This is another one that's been sitting at the top of my wishlist for a quite a while. The Forgotten City is one of the handful of games that was made a few years back, during the big "time loop" craze. Following Outer Wilds, there games like 12 Minutes, Death Loop, Returnal, and a few others -- including The Forgotten City. Sadly, I didn't get around to playing The Forgotten City at the time, and it's been sitting on my wishlist, waiting to go on sale. That sale finally happened earlier this year!

When I played Outer Wilds after its Steam release (I refused to give money to Epic), it quickly catapulted into the shortlist for one of my favorite games ever! If The Forgotten City was going to be anything close to Outer Wilds, then I knew it was going to be something that I would like.

But really, the similarities kind of begin and end with the time loop gimmick. Outer Wilds is a knowledge-based, open world, sci-fi puzzle game in which the player uses their understanding of the in-game laws of physics and the schedule of the solar system, to solve a giant game-long puzzle. Forgotten City is more of a traditional inventory-based narrative adventure, which mostly consists of exploration and dialogue.

Put simply, the player travels back in time to an ancient Roman city that is stuck in a time loop. The citizens of the city are bound by a "Golden Rule", imposed by a vindictive god, that says that if anybody in the city commits a crime, everyone in the city will die. So far, nobody has tried to break the rule, to find out if it's true. The player must learn everything you can about the city and its inhabitants, in order to try to figure out which god is responsible for this situation, and hopefully find a way to get yourself out -- and maybe save the city's citizens while you're at it.

The Forgotten City was one of several games (along with Outer Wilds) in a short-lived time-loop fad.

It's about damned time!

Forgotten City does not require the player to memorize the exact schedule in which all the events in the city happen. In fact, certain events kindly wait for the player to arrive before they trigger, meaning that you can do things in pretty much whatever order you want. The game also includes a quest log and objective markers, telling you exactly where to go, and giving you a good idea of what to do when you get there.

The puzzles basically come in 2 flavors: dialogue-based logic puzzles, and inventory puzzles. Inventory puzzles are pretty basic, and usually require the player to simply have the item or use it in the appropriate location. The dialogue puzzles usually require the player to learn something about a character or the game world by interrogating NPCs, or to occasionally convince (or trick) an NPC into doing or saying something that you want (by using knowledge that you've acquired from past time loops to manipulate them).

Having to run around, repeating the same conversations over again, and doing the same tasks over again would get very tedious very quickly, and would doubtlessly turn a lot of people off of the game. This isn't like Outer Wilds, where where you can just go straight to the end game and see the true ending; Forgotten City requires that you put in the legwork to make the best ending(s) possible.

There are multiple time-saving features, including a system of zip-lines between key locations.

Firaxis will be releasing Civilization VI DLC packs with new game modes, new civilizations, and new leaders through March of 2021. November's update added a very unique leader to the Civilization VI roster: Hammurabi of Babylon. Both the Babylonian civilization and its leader Hammurabi have been playable in multiple past iterations of the Civilization series, but Hammurabi's leader ability is so unique and game-changing that I felt I had to cover it immediately.

For future releases that include multiple leaders or civilizations, I may put up polls on Patreon to let my Patrons decide which civ or leader to cover first (if Firaxis gives enough advance notice). I may also put up polls asking if my Patrons would prefer that I make guides focused on the new game modes. So if you would like to vote on which content you would prefer to see sooner, I hope you'll consider supporting the creation of this content on Patreon.

The city of Babylon is one of the earliest cities ever built, having been settled between the 23 and 19th century B.C.. It was built along banks of the Euphrates River, south of modern-day Bagdad, with steep embankments in order to contain and utilize the river's seasonal floods. It is believed that Babylon was the most populous city in the world during the two heights of the Babylonian empire in 17th century B.C. and 6th century B.C., and it was the first city to reach a population of 200,000.

Hammurabi is an ancient Babylonian king who ruled in the 18th century B.C.. He is famous for his Code of Laws that was long believed to be the first set of codified laws ever created. There were, however, earlier codes of laws, but Hammurabi's code differed from earlier codes by establishing the principle of the presumption of innocence for the accused, and that the accuser and accused must both provide evidence to establish guilt or innocence. It also limited the amount of retribution that the victim my inflict upon the guilty by prescribing set penalties for specific crimes. Though many prescribed punishments were brutal (such as disfigurement or execution), the code ensured that the victim of a minor crime would not respond by murdering the criminal. Hammurabi had his law transcribed (in the common language) onto a cylindrical stele and placed at the center of town so that every literate person could read it, presumably so that everyone would know what constitutes a crime and what the punishment for each crime is, so that the administration of justice would be seen as fair to the populace.

DISCLAIMER:
Civilization VI is still a "living game". Strategies for the game (and for specific leaders and civs) may change as Firaxis applies balance patches, introduces new features, or expands the game through further DLC or expansion packs, or as the Civ community discovers new strategies or exploits. As such, the following strategy guide may change from time to time. I will try to keep it up-to-date, and will make notations whenever changes are made. I'll also post links in the official 2K forums and CivFanatics, where I'll also report any changes made. If possible and practical, I will try to retain the original content of the strategy for posterity.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions that readers wish to offer. Feel free to post on the linked forums, or by posting a comment at the bottom of the page.

This guide is up to date as of the release of the "New Frontiers" November 2020 Update (ver. 1.0.8.4)

Babylon is a powerful technological force in Civilization VI, that acquires technologies primarily by completing eurekas. It also gets large food bonuses when settling adjacent to rivers, that allows its cities to grow quickly and grow large, and new districts get a head start in infrastructure.