Back in the early 2000’s when I got my first original Xbox, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was one of the first games I purchased. I loved everything about it and to this day am a bit sad we never got a true sequel (I know they released a number of follow ups, but let’s be honest, they were mediocre at best). When City of Brass was announced, I was smitten and thought this would be a spiritual successor to one of my favorite games of all time.

The game is a rouge-lite offering, contrary to what the trailer depicts, which gave me the impression of a narrative driven story, especially with folks from the Bioshock franchise being involved. While this was not an outright disappointment as I enjoy rouge-lites, I feel like a narrative would have improved the overall experience. There are a number of titles that combine similar genre’s well, such as We Happy Few, but this game has no narrative whatsoever. You’ll simply boot the game and be given the option to complete a tutorial or jump in head first.

The gameplay is akin to most FPS games, with your right hand having a sword that you can attack with and the left hand used a whip, which serves a number of purposes; you can stun or disarm enemies when hitting the proper body parts, set off traps, or use it to grapple onto hooks to reach secret areas. While the trailer does allude to additional weaponry coming into play, I’ve spent nearly 20 hours with the game and have only seen the same 2 weapons, albeit with mild variations to the attack speed or range, that can be acquired. With this being said, the combat gets boring very quickly. There is a required amount of exploration as well, since you will need to seek out treasure to purchase upgrades or new equipment from vendors that are randomly placed throughout the levels. If you’re short on gold, you can also use one of 3 wishes that you are allotted per game session.

The vendors are not your only means to upgrading your unnamed protagonist, as you can find them in hidden chests as well. Additionally, you will earn XP which will level up the standard equipment. Sadly, they don’t come frequently enough to change up the gameplay in any meaningful way, as 20 hours in I am still inching towards level 3. I prefer rouge-lites that offer the risk/reward system from acquiring pick-ups that make each run feel unique, which is sadly missing from this offering.

The presentation is what you would come to expect from a AAA title, so there is that, but visuals and good controls alone don’t make a superb game. The enemies and environments are well rendered, with flame, water, and sand effects in place with a great variety of textures being used. Again, this just makes me wish they would have taken a different route with the gameplay, because this could have been a game for the ages with the right story and mechanics being implemented.

The enemies thrown at you are the one thing that doesn’t get stale due to the varied nature of their attacks and abilities. While none of them are completely original (they look almost identical to those featured in the Prince of Persia: Sands of Times, with flames holding them together opposed to sand), their varied and often unpredictable attacks will keep you on your toes. If you’re lucky enough to make it past the first few levels, you will also face off against some bosses, which can be quite difficult and break up the monotony.

If you get bored or find the vanilla game to be too difficult for you (I did not, but my 5 year old struggled a bit), you can add or remove modifiers before each run. While the ones to make the game easier are available from the start, the ones that add more difficulty to the game must be unlocked. These make the title more accessible, but they rarely make the experience feel any less repetitive.

City of Brass clearly proves that pretty visuals alone do not make for a stellar gaming experience. While it does play well, the repetition sets in way too early, especially when other rouge-lites are on the market and offer the replay value the genre is known for.

7 out of 10

Pros

• Stunning Visuals
• Great Controls
• Varied Enemies and Environments

Cons

• Progression is Overly Grind-y
• Limited Player Skill Set
• Becomes Repetitive Quickly

City of Brass was developed and published by Uppercut Games. It launches on PS4, PC and X1 May 4th, 2018. The game was provided to us for review on PS4. If you’d like to see more of City of Brass, check out the official site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.