City of Brass Review – “1001 Ways to Die”

Developer: Uppercut Games
Publisher: Uppercut Games
Reviewed on: PlayStation 4
Code Received.

Deep within the desert lies the fabled City of Brass, home to wealth beyond imagination. Wanderer beware, for a curse lies upon these shifting streets, infested with malevolent spirits and deadly traps. This city awaits for its curse to be broken, and all fools who enter fade into history unspoken. Will you too succumb to the city’s dread, or will you free yourself?

Uppercut Games’ City of Brass is a first-person roguelike that has players traverse across the dread laden streets of the fabled city to claim the treasures within.T he game has players traverse across twelve procedurally generated levels of the fabled city within its Arabian Nights inspiration. Its streets everchanging, the game requires a great deal of environment awareness as you navigate past mobs of cursed spirits and deadly traps, while nabbing any treasures you may come across.

City of Brass happens to be the second procedurally generated first-person roguelike I’ve played in the last couple months. That’s not all, much like Immortal Redneck it also happens to have a distinctly desert based theme. Spread across twelve levels, City of Brass has players traverse through city streets, opulent gardens, and deadly catacombs. The areas look gorgeous, and while initially impressive the procedural generation loses charm rather quickly. Areas meld into each other, and often it’s easy to see where to different tiles meet. There’s a charm to meticulously handcrafted levels, and City of Brass only manages to mimic that for a moment.

With the whip you’re pretty much Indiana Jones

The combat on the other hand flows beautifully, each element interacting with the others in a harmony. You’re armed with a whip in one hand and a sword in the other. With the whip you’re pretty much Indiana Jones, sweeping enemy’s feet from underneath them, wrenching weapons from their grasp, or stunning them with the quick snap to the head. It took a while before the whip’s versatility dawned on me. Yeah the sword will let you kill any who stand in your way, but the whip lets you do so much more. Trigger a trap for an enemy, pull an explosive jar into your grasp, or swing from one of the many conveniently placed hooks. The whip directs the flow of combat, and in City of Brass there’s a lot that can turn the tide in moments.

Unfortunately, the combat didn’t always manage to hold up. There were times when my attacks would just flow right through a charging skeleton. That’s definitely not what you want, especially if you notice a Tortured Soul running at you, screaming wildly. The whip suffers from this too. It’ll interact flawlessly with elements that are not the enemy, but if you’re trying to whip at one of the many cursed inhabitants of the city, you’ll only be able to affect them at select strike zones. At times I’d instinctively lash out with the whip only to have it do absolutely nothing to an enemy.

If you die though, you’ll start off again with absolutely nothing.

While there’s a number of enemies to encounter, it felt like City of Brass never really took full advantage of the rich Arabian Nights lore it derives from. Regardless, there’s still a variety of designs to the enemies. Maniacal sorcerers, ravaging spearmen, and possessed pots all try to make mincemeat you of you. That’s not to say that enemy encounters aren’t any fun. The Gate Guardians, the bosses of each district were each unique in their own way. Though once you figure them out, they aren’t much of a threat on subsequent runs. I did have a truly bone chilling encounter in the catacombs. I’d rather not spoil the experience, but these encounters easily stood out as the most memorable in City of Brass. Just thinking about them makes my skin crawl.

From burning whips to crackling swords, there’s a considerable variety to the items in City of Brass as well. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a powerful amulet in a chest. Normally though, all items in City of Brass need to purchased from the genies you encounter. This sets up most of City of Brass’ gameplay loop. You explore the city finding treasures, and use said treasures to power yourself up. If you die though, you’ll start off again with absolutely nothing. Unless you managed to find an insurance genie or picked up a specific item. There’s no real character upgrade system, but the game lets you tune your experience in a few ways.

Much like the Arabian Nights, you’re given three wishes each time you enter the city. Wishes can be used to have genies reveal secrets, rarer wares, or make sure you can hire a stronger sellsword. They’re also used to turn hostile genies into permanent allies. The effects of a wish are permanent for that run, so if you wished for the healing genie to help you recover better, he’ll remain that way throughout. If you’ve defeated the end boss of each of City of Brass’ districts, you can also spend wishes to start off after them. Unfortunately, this means you’ll have less wishes to spend on that run, with absolutely none if you jump into the fourth and final area.

If there’s one big gripe I have with City of Brass it’s the game’s burdening reliance on an online leaderboard.

The other way you can change up how the game plays is with Blessings and Burdens. Blessings let you start off with more health, fewer traps, and plentiful treasures. Burdens on the other hand can be punishing. You can choose to have enemies hit harder, for every area to remain under the curtain of night, or place traps around every bend. While all the Blessings are available from the start, you’ll have to unlock the Burdens. There’s also no limit to either, so you’re free to run with as many as you’d like.

If there’s one big gripe I have with City of Brass it’s the game’s burdening reliance on an online leaderboard. City of Brass isn’t a long game by any means, so there’s an added leaderboard to keep players coming back. It’s unfortunate that this added in a clock to beat under each stage. Letting time run out summons a powerful, unkillable dervish that prompts you to only get out that much faster. While there is a Blessing to get rid of the timer, keeping it on only ever felt like a hindrance. Perhaps the intention was to add a sense of urgency outside of beating scores on a leaderboard, but it never actually felt that way.

City of Brass is still however a pretty good dungeon crawling experience. There’s a solid game here, despite the repetition and the tacked on leaderboard. It manages to balance a good learning curve with tactical, quick decision making. The game often shifted between feeling like a slog to something I didn’t want to put down. While the experience might start to wear thin after a while, the Arabian Nights charm might bring you back from time to time.