City of Brass | Xbox One Review
The City of Brass is filled with riches any treasure hunt would want. It is also full of enemies and dangers trying to keep you from getting them. Rising out of the middle of the desert, no one that has found the city has ever returned. You have the amulet that leads the way. Can you whip, slash and hack your way through the city to riches and glory?
Uppercut Games brings a challenging adventure that is fast-paced and dangerous. You’ll discover the only way through it with each attempt in this dungeon-crawling, rogue-like first-person, hack-and-slash adventure. Using your whip and sword, you battle through cursed enemies that are slaves to the City of Brass. You can use your whip to stun, trip and disarm enemies such as accursed guardians, warrior archers and tortured souls; then take them down with your sword. The cursed inhabitants aren’t the only thing you have to worry about. Traps spread across the entire city include pits, impaling spikes, or fire you along the way.
You’re Not Without Assistance
There is help as you go in City of Brass. You’ll come across genies that provide new weapons, armor, or restoring health among other helpful options. You will also come across different swords and whips to upgrade your arsenal. You’ll acquire stronger load outs to start each play-through as you earn them on each run. Considering the first whip you start with is for herding livestock, this helps greatly. The new whips can extend reach, increase strength or light enemies on fire. Swords will have similar attributes, but also come in different styles that are faster but weaker or slower but stronger.
Some genies will offer items and relics that can make you immune to certain types of damage, warn you about enemies, allow more damage or farther item throwing, and of course some to collect more gold. That is after all, why you are there. There is also a leveling system for your character. Each run earns a certain amount of experience, and every time you rank up you gain a permanent perk. These include health upgrades, farther throws, and higher jumps. It will take putting all these advantages together to try to complete the game.
Familiar, Yet Fresh
The gameplay itself does have a Bioshock feel to it. It’s smooth and quick, but does take some getting used to, particularly the speed. Once you get used to the controls, the game is very fluid but allows little room for error. One missed whip and you can find yourself starting over. It is satisfying when you do start connecting the movements through progression. With that said, it can be a difficult game to master. It is unforgiving, and you have to learn the different enemies and strategies to progress.
Each level brings something different, so you will have something new to learn every time you get further toward the end. You also earn different “blessings” to make the game easier such as more health and fewer enemies. If you are a glutton for punishment, you can add burdens to increase the difficulty, but this game seems tough enough without them.
The visuals and the audio come together well to create the Arabian Nights atmosphere Uppercut was looking for. Even though the game moves quickly, there are no blurred edges and the artwork of the enemies helps give them their different personalities. The sound effects are equally important. Not only do they reveal enemies and traps along the way, but also provide fun explosions and destroyed items as you look for gold.
City of Brass Final Verdict
The game is fun to play overall, but does provide a challenge. If that is your style, it can be easy to get lost in ranking up your character and fighting your way on to the leaderboards. The leaderboards help create some competition amongst the City of Brass crowd to increase the replay value. If you’re up for the fight, may be you will make the list of those to survive the City of Brass.
City of Brass
$19.99
Pros
- Addicting Gameplay for Fans of the Genre
- Beautiful 'Arabian Nights' Setting
- Incorporated Sounds with Gameplay
Cons
- Brutal Difficulty
- Repetitive Gameplay Not for Everyone
