It’s not just my weekends that involve cursed cities, death traps, a whip in hand and a great load of booty; At PAX Aus this year I was lucky enough to check out City of Brass, an Early Access title from Uppercut games and a chat with the team behind it. If you’re a fan of puzzles and dying a lot, as seems to be rather in vogue at the moment, this won’t be one to miss.
City of Brass was not what I expected when I picked it up, sitting in the Indie section of PAX Rising it kind of stood out, having some exceedingly impressive visuals for a game with such a small team behind it, but I must say I went in with the wrong idea. Thinking that it was kind of like a first person/action/rogue-lite/RPG like deal; I ran through the world, looking for enemies and things to do, but died almost immediately. This would not be the last death in my experience with City of Brass. City of Brass is actually this interesting kind of puzzle action hybrid deal. Everything wants you dead. The enemies want you dead. The city wants you dead. I’m pretty sure the shopkeepers want you dead, but to their credit, they didn’t actually attack me… but I was certainly expecting it.
“Everything wants you dead. The enemies want you dead. The city wants you dead. I’m pretty sure the shopkeepers want you dead.”
City of Brass drops you into the aptly named “City of Brass”, but you’re not just there to experience the beautiful environments. You’re there to loot the place for all it’s worth! Why else?
The City of Brass was once an incredible place torn straight from the pages of Arabian Nights, of wealth and treasure that now suffers under a dreaded curse… but screw that, let’s get our loot on! The game isn’t going to make this easy for you though, with traps all throughout the city and a population that wants to kill you at every turn, if you’re adverse to dying, this may not be the game for you. But with the sheer amount of death comes creative ways to get your own back. Use the variety of environmental traps around the world to help clear our enemies, but be sure to pay attention to their weak points.
The combat in City of Brass features a variety of weaponry that the player can swap out and upgrade as they see fit, but really centers around the protagonist’s unique whip. Different enemies, traps, puzzles, and navigation involves having to use it in different ways, so be prepared to think laterally about how you’re going to get the best result out of any situation that City of Brass puts in front of you.
City of Brass is available as Early Access on Steam right now and are hoping to launch by the end of the year with versions coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018. If you’re a fan of puzzles, treasure, dying a lot and some really beautiful visuals; I highly recommend checking out City of Brass.
Authors note: You may not die as much as I did, I am very bad at this game.
About the Author
Morgan Archer
Having arguments in 140 characters or less since 2010
