Game Review--City Of Brass (Switch)

"In their thirst for ultimate power, the rulers made a final, terrible pact: imprisoning a trio of genies at the center of the city, their guarantee that the city would become immortal."
--Tutorial spirit, City of Brass


City of Brass is reportedly the product of several developers behind the first two Bioshock games--which have actually just appeared on the Switch eShop along with Bioshock Infinite.  It is far less philosophical (to the point of addressing none of Bioshock's important philosophical concerns about morality and human civilization), yet it does have its own unique approach to its style and mechanics.  An exploration game with heavy combat in some areas, City of Brass has several standout features, like the use of a whip and its randomized levels.

Production Values

In environments that are lit adequately (aka, during daytime levels), the colorful nature of the graphics is on full display, from the blue energy when enemies are killed to the red fireballs conjured by sorceresses.  Nightime levels, to the contrary, obscure the color, even if enemy models and objects are still animated just as well otherwise.  The diversity of the enemies also becomes apparent as one journeys from one level to the next--skeletons, rogue genies, shielded warriors, sorceresses of various kinds, and half-intact zombie-like beings are just some of the enemies players can face.

Gameplay

Upon starting City of Brass on the Switch, one can choose to play as either of characters, one a man and one a woman.  They both carry a whip in their left hands, as all unlockable characters do, and they both have swords in their right hands.  Leveling up unlocks more characters with different weapons, such as a soldier who can throw or stab with her spear and a skeleton that can shoot a crossbow.  It is worthwhile to experiment with multiple characters to see which one fits you best.  If you can advance to specific genies placed within given levels using a character, you can purchase "insurance" with part of your treasure count, which allows you to warp to later levels when starting a new game.

The levels themselves have the same chronological sequence, but the individual details of the environment can differ across playthroughs.  City of Brass has procedurally generated levels, meaning the layout is not guaranteed to look a certain way.  Optional bonuses or handicaps, called divine blessings and burdens respectively, allow players to customize the amount of difficulty, perhaps by increasing their health or letting enemies respawn.  The divine blessings can be a major help due to the fact that the core settings only give you four hearts for an entire playthrough.  If you lose all hearts, you must restart the entire game, although the aforementioned insurance can let you skip certain levels.  However, warping ahead uses wishes.  You only have three per playthrough and they are necessary to obtain items from other genies.

Story

Mild spoilers are below, not that there is much of a story.

An adventurer whose name is not specified shows a genie an item and is allowed access to an otherwise hidden city full of wealth and danger.  The city became cursed when its leaders grew so fixated on their wealth that their allies left them, and its inhabitants are fated to transform into exotic beings upon death.


Intellectual Content

It takes intentional strategizing to plan a way past the first few traps, but, after this, avoiding environmental hazards and killing various enemy types is not necessarily as challenging as it may seem.  Since there is no spoken dialogue, no detailed plot, and no "puzzles" besides evading traps, players who enjoy the game will enjoy it for other qualities, like its shifting environments, fighting, and genie system.


Conclusion

City of Brass is a game that unites the style of an indie game with a setting that fits the Bioshock team behind it, even if Rapture is a grander locale than the city of the former.  Its non-traditional approach to the campaign does nothing to undermine the exploration and combat, but it might require an adjustment period for players almost completely accustomed to levels with fixed level geometry (like Call of Duty).  Despite the game being short in the sense that the whole campaign can be completed in less than two hours, it will likely take many players at least two or three times as long to simply make it to the final level without dying and thus needing to start over.


Content:
 1.  Violence:  Whips, swords, and spears can stun or kill enemies, and effects can be added to whip strikes at the cost of treasure or wishes.  The violence is very tame.