Most games technically belong to the time loop genre. You can reload your save and try again, kill and die without consequence, or press reset on the world and start over armed with the knowledge of events that have not yet happened. Every day is Groundhog Day.

The Forgotten City is literally a time-loop game that makes excellent use of that magical reset button. You begin your adventure in the present day and come across ancient Roman ruins filled with golden human statues. You arrive in the same Roman city, but now untouched, and the statues are all living humans. What happened to them? Why were they turned into gold? Is the city really a paradise outside of time, or is it a prison? And why are the streets of ancient Rome filled with ziplines?

The answers to these questions (except for the ziplines, which are merely a convenience for getting around quickly) require lots of conversations with the citizens. The citizens are almost certainly well-developed characters, many of whom have troubling secrets and interesting stories. And the time loop is your best weapon, ultimately transforming you from a confused newcomer to an almost omniscient detective in a city full of suspects. It's a satisfying way to investigate, rewinding time every day, meeting the same people and witnessing the same events with only new eyes and new information.

Like any utopia, there is a dark underside to why the city feels so comfortable and peaceful. If someone in the city (including you) commits a crime like theft or murder, the earth rumbles and people begin to turn into golden statues. You must return to the portal. Returning to the portal resets your day and gives you the chance to act differently and try a whole new method of investigation.

The Forgotten City began as a mod for Skyrim before being recreated in the Unreal Engine. However, Skyrim's roots remain strong in the look and animation of the characters, as well as a similar dialogue system; what sets it apart from Skyrim is its well-crafted dialogue and excellent direction. Despite the fantastical setting of an ancient city trapped in time, the dialogue feels natural and authentic.

In "Skyrim" (and, to be honest, in most games), I tend to get impatient and skip over conversations, but here I'm happy to listen to what everyone is saying. The act of not clicking the mouse button to skip to the next line may not sound like the greatest compliment, but in a way it is.

The little mysteries and side quests are especially fun to solve. The woman was poisoned, but how is that possible when murder is a crime that should bring about the end of the city?" Believe me, I know: the first thing I did when I picked up my bow was to put an arrow directly into someone's head.

So how could someone manage a murder without a statue geddon happening' It took several time loops to save her from death, and another one or two to figure out how to save her without having to do it myself, day after day. The Forgotten City is about repeating things over and over again, but a lot has been done to ensure that doing so does not become a frustrating chore.

It is also fun to discover little connections between the people of the city without having to personally witness their interactions. Another side quest involved tracking down someone who was harassing a local shopkeeper with nasty notes and graffiti (apparently, treating people like crap is not a world-ending sin). I got a lead on one person, which led me to another lead, which led me to yet another lead: ...... Oops, the third clue got buried in a pile of rubble. I reset the day, made sure the people I needed to talk to weren't crushed by the rocks, and finally tracked down the person who harassed me. He freely admits that he left the note simply because I helped him in a previous side quest. Trying to help someone with a problem often leads to breakthroughs.

He has in his possession not only the memories of that day, but also the physical items he collected during the restart. If you find the key to a locked door, you never have to go back for it again. If you collect gold, it will be left in your pocket when you return from the portal. Like ziplines, these are shortcuts to repeating the same day over and over again, so that you can get right back to what you were doing when the ground starts shaking.

Discovering loopholes in the sin system yourself is equally fun. You may not be able to kill someone without wreaking havoc, but the ways in which you can trick people into dying gradually become apparent after a little time on the streets.

And while stealing is unacceptable, if someone has sinned and caused the apocalypse, is it really a problem to loot a few chests full of gold bars on your way back to the portal in a hurry? It's a free sin. If he uses the stolen money to buy overpriced items from the same guy he stole from, there is certainly no harm done. And he didn't notice a thing, thanks to the convenient time loop.

The Forgotten City is not all about walking, talking, and listening. You can bring a gun from the future. You can even bring a gun from the future. The sequence in which I had to sneak through a ruined palace filled with creepy animated statues, exterminating them with a magic bow, lasted longer than it should have. It was chilling at first, but soon became repetitive as the creepy statues ran toward me over and over again.

Climbing and jumping are not particularly smooth in The Forgotten City. I didn't notice much during the hours of peaceful exploration, but it became apparent during the action-packed palace crawl. The entire section felt like it kept me from doing what I wanted to do: walking, talking, and listening to interesting people.

[11] Thankfully, most of the 10-12 hours it takes to reach the ending of "The Forgotten City" (there are four endings, so you can take more time if you wish) can be spent doing just that: soaking in the details of the beautiful and mysterious city, and listening to the interesting and well-acted You can soak in the details of this beautiful and mysterious city and get to know a collection of interesting and well-acted characters at your leisure. If you have to repeat one day over and over again, like Groundhog Day, this is a good one.

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