➤ City of Brass, the review 🎮

Among the development strategies aimed at increasing the challenge level of a video game there is a rather simple one which consists in eliminating the bailouts. And it's a choice that rogue-like and rogue-lite wield with pride, regardless of the basic gameplay setting, leaving the player with only one life to complete a series of challenging and procedurally generated levels. Dying means starting over with completely transformed enemy levels and locations. The risk of this dynamic, we know well, is frustration, also because in most cases this type of game does not include a strong plot to support the whole, but the satisfactions at stake can be worth the effort that is often lightened by mechanics. of progression calibrated to give the player a few more chances without distorting the essence of the challenge. We find all this in City of Brass, a first-person rogue-lite developed by an Australian team also made up of veterans who worked on the Bioshock series. And it is precisely for this reason that we are not surprised by a gameplay in some ways similar to the 2K Games series and its children, Dishonored included, with items to buy, upgrades of all kinds, stealth, two types of attack to combine and a high mobility. All declined, as we have said, in the sign of a game of pure survival that uses the plot as a mere pretext to invite us to overcome thirteen levels that change with each game.

It's a trap!

Our journey into the ancient Arabian world of City of Brass begins in front of a huge gate, armed with a whip in the left hand and a sword in the right hand. Behind us there is nothing while in front of us, along the only viable road, thirteen levels await us full of monsters and traps of those that do a lot of harm and that must be avoided at all costs in a game that grants us a limited supply of energy. Four damages suffered in full, in fact, take us out of the way, bringing us back to the beginning of a maze that changes shape with each new beginning. But the resources to survive the countless threats, which include quite challenging bosses, are certainly not lacking. The most faithful friend we have is our whip whose extension allows us to trigger traps from a distance, to collect objects out of range, to exploit specific holds, to blind enemies or make them tumble to the ground. This must be exploited to the maximum as it is essential to use environmental resources. Bombs, lamps, explosive barrels and the traps themselves are fundamental tools, artifices that allow us to eliminate enemies without entering hand-to-hand combat.

In fact, it is not easy to avoid the damage suffered in close combat and this is because some enemies rush towards us madly, and because of a collision system that is not particularly accurate. In any case keeping a safe distance works and it is facilitated by dodging, by the possibility of overcoming the differences in height with a blow of the kidneys and by the stealth which is always useful, but it becomes in no uncertain terms essential when we are faced with opposing forces that we cannot counter with brute force. Increasingly numerous in advanced levels, enemies of this type target us with powerful spells that force us to flee, often into the arms of skeletons, wizards, archers and a thousand other monsters that stand between us and the final objective. Sometimes the escape is successful, but the random generation of the levels can put us in front of situations that border on the unbearable unless we resort to caution. And this is precisely our main weapon as it becomes evident after a few attempts to face the City of Brass with too much sprint. In the title Uppercut Games, in fact, even the treasures can hide lethal threats, while maintaining their appeal thanks to the possibility of giving us welcome upgrades, and it is good not to be distracted too much so as not to compromise the already poor health.

Ups and downs

Regaining health in City of Brass is possible and it is good not to miss the opportunity given the high degree of challenge of the title. Unfortunately, the goods that can be purchased by the sellers are as random as the position of the sellers themselves, evoked from special positions, but the available equipment is so varied that it is difficult not to find something useful to buy with the gold obtained by playing. Between upgrades, magic boots, armor, rings and weapons with special powers, the evolution possibilities of our character are considerable and the resources include bombs, lanterns and other tools scattered throughout the game. The player's resources are numerous and even include ghost chickens to be used to confuse the enemies even if, let's say it immediately, there is nothing that completely upsets the balance of the title, even in the case of the modifiers applicable to the games, which guarantees a always high level of challenge. Nevertheless, some bonuses are more relevant than others and this is as much about the opportunity to recover some health, really priceless, as the possibility of deactivating the traps in an entire level by paying five hundred coins is not bad. In addition, the vendors can give us the ability to store an item to reuse in a later game and can be manipulated, by spending one of the three wishes available in each game, to raise the level of the items that can be purchased. Obviously, given the setting of the title, randomness still plays a relevant role, but in the case of City of Brass it is balanced not only by the equipment but also by the ability in first-person combat and the wisdom in the use of stealth,both important elements of a rogue-lite that is decidedly different from the average of the genre.

All seasoned with the Arabian atmosphere that between spikes, skeletons and colors takes us back to the time of Prince of Persia. Not everything, however, has been as successful as hoped. Let's start by saying that procedural generation works very well and always guarantees consistent maps, net of some trap that appears at the bottom of dead ends in which we will never set foot. The valid graphic sector that takes full advantage of the soft curves and the excellent lighting of the Unreal Engine, often shows the side due to the fluctuating quality of some details such as fire and grass, to say the least renounceable. Furthermore, the limited variety of the environment raises the risk of boredom coming forward, transforming the very high challenge into frustration. And if on the scales we also put an equally repetitive soundtrack and a plot that would be a compliment to define thin, here all the typical weaknesses of this genre emerge, only partially compensated by the rich equipment and the peculiar gameplay setting. The aim, among other things, is often inaccurate, despite the interface indicating the interactions of the whip with an icon, which is combined with a few bugs too many, sometimes able to permanently block our avatar, and with unfortunate choices like the fact that companions that can be purchased by vendors interrupt our path, turning from advantage to obstacle on several occasions. Overall, however, City of Brass surpasses the sufficiency without too many problems and with some finishing touches it could turn into a decidedly interesting rogue-lite.

PC System Requirements

Test Setup

Operating System: Windows 10 64bit
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
RAM: 16 GB
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

Minimum requirements

Operating system: Windows 7 64bit
Processor: Dual Core 2.4GHz
RAM: 4 GB
Scheda video: GeForce GTX 550 o equivalente

Recommended Requirements

Operating System: Windows 10 64bit
Processor: Intel i7 2.5GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 or equivalent

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Digital Delivery Steam, PlayStation Store, Xbox Store Price 16,79 € Resources4Gaming.com

7.0

Readers (10)

7.1

Your vote

City of Brass boasts an atypical gameplay for the genre: seventeen types of traps, clearly differentiated enemies and tons of purchasable items that, combined with the procedural generation of the maps, guarantee a good variety of situations. This is not enough, however, to eliminate the sense of deja vu that after a few hours makes itself felt with arrogance, making some decidedly annoying defects even more evident and raising the risk that the level of challenge turns into bitter frustration.