Pass the Controller | Latest news, reviews and reviews in video games
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Community
  • About
    • Contact
    • Meet the Team
  • Home
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Community
  • About
    • Contact
    • Meet the Team
>

Taken for a Quickie | City of Brass

10/5/2018

 
Picture

A roguelike Arabian Nights adventure from the former BioShock developers at Uppercut Games, City of Brass finds itself on the receiving end of our latest Quickie.

Picture





by Sam Sant

Picture

@SlamShotSam


Picture
Developer: Uppercut
Games

Publisher: Uppercut
Games

​Platforms: Xbox One,
PS4, PC

​Players: 1

Arabian Nights, eh? Such an underutilised setting nowadays!

It really is! Especially considering the rich, established groundwork. City of Brass fills the Prince of Persia-shaped void in your library, even if its procedurally generated levels don’t quite match up to their handcrafted equivalents (as you might expect).

Is there permadeath? Being the other roguelike staple and all...

There is, in addition to other trappings like a Spelunky-style timer to keep you moving and ensure that you don’t lose too significant a time investment on any failed run. There are a few persistent forms of progression that further take the edge off being banished back to the beginning, but, if that’s something you’d like to avoid in general, the Burdens & Blessings system allows you to fine tune the level of difficulty to your exact liking.

So, what are we up against? Am I going to need those Blessings?

City of Brass is just as challenging as most of its roguelike brethren, largely due to the fact you’ll face equal resistance from trap-riddled environments and the varied swathes of enemies that lurk within them.

Yikes. How d’ya combat those foes?

With careful employment of your dual-wielded sword and whip, the latter having a good reach than can be used to trip, blind and disarm enemies with lashes to the relevant extremities, which presents opportunity to close the gap and use the former to deliver weighty melee blows.

Alternatively, you could utilise throwable items within the environment or manipulate enemies into triggering traps with the push and pull abilities. There’s really a lot at your disposal, making experimenting to discover useful combos a tactical highlight.
That sounds great, but what about the systems surrounding combat?

Exploring involves some light platforming and plenty of pilfering, as you grab artefacts used to purchase upgrades and services that’ll (hopefully) help you eke closer to making it out of the titular city alive. Initially there’s something slightly cumbersome about the controls on console, especially in comparison to the far more fluid PC version (which also looks noticeably sharper than even the Xbox One X build), but some options menu tinkering and time to adjust should set you straight.

Is it something you’d recommend, then?

Provided you’re willing to spend a little time grappling with those initial control gripes on console, absolutely. City of Brass has an opulent aesthetic and satisfying mechanics that’ll keep you coming back, always met with an engaging new challenge to surmount.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.



    Read More

    News
    Reviews
    Videos

    Comment Here

    Categories

    All
    A Gamer's Guide To Life
    Community
    E3 2018
    Event Coverage
    Feature
    First Impressions/Quick Look
    Head To Head
    Indie
    Interview
    List
    Opinion
    Preview
    Real Life Story
    Team Talk
    Video
    Virtual Reality


    Archives

    June 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    January 2025
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015


    RSS Feed

Pass the Controller

News
Reviews
Features
​
Videos
Community
About

What is PTC

About Us
​Meet the Team
​
Contact Us
Find our reviews on:
  • OpenCritic
  • vrgamecritic
© COPYRIGHT 2014-2022 PTC / JMP.
​ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.