The Forgotten City is the re-imagining of a critically acclaimed Skyrim mod that puts a time-loop at the heart of its gameplay. For those of you who never played the original—do not fret as this intriguing game brings together what made the mod so captivating in the first place and adds in enough originality to truly make it shine.
You begin your journey after waking up in a mysterious temple and discovering a mysterious underground city and learn that the actions of one of its citizens cursed them and turned them all into golden statues. If a citizen breaks what they refer to as the “golden rule”, everyone dies and your game is over. Your goal is to find who originally broke the golden rule and stop him or her to save the city from its repetitive fate.
In our demo, we learned that a doctor we just met recently lost one of her patients because she didn’t have the medicine she needed to save her life. A merchant was selling this medicine, but because we couldn’t afford it, we stole it instead. As soon as we pocketed it, several statues that decorated the city came to life and started attacking everyone. This was our cue to return to the temple we came from and enter a strange portal that reset everything we just did. When the game started up again, we realized we still had the medicine we just stole and were able to save the doctor’s patient and begin an investigation as to who poisoned her in the first place.
Though the game is still in its early stages, this form of gameplay forced us to make some quick-thinking choices but also gave us the freedom to explore more of the world and really think about our actions. Sometimes you’ll want to “reset” the game after you learn something new or gather a new item, and other times you will want to tread lightly so as to avoid doing everything again.
Speaking with the developer, we learned that the game will contain multiple endings based on your choices and how many of the 26 doomed citizens you manage to save. Your progress will also be tracked so you can keep track of which branching quests you completed saving you time next time you play through it. What we also found intriguing were the characters themselves as their society is divided into two groups of people similar to the Roman patricians and plebeians. The citizens that inhabit this underground city are lost explorers from a few years ago, but they somehow revert back to a society where these ancient rules and customs are the law.
We really look forward to learning how classes clash and what sort of affect your character, who essentially is an outsider, will have on everyone he or she interacts with. Look for the Forgotten City on Xbox One and PC later this year.
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