Wilds, but there’s a lack of good games like this. I think the standout thing it does well is the NPCs and dialogue. Most games that have any kind of time mechanics keep NPCs very simple and don’t let you have this level of choice in your conversations with. I will say, a lot of the initial options for starting a conversation were very similar, but you can talk to people in whatever order and discover stuff on your own which felt cool. I also didn’t love the true ending, one of the earlier ones was actually more satisfying to me. Very interested to see what these devs make next though.