CITY OF BRASS
Putting a shine on the roguelite genre
The indie roguelite from ex-BioShock developers impresses. This one should be on your wish list.
The Thousand And One Nights inspired this first-person dungeon crawler, but that number could just as easily signal how many times you’ll be thrown back to the city’s gates to start all over again. This, reader, is a roguelite that relishes in punishing you. But it does it in such a polished way you’ll welcome those gates. The Arabian Nights influence is a fantastic one to grapple with, and thankfully City Of Brass has none of the emo nonsense that dragged down Prince Of Persia. The only self-pitying allowed here comes from bemoaning your failing gaming skills. Based on the classic story, this City Of Brass has been cursed and taken over by evil Djinn. Its streets abandoned, it only attracts treasure hunters and adventurers who love a challenge. Your goal is simple: to collect as much shiny stuff as you can, avoid the traps, defeat the Djinn at the heart of the city, and escape with your loot in the fastest time possible.
There are 13 levels, and while they are generated procedurally each has a solid theme that ensures they feel like carefully curated maps. Between you and the exit are rooms filled with gold, cackling ghouls, and health-sapping traps… so many traps. It’s all done at breakneck speed too, as a sand timer drips away in the corner of the screen like a dusty stalker. It’s a double- edged scimitar: the faster you go, the more loot you can grab and earn a time bonus, but the likelihood of running headlong into a spiked pit or poisoned arrow increases with every hastened step.
You do have an advantage – the game’s combat and controls are superb. Whip in one hand, sword in the other, you have complete freedom. Using the whip to stun and trip enemies or grapple across the level to avoid them altogether becomes second nature. The sword is best used against staggered enemies, but you can go blade-to-blade. Feeling overwhelmed? Then grapple a fiery lantern and hurl it at a group of enemies or use the traps against them with a shove into a spiked pillar or beneath a crushing door. After hours of dying and restarts there’s still satisfaction in watching a skeleton stumble into a spike or two – I’ll take a win any way possible right now. City Of Brass is a tough game, but one built out of simple but flexible ideas that are a joy to explore.
DREAM OF GENIE
If you’re still struggling then you can affect the game in other ways. Genies pop up throughout the levels and will sell you powerful weapons and rare gear – there are whips with extended reach, ice and fire buffs; swords and clubs with extra speed and power; and gear that can even suck in gold from every room you
“BETWEEN YOU AND THE EXIT ARE ROOMS FILLED WITH GOLD, GHOULS, AND TRAPS.”
enter. There’s something very rewarding about watching a room’s golden trinkets go full Cogsworth and come to life, eagerly bobbling towards you.
If you just want to enjoy the freedom of the game’s combat and collection loop, and those restarts are sapping your will to continue, then you can shrug off the grump of the grind and activate the game’s Blessings and Burdens. These modifiers tailor the game to suit your ability, turning off the time limit or reducing the numbers of traps and enemies within each level. (Burdens make life harder by increasing enemy numbers, traps, and so on.)
Again, the game is beautifully nuanced, as making your life easier comes at a price more costly than the gold itself – you’ll be penalised in the global rankings (or even removed altogether). This is where the long-term challenge of City Of Brass is found – not in a desire to see the credits but in topping the leaderboards. With practice, and plenty of restarts, you will see the end of the game, but doing so with as much loot in the shortest time becomes the real objective.
With so much freedom on offer there will always be a down side or two. Boss fights can feel imbalanced – the first fight (with an energy-ballhurling demon) is harder than the third (a giggling skeleton caught in a cauldron). There’s a randomness too, which can often lead to you being killed by traps hidden behind foliage or cornered by your own summoned sidekick. But these are the minor trappings of a beautifully crafted game.
VERDICT
A roguelite first-person platformer that demands to be replayed, City Of Brass offers a level of freedom few games can match. It never gets old, even on your hundredth runthrough. Ian Dean