City of Brass - Early Access Watcher -
1Disclosure: This game copy was bought by the reviewer. Not
An immortal city buried beneath the sands. Genies held captured within its' center. A daring thief looking to line his pockets with the unimaginable wealth hidden behind the city walls. It is up to this thief to attempt to reverse the curse while getting rich from the spoils, but what awaits him is not only undead in nature, but mechanical in placement. Will he succeed, or be lost to the shifting sands of time?
Rogue-lite basics are all here: traps, perma-death and means to upgrade during a run to help in overcoming the obstacles. The areas are also procedurally sectioned with layouts feeling familiar after awhile, but different enough to keep you second guessing the placement of traps. What I have not seen yet is a method of assistance that carries over after death. This is a key factor to the genre that might be included, but I have yet to see it at this point.
Graphically the game is presented well. Music is fitting to the aesthetic and the flow of combat is competent, if not a little clunky due to the delay of weapon swings. The frame rate has not dropped below sixty for me thankfully and the field of view option was a welcome addition. I only experienced one crash so far (which is present in the video). I need to play the game a bit more so I can see how boss fights and the rest of the gear assist the runs, but this is a little peak into how the core game play flows and the difficulty balances.