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[SomTervo]

Disclaimer: Although City of Brass is being developed by ex-Bioshock devs, it is:
A) Early Access so far from complete (no story content whatsoever seemingly)
B) Seemingly a very different beast - not an immersive sim, and let's not get hung up on that

Armed with scimitar and versatile whip, lash, slash, trick and trap
your way through the City of Brass, a first-person rogue-lite of treasure, snares and ghoulish foes.

NOW UP ON EARLY ACCESS:

Coming to Windows PC on Steam this fall, with versions for
PlayStation® 4 systems and Xbox One following in 2018.

CINEMATIC/TONE TRAILER

GAMEPLAY TRAILER.

Leaping from the pages of the Arabian Nights, adventure awaits in the accursed City of Brass – a place of legend, filled with danger and reward. Infested with mischievous spirits and deadly traps, its shifting streets are brimming with the wealth of a nation.

Assume the role of a cunning thief, battling to reach a fabled treasure at the city's heart, wielding a blade and whip that can be used to disarm, trip or stun enemies, to swing to safety, grab inaccessible objects or even break through flimsy barricades.

Leap across pits, slide under blades, dodge spears, and sidestep poison gas traps – all the while manipulating hazards to your advantage against diverse spirit foes.

Personal thoughts:

It's the first-person Spelunky I never knew I wanted. Absolutely loving it. However, being Early Access:

• controls and movement are a bit floaty
• the balancing is ever so slightly off, esp wrt treasure and weapons vs enemy capability
• combat is definitely getting there but becomes a little stale
• the levels feel slightly more repetitive than something like Spelunky or Binding of Isaac (but they are 2D so can play more easily/safely with space). I feel like making more use of verticality would be a quick win but logistically that must be a nightmare

That said it's still a ways away from release so there's plenty of time to beef it up.

Other pics:

 

[Emperor_Uriel]

I definitely get Irrational vibes from what I've seen so far. However, this is one of those rare promising EA games (like Dead Cells) that I don't want to touch before release for fear of burning out.

 

[Malyse]

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1401954

 

[SomTervo]

NB: Ken Levine isn't attached to this, that's my mistake, mod will change it momentarily.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1401954

The point of this thread is that it's now on Early Access, which isn't the point of that thread and is actually new news.

Hence the 'EA' in the title.

 

[PaulloDEC]

I've only put a couple of hours in so far, but the game shows a lot of promise I think. I'll just paste in my latest thoughts from the old thread:

There's definitely a great game here. The loop of pushing through each trap-filled area while resisting the urge to waste precious time hoarding golden trinkets is compelling, and the Arabian Nights aesthetic looks great and feels fresh.

I'd say the biggest weakness right now is the combat; it quickly degenerates into "whip, slash, whip, slash, repeat until dead". There's added variety when you've got a lot of environmental hazards around, but the levels are often very cluttered, which means you don't always have a lot of room to line up those kinds of kills. The weapons you buy from vendors seem neat, but they can be expensive and not always easy to find, so I'm usually just armed with my default gear.

Really looking forward to seeing how the game evolves over the EA period. There's a lot of good feedback being posted on the forums, so hopefully the devs are listening.

EDIT: Hard to get good screenshots given the frantic nature of the game, but I really like the way the fourth area looks.

Paullo's Pro Tip: Did you know there's a slide move in the game? I didn't. Try hitting CTRL while running.

 

[SomTervo]

Paullo's Pro Tip: Did you know there's a slide move in the game? I didn't. Try hitting CTRL while running.

Yeah, I've not really found it useful yet though? Maybe it would be useful in combat...

That said, I still really think they should add a 'quickstep' move for dodging.

E.g. double tap a direction to quickly dodge that direction.

 

[derFeef]

Thanks for the thread! The game has a lot of potential for sure. Looking forward to future updates.

http://m.neogaf.com/showthread.php?t=1401954

Yeah that thread was everyone shitting on the game because people want to be cute.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Yeah, I've not really found it useful yet though? Maybe it would be useful in combat...

That said, I still really think they should add a 'quickstep' move for dodging.

E.g. double tap a direction to quickly dodge that direction.

A quick step would be great. The only use I've found for the slide so far is knocking over foes, but it moves pretty quickly so fear of traps makes it risky to use.

 

[Staal]

Subbed, this looks awesome.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Addictive creation. One of the best punts on an early access title I've made. Very competent, and once you start playing in a highly mobile kind of way, it really comes into its own. Initial impressions of the itemisation had me feeling there wasn't enough variety, but there is. It's just quality over quantity. Cost of Abbizzull's gear is often pretty high, but it makes the purchasing an event. And there's always chance for gear in the level chests.

Having a blast.

 

[Linkura]

I enjoyed Jim Sterling's video. It's nice to see him play a game that's not total shit for once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS3ambSMtc4

 

[Alex Connolly]

I enjoyed Jim Sterling's video. It's nice to see him play a game that's not total shit for once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS3ambSMtc4

Yeah, he had a good ol' time.

 

[SomTervo]

Megaton: you can turn the red fireball-shooting Djinn's to your side by touching the 'wish' button at their feet!!!

Whaaat!

Other ones summon little spirits to fight for you!

Megaton 2: Finally got to the 'restless tomb' or the 'catacomb' (the third 'world') and holy crap the game keeps mixing it up. There's a new enemy type in there who are horrific.

I enjoyed Jim Sterling's video. It's nice to see him play a game that's not total shit for once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS3ambSMtc4

Haha yeah, hearing him actually double take as he sees increasing depth is pretty novel!

Also LOL when he notices there's a time limit

 

[PaulloDEC]

Megaton: you can turn the red fireball-shooting Djinn's to your side by touching the 'wish' button at their feet!!!

Whaaat!

Other ones summon little spirits to fight for you!

Oh snap, I'm so glad you passed this on, it helped a ton in my last run. Just cleared area 6 and opened my second portal; super intense and down-to-the-wire (trapped in the last tiny room before the exit with two shield guys, a blade-pillar and only half a heart - that kind of intense), but super satisfying.

Things really start to feel exciting once you've earned a bit of cash and started picking up some cool gear. By the end I had the ice whip, several interesting swords and a variety of other neat things with effects I wasn't even sure of.

 

[SomTervo]

Oh snap, I'm so glad you passed this on, it helped a ton in my last run. Just cleared area 6 and opened my second portal; super intense and down-to-the-wire (trapped in the last tiny room before the exit with two shield guys, a blade-pillar and only half a heart - that kind of intense), but super satisfying.

Things really start to feel exciting once you've earned a bit of cash and started picking up some cool gear. By the end I had the ice whip, several interesting swords and a variety of other neat things with effects I wasn't even sure of.

Yeah my runs are getting increasingly high-risk and sandboxey. Actually hearing Djinn's summons getting in battles across the map while you're not in a fight is amazing.

They're really onto something here. I wonder how much it will change up to release.

TBH my biggest request is better move-feel. Combat feels decent but moving around and jumping etc feels way too floaty. I'd kinda prefer it if default movement was a slower walk with heavy footsteps and wobbling camera - to make it a bit more immersive, like you're actually walking - and holding shift gave a shaky 'sprint' feel.

Also what's with you and I being the only people on GAF playing this game

 

[PaulloDEC]

Yeah my runs are getting increasingly high-risk and sandboxey. Actually hearing Djinn's summons getting in battles across the map while you're not in a fight is amazing.

They're really onto something here. I wonder how much it will change up to release.

I couldn't believe my luck when I realised that spending a wish on an orange genie actually recruited all of the other orange genies in the area. Huge relief having some backup all through the level.

And yeah, I feel like this is definitely a quality project with a ton of potential. There's heaps of latitude in terms of new traps, enemies and gear, and given the areas are designed procedurally I'm sure they could add more verticality, more open areas or any number of other features if they wanted to.

Not too bad for a team of just six people.

TBH my biggest request is better move-feel. Combat feels decent but moving around and jumping etc feels way too floaty. I'd kinda prefer it if default movement was a slower walk with heavy footsteps and wobbling camera - to make it a bit more immersive, like you're actually walking - and holding shift gave a shaky 'sprint' feel.

I think both movement and combat still need a really exhaustive polish pass, and probably a close look at utility as well. Things like the slide are all but useless from what I've seen, and other features like the whip-swinging are cool but rarely useful. Even if all of that remains the same though, it'd be great to have everything feel a bit tighter and more responsive.

Also what's with you and I being the only people on GAF playing this game

I know, right? I guess the combo of "Early Access" and "rogue-lite" does a great job of scaring people away.

Don't be scared, people of Gaf. This is a good one.

 

[ElectricThunder]

More people will roll in once the updates start coming, especially any bigger ones, given this is only the start of a lengthy early access adventure.

 

[Alex Connolly]

I'm thinking they're still working out what to do with the whip-swing, and figure it has to do with map verticality. The proc-gen map creation right now is pretty damn sublime, but it's never multi-layered or particularly elevated. One hopes some future tuning gives the algorithm more to play with in terms of platforms and whip anchors. Could see more modules involving rushing floor or ceiling blades.

Other than that, the movement isn't such a bad thing for me. I dunno. I find it rugged and dependable. Rarely do I find myself second-guessing a jump or monkeying around balustrades.

Pure addiction.

 

[Aztechnology]

Definitely has my attention, but with so many games on my docket, I'm happy waiting for a future more polished release.

 

[RPGam3r]

Watched Sterling do a vid on this, looks really neat, looking forward to playing it upon release.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

Game looks solid but I'm not trying to spend £20 on something that seems so early in development.

 

[SomTervo]

It's certainly one of the few Early Access releases that feels actually 'completable'.

As in you can literally play the entire game's progression from the beginning to the end with (presumably, although I've not got there yet) a final boss. All the content, it seems, is 'there' already.

It's structured like Spelunky or Binding of Isaac: three levels per 'world' and each world introduces new enemies, traps, mechanics, etc.

So far I've reached world 3 of 4 and the entire game's progression seems to be complete already.

I couldn't believe my luck when I realised that spending a wish on an orange genie actually recruited all of the other orange genies in the area. Huge relief having some backup all through the level.

And yeah, I feel like this is definitely a quality project with a ton of potential. There's heaps of latitude in terms of new traps, enemies and gear, and given the areas are designed procedurally I'm sure they could add more verticality, more open areas or any number of other features if they wanted to.

Not too bad for a team of just six people.



I think both movement and combat still need a really exhaustive polish pass, and probably a close look at utility as well. Things like the slide are all but useless from what I've seen, and other features like the whip-swinging are cool but rarely useful. Even if all of that remains the same though, it'd be great to have everything feel a bit tighter and more responsive.

Agreed on all counts

 

[Tremis]

Very interested to see where this goes.

The only other FPS roguelite on the horizon I'm interested in is Dustforce's Spire, which seems quite a ways away but definitely has a more doom-like focus.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Things have only gotten better now I'm using the whip grapple. Prior, it was manoeuvring with the shove in mind. Now? Trip, winch, drag onto spike traps. *chef's fingers*

People need to really get creative before they judge the combat. It's perfunctory with the minimum input, but great when you start combining the whip, thrown objects etc.

 

[PaulloDEC]

Megaton 2: Finally got to the 'restless tomb' or the 'catacomb' (the third 'world') and holy crap the game keeps mixing it up. There's a new enemy type in there who are horrific.

Who put these

Spoiler

Weeping goddamn Angels

in my game? They're definitely something I'm into and not terrified by.

Made it as far as Area 9 tonight, but I only had half a heart left by that point. Didn't end well.

 

[Alex Connolly]

What burdens are you guys running with? I'm content just with increased enemy speed. The respawn burden is insane, and the increased enemy health really slows a bloke down if you're caught in a room without traps or throwables.

 

[Rickenslacker]

I like the sliding because you can get a slide boost off it from jumping and repeating, so whenever I'm looking to speed through a room I just slide, jump, slide, jump in rhythm. It's fun.

 

[Alex Connolly]

I like the sliding because you can get a slide boost off it from jumping and repeating, so whenever I'm looking to speed through a room I just slide, jump, slide, jump in rhythm. It's fun.

See, this is what makes CoB feel pretty special. Lots of organic mobility tricks. Far more nuanced than it appears.

 

[Alex Connolly]

Kotaku did a piece on CoB.

http://bit.ly/2xBtmLD