Roguelikes are hard to get right, but brilliantly addictive when handled well. Rogue Legacy is still one of my favorite games (and I still need to go back and get that “no more than five deaths” trophy!), as it allowed the player to grow steadily, not only through learning room layouts and enemy attack patterns, but also in the steady upgrades you could give your characters before each new run. The best part of roguelikes is coming away from them feeling like you’ve become a better player. City of Brass starts to scratch the itch for a first-person roguelike, but encounters a few pitfalls along the way.
A randomly-generated city lies before you, a maze of pathways made up of preset rooms that change each and every time you play. Die and you are sent back to the beginning. Find the gate to the end of the area, and you’ll head onto the next level. There are 12 levels in total, along with four boss characters. Once you beat a boss, you can jump forward through portals to that area without needing to replay the entire game, but there’s always a cost. Each portal takes one wish, of which the player has three. Skipping to the end would use up all three wishes, which are also good for re-rolling what a genie has for sale and making evil genies stop raining fiery destruction down on your head.
City of Brass doesn’t have much of a story to drive you through to the end. When you play the tutorial, there are some minor story bits that pop up in th...