The story of Princess Parizade and the Magic Tree by, 1906In the mid-20th century, the scholar found a document with a few lines of an Arabic work with the title The Book of the Tale of a Thousand Nights, dating from the 9th century. This is the earliest known surviving fragment of the Nights. The first reference to the Arabic version under its full title The One Thousand and One Nights appears in Cairo in the 12th century. Professor Dwight Reynolds describes the subsequent transformations of the Arabic version:Some of the earlier Persian tales may have survived within the Arabic tradition altered such that Arabic Muslim names and new locations were substituted for pre-Islamic Persian ones, but it is also clear that whole cycles of Arabic tales were eventually added to the collection and apparently replaced most of the Persian materials.
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One such cycle of Arabic tales centres around a small group of historical figures from 9th-century Baghdad, including the caliph (died 809), his vizier (d. 803) and the licentious poet (d. Another cluster is a body of stories from late medieval Cairo in which are mentioned persons and places that date to as late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.Two main Arabic manuscript traditions of the Nights are known: the Syrian and the Egyptian. The Syrian tradition is primarily represented by the earliest extensive manuscript of the Nights, a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century Syrian manuscript now known as the. It and surviving copies of it are much shorter and include fewer tales than the Egyptian tradition. It is represented in print by the so-called Calcutta I (1814–1818) and most notably by the 'Leiden edition' (1984). Sinbad the sailor and Ali Baba and the forty thieves by, 1896The first European version (1704–1717) was translated into by from an Arabic text of the Syrian recension and other sources.
This 12-volume work, ('The Thousand and one nights, Arab stories translated into French'), included stories that were not in the original Arabic manuscript. 'Aladdin's Lamp', and 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' (as well as several other lesser-known tales) appeared first in Galland's translation and cannot be found in any of the original manuscripts. He wrote that he heard them from a storyteller from, a scholar whom he called Galland's version of the Nights was immensely popular throughout Europe, and later versions were issued by Galland's publisher using Galland's name without his consent.As scholars were looking for the presumed 'complete' and 'original' form of the Nights, they naturally turned to the more voluminous texts of the Egyptian recension, which soon came to be viewed as the 'standard version'. The first translations of this kind, such as that of (1840, 1859), were. Unabridged and unexpurgated translations were made, first by, under the title The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1882, nine volumes), and then by, entitled (1885, ten volumes) – the latter was, according to some assessments, partially based on the former, leading to charges of. In view of the imagery in the source texts (which Burton emphasized even further, especially by adding extensive footnotes and appendices on Oriental sexual mores ) and the strict laws on obscene material, both of these translations were printed as private editions for subscribers only, rather than published in the usual manner.
Burton's original 10 volumes were followed by a further six (seven in the Baghdad Edition and perhaps others) entitled The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, which were printed between 1886 and 1888. It has, however, been criticized for its 'archaic language and extravagant idiom' and 'obsessive focus on sexuality' (and has even been called an 'eccentric ' and a 'highly personal reworking of the text').Later versions of the Nights include that of the doctor, issued from 1898 to 1904. It was translated into English by, and issued in 1923. Like Payne's and Burton's texts, it is based on the Egyptian recension and retains the erotic material, indeed expanding on it, but it has been criticized for inaccuracy.' S 1984 Leiden edition, based on the Galland Manuscript, was rendered into English by Husain Haddawy (1990). This translation has been praised as 'very readable' and 'strongly recommended for anyone who wishes to taste the authentic flavour of those tales'. An additional second volume of Arabian nights translated by Haddawy, composed of popular tales not present in the Leiden edition, was published in 1995.
Both volumes were the basis for a single-volume reprint of selected tales of Haddawy's translations.In 2008 a new English translation was published by Penguin Classics in three volumes. It is translated by Malcolm C. Lyons and Ursula Lyons with introduction and annotations by Robert Irwin. This is the first complete translation of the Macnaghten or Calcutta II edition (Egyptian recension) since Burton's. It contains, in addition to the standard text of 1001 Nights, the so-called 'orphan stories' of and as well as an alternative ending to The seventh journey of from 's original French.
As the translator himself notes in his preface to the three volumes, 'No attempt has been made to superimpose on the translation changes that would be needed to 'rectify'. Repetitions, non sequiturs and confusions that mark the present text,' and the work is a 'representation of what is primarily oral literature, appealing to the ear rather than the eye'. The Lyons translation includes all the poetry (in plain prose paraphrase) but does not attempt to reproduce in English the internal rhyming of some prose sections of the original Arabic. Moreover, it streamlines somewhat and has cuts. In this sense it is not, as claimed, a complete translation.Timeline.
Illustration of One Thousand and One Nights by, Iran, 1853The One Thousand and One Nights and various tales within it make use of many innovative, which the storytellers of the tales rely on for increased drama, suspense, or other emotions. Some of these date back to earlier, and, while others were original to the One Thousand and One Nights.Frame story The One Thousand and One Nights employs an early example of the, or: the character narrates a set of tales (most often ) to the Sultan over many nights. Many of Scheherazade's tales are themselves frame stories, such as the, which is a collection of adventures related by Sinbad the Seaman to Sinbad the Landsman.Embedded narrative An early example of the ' technique can be found in the One Thousand and One Nights, which can be traced back to earlier Persian and Indian storytelling traditions, most notably the of ancient.
The Nights, however, improved on the Panchatantra in several ways, particularly in the way a story is introduced. In the Panchatantra, stories are introduced as analogies, with the frame story referring to these stories with variants of the phrase 'If you're not careful, that which happened to the louse and the flea will happen to you.' In the Nights, this didactic framework is the least common way of introducing the story, but instead, a story is most commonly introduced through subtle means, particularly as an answer to questions raised in a previous tale.The general story is narrated by an unknown narrator, and in this narration the stories are told. In most of Scheherazade's narrations there are also stories narrated, and even in some of these, there are some other stories.
This is particularly the case for the ' story narrated by Scheherazade in the One Thousand and One Nights. Within the 'Sinbad the Sailor' story itself, the protagonist Sinbad the Sailor narrates the stories of his seven voyages to Sinbad the Porter. The device is also used to great effect in stories such as ' and '. In yet another tale Scheherazade narrates, ', the 'Tale of the Wazir and the Sage ' is narrated within it, and within that there are three more tales narrated.Dramatic visualization Dramatic visualization is 'the representing of an object or character with an abundance of descriptive detail, or the mimetic rendering of gestures and dialogue in such a way as to make a given scene 'visual' or imaginatively present to an audience'. This technique is used in several tales of the One Thousand and One Nights. An example of this is the tale of 'The Three Apples' (see below).Fate and destiny A common in many Arabian Nights tales is. The filmmaker observed:every tale in The Thousand and One Nights begins with an 'appearance of destiny' which manifests itself through an anomaly, and one anomaly always generates another.
So a chain of anomalies is set up. And the more logical, tightly knit, essential this chain is, the more beautiful the tale. By 'beautiful' I mean vital, absorbing and exhilarating. The chain of anomalies always tends to lead back to normality. The end of every tale in The One Thousand and One Nights consists of a 'disappearance' of destiny, which sinks back to the of daily life. The protagonist of the stories is in fact destiny itself.Though invisible, fate may be considered a leading character in the One Thousand and One Nights.
The plot devices often used to present this theme are, and the (see below). And the Valley of Diamonds, from the Second Voyage.Early examples of the technique of, now known as ', occur in the One Thousand and One Nights, which contains 'repeated references to some character or object which appears insignificant when first mentioned but which reappears later to intrude suddenly in the narrative'. A notable example is in the tale of 'The Three Apples' (see below).Another early foreshadowing technique is formal patterning, 'the organization of the events, actions and gestures which constitute a narrative and give shape to a story; when done well, formal patterning allows the audience the pleasure of discerning and anticipating the structure of the plot as it unfolds'. This technique is also found in One Thousand and One Nights.Another form of foreshadowing is the, which dates back to the story of in ancient, and or the death of in the plays of. A variation of this device is the self-fulfilling dream, which can be found in (or the dreams of Joseph and his conflicts with his brothers, in the ). Several tales in the One Thousand and One Nights use this device to foreshadow what is going to happen, as a special form of literary. A notable example is 'The Ruined Man who Became Rich Again through a Dream', in which a man is told in his dream to leave his native city of and travel to, where he will discover the whereabouts of some hidden treasure.
The man travels there and experiences misfortune, ending up in jail, where he tells his dream to a police officer. The officer mocks the idea of foreboding dreams and tells the protagonist that he himself had a dream about a house with a courtyard and fountain in Baghdad where treasure is buried under the fountain. The man recognizes the place as his own house and, after he is released from jail, he returns home and digs up the treasure.
In other words, the foreboding dream not only predicted the future, but the dream was the cause of its prediction coming true. A variant of this story later appears in as the ' and 's '; ' collection of short stories featured his translation of this particular story into Spanish, as 'The Story Of The Two Dreamers.' Another variation of the self-fulfilling prophecy can be seen in 'The Tale of Attaf', where consults his library (the ), reads a random book, 'falls to laughing and weeping and dismisses the faithful from sight. Ja'afar, 'disturbed and upset flees Baghdad and plunges into a series of adventures in, involving Attaf and the woman whom Attaf eventually marries.' After returning to Baghdad, Ja'afar reads the same book that caused Harun to laugh and weep, and discovers that it describes his own adventures with Attaf. In other words, it was Harun's reading of the book that provoked the adventures described in the book to take place. This is an early example of.
Near the end of the tale, Attaf is given a death sentence for a crime he didn't commit but Harun, knowing the truth from what he has read in the book, prevents this and has Attaf released from prison. In the 12th century, this tale was by and included in his, alongside the ' story cycle. In the 14th century, a version of 'The Tale of Attaf' also appears in the and 's. Repetition. Illustration of One Thousand and One Nights by, Iran, 1849–1856is 'the purposeful of words' in a given literary piece that 'usually expresses a or important to the given story'. This device occurs in the One Thousand and One Nights, which binds several tales in a story cycle.
The storytellers of the tales relied on this technique 'to shape the constituent members of their story cycles into a coherent whole.' Is 'the distribution of recurrent concepts and moralistic among the various incidents and frames of a story. In a skillfully crafted tale, thematic patterning may be arranged so as to emphasize the unifying argument or salient idea which disparate events and disparate frames have in common'. This technique is also used in the One Thousand and One Nights.Several different variants of the ' story, which has its origins in the Egyptian story of, appear in the One Thousand and One Nights, including 'The Second Shaykh's Story', 'The Eldest Lady's Tale' and 'Abdallah ibn Fadil and His Brothers', all dealing with the theme of a younger sibling harassed by two jealous elders. In some of these, the siblings are female, while in others they are male. One of the tales, 'Judar and His Brethren', departs from the of previous variants and reworks the plot to give it a ending instead, with the younger brother being poisoned by his elder brothers. Sexual humour The Nights contain many examples of sexual humour.
Some of this borders on, as in the tale called 'Ali with the Large Member' which pokes fun at obsession with. Unreliable narrator The literary device of the was used in several fictional medieval of the One Thousand and One Nights. In one tale, 'The Seven Viziers' (also known as 'Craft and Malice of Women or The Tale of the King, His Son, His Concubine and the Seven Wazirs'), a accuses a king's son of having assaulted her, when in reality she had failed to seduce him (inspired by the / story of /). Seven attempt to save his life by narrating seven stories to prove the unreliability of women, and the courtesan responds by narrating a story to prove the unreliability of viziers. The unreliable narrator device is also used to generate in 'The Three Apples' and in 'The Hunchback's Tale' (see below).Crime fiction elements. Illustration depicting and the thieves from.An example of the and genres in the collection, with multiple and elements was ', also known as Hikayat al-sabiyya 'l-maqtula ('The Tale of the Murdered Young Woman').In this tale, comes to possess a chest, which, when opened, contains the body of a young woman. Harun gives his vizier, three days to find the culprit or be executed.
At the end of three days, when Ja'far is about to be executed for his failure, two men come forward, both claiming to be the murderer. As they tell their story it transpires that, although the younger of them, the woman's husband, was responsible for her death, some of the blame attaches to a slave, who had taken one of the apples mentioned in the title and caused the woman's murder.Harun then gives Ja'far three more days to find the guilty slave. When he yet again fails to find the culprit, and bids his family goodbye before his execution, he discovers by chance his daughter has the apple, which she obtained from Ja'far's own slave, Rayhan. Thus the mystery is solved.Another Nights tale with elements was 'The Hunchback's Tale' story cycle which, unlike 'The Three Apples', was more of a and rather than a murder mystery or detective fiction. The story is set in a fictional China and begins with a hunchback, the emperor's favourite, being invited to dinner by a couple.
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The hunchback accidentally chokes on his food from laughing too hard and the couple, fearful that the emperor will be furious, take his body to a 's and leave him there. This leads to the next tale in the cycle, the 'Tale of the Jewish Doctor', where the doctor accidentally trips over the hunchback's body, falls down the stairs with him, and finds him dead, leading him to believe that the fall had killed him. The doctor then dumps his body down a chimney, and this leads to yet another tale in the cycle, which continues with twelve tales in total, leading to all the people involved in this incident finding themselves in a, all making over how the hunchback had died. Crime fiction elements are also present near the end of 'The Tale of Attaf' (see above).Horror fiction elements is used as a in and, as well as modern. Legends about have long appeared in literature. In particular, the Arabian Nights tale of 'Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad' revolves around a house haunted. The Nights is almost certainly the earliest surviving literature that mentions, and many of the stories in that collection involve or reference ghouls.
A prime example is the story The History of Gherib and His Brother Agib (from Nights vol. 6), in which Gherib, an outcast prince, fights off a family of ravenous Ghouls and then enslaves them and converts them to.Horror fiction elements are also found in 'The City of Brass' tale, which revolves around a.The horrific nature of 's situation is magnified in 's, in which the protagonist is forced to write a novel to keep his captor from torturing and killing him.
The influence of the Nights on modern horror fiction is certainly discernible in the work of. As a child, he was fascinated by the adventures recounted in the book, and he attributes some of his creations to his love of the 1001 Nights. Fantasy and science fiction elements. Illustration of the story of Prince Ahmed and the Fairy Paribanou, More tales from the Arabian nights by Willy Pogany (1915)Several stories within the One Thousand and One Nights feature early elements. One example is 'The Adventures of Bulukiya', where the Bulukiya's quest for the leads him to explore the seas, journey to and to, and travel across the to different worlds much larger than his own world, anticipating elements of science fiction; along the way, he encounters societies of, talking, talking trees, and other forms of life. In 'Abu al-Husn and His Slave-Girl Tawaddud', the heroine Tawaddud gives an impromptu on the mansions of the, and the benevolent and sinister aspects of the planets.In another 1001 Nights tale, 'Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman', the protagonist Abdullah the Fisherman gains the ability to breathe underwater and discovers an underwater society that is portrayed as an inverted reflection of society on land, in that the underwater society follows a form of where concepts like money and clothing do not exist.
Other Arabian Nights tales also depict societies dominated by women, lost ancient technologies, advanced ancient civilizations that went astray, and catastrophes which overwhelmed them. 'The City of Brass' features a group of travellers on an expedition across the to find an ancient lost city and attempt to recover a brass vessel that once used to trap a, and, along the way, encounter a queen, inhabitants, lifelike and, seductive dancing without strings, and a brass horseman who directs the party towards the ancient city, which has now become a. The 'Third Qalandar's Tale' also features a robot in the form of an uncanny. Poetry There is an abundance of in One Thousand and One Nights. It is often deployed by stories' narrators to provide detailed descriptions, usually of the beauty of characters.
Characters also occasionally quote or speak in verse in certain settings. The uses include but are not limited to:. Giving advice, warning, and solutions. Praising God, royalties and those in power. Pleading for mercy and forgiveness. Lamenting wrong decisions or bad luck. Providing riddles, laying questions, challenges.
Criticizing elements of life, wondering. Expressing feelings to others or one's self: happiness, sadness, anxiety, surprise, anger.In a typical example, expressing feelings of happiness to oneself from Night 203, Prince Qamar Al-Zaman, standing outside the castle, wants to inform Queen Bodour of his arrival. He wraps his ring in a paper and hands it to the servant who delivers it to the Queen.
When she opens it and sees the ring, joy conquers her, and out of happiness she chants this poem. The Flying Carpet, a depiction of the hero of Russian folklore,.The influence of the versions of The Nights on world literature is immense. Writers as diverse as to have alluded to the collection by name in their own works. Other writers who have been influenced by the Nights include, and.Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as,. Part of its popularity may have sprung from improved standards of historical and geographical knowledge. The marvelous beings and events typical of fairy tales seem less incredible if they are set further 'long ago' or farther 'far away'; this process culminates in the having little connection, if any, to actual times and places. Several elements from are now common in modern, such as, magic lamps, etc.
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When proposed writing a modern fairy tale that banished stereotypical elements, he included the genie as well as the dwarf and the fairy as stereotypes to go.In 1982, the (IAU) began naming features on 's moon after characters and places in 's translation because 'its surface is so strange and mysterious that it was given the Arabian Nights as a name bank, linking fantasy landscape with a literary fantasy'.In Arab culture There is little evidence that the Nights was particularly treasured in the Arab world. It is rarely mentioned in lists of popular literature and few pre-18th-century manuscripts of the collection exist.
Fiction had a low cultural status among Medieval Arabs compared with poetry, and the tales were dismissed as khurafa (improbable fantasies fit only for entertaining women and children). According to Robert Irwin, 'Even today, with the exception of certain writers and academics, the Nights is regarded with disdain in the Arabic world. Its stories are regularly denounced as vulgar, improbable, childish and, above all, badly written.' Nevertheless, the Nights have proved an inspiration to some modern Egyptian writers, such as (author of the play Shahrazad, 1934), ( Scheherazade's Dreams, 1943) and (, 1981). Finds the numerical equivalent of the Arabic title, alf layla wa layla, in the Arabic phrase umm el quissa, meaning 'mother of records'. He goes on to state that many of the stories 'are encoded, descriptions of psychological processes, or enciphered lore of one kind or another.' On a more popular level, film and TV adaptations based on stories like Sinbad and Aladdin enjoyed long lasting popularity in Arabic speaking countries.Possible early influence on European literature Although the first known translation into a European language only appeared in 1704, it is possible that the Nights began exerting its influence on Western culture much earlier.
Christian writers in Medieval Spain translated many works from Arabic, mainly philosophy and mathematics, but also Arab fiction, as is evidenced by 's story collection and 's The Book of Beasts. Knowledge of the work, direct or indirect, apparently spread beyond Spain. Themes and motifs with parallels in the Nights are found in 's (in the hero travels on a flying brass horse) and 's. Echoes in 's Novelle and 's suggest that the story of Shahriyar and Shahzaman was also known.
Evidence also appears to show that the stories had spread to the and a translation of the Nights into existed by the 17th century, itself based on a Greek version of the collection. Western literature from the 18th century onwards.
When BioShock meets a randomly generated Prince of Persia, you end up with the addictive, Australian-developed City of Brass.
You never quite know what to expect when you leap through the gates of the City of Brass. Actually, that’s a half truth. You know to expect an angry, violent, kamikaze cast of skeletal bad dudes, who will charge at you on sight. You can be sure that any step made around the environment without first checking your surroundings will end up in the merciless beating of a booby trap.
And should you survive the above, you’re well aware of the bountiful loot you’ll collect. Lots and lots of loot. But you don’t know what order to expect them in. That’s what we’re really enjoying about City of Brass.
During our time with this endlessly replayable game, we’ve died a lot. Death comes quick in the City of Brass if you’re not sharp of mind and quick of finger. But it’s smart enough to quickly throw you back into the action. Each playthrough gets you a little deeper, teaches you a new trick, offers up a new strategy, or allows you to experiment in a new way with a power-up.
It’s a gameplay loop we’ve seen before, if not dressed before in Arabian clothing, and when it’s done right, it’s addictive in all the right ways.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
A First-Person Roguelite
City of Brass is a first-person, dungeon-crawling, roguelike. The setting invokes experiences like Aladdin and Prince of Persia, transporting you into the deep, strong colours of the Middle Eastern desert. Here a long lost city slowly withers under the heart and the sand. Once a grand metropolis, the greed of its citizens overwhelmed the population, incurring a genie’s curse and damning the lot of them.
However, their vast riches remain, inspiring intrepid treasure hunters such as yourself – thieves in truth – to brave its malevolence for a chance to get deep into the city’s centre. If you can make it, not only is there something truly valuable to be found, but perhaps even a means of reversing the genie’s curse and returning the City of Brass to its original glory.
We’re intrigued by the possibilities of this end game, but despite the evocative preamble, this isn’t a story-driven experience. It’s all about the gameplay. Armed with little more than a whip and a blade, you leap into the city streets starting at the outskirts, faced each time by a procedurally generated run through that always plays different, even if you get the impression it’s just puzzling together familiar areas in new ways.
Get through the outskirts of the City of Brass and you get through level 1, making it deeper into the city. However, making it to the exit is easier said than done.
An Exciting Gameplay Loop
As mentioned, the damned come in many different, skeletal forms, and their random placement means they can appear in hordes, behind doors and hiding in bizarre nooks and crannies. Once they’ve identified your presence, they come at you like mindless zombies, hell bent on protecting their riches.
This can work to your advantage, allowing you to lure them into traps, or attracting them to an area where you can safely hug the high ground and pick them off as they grovel below.
Developer Uppercut Games, who comes out of Canberra, Australia, is made up of ex-2K Australia developers who worked on the BioShock series. It’s a history the studio is making no effort to hide. (And why would you? BioShock is brilliant!) Despite the Arabian setting, the manic sounds of these damned and the way they wander the environment immediately recalls the underwater tubes of Rapture.
Elsewhere, the genie shopkeepers that pop up from the environment in neon glory do so in such a fashion you’ll be waiting on the voice of Andrew Ryan to boom out of your speakers. These genie shops allow you to buy power-ups for your weapons or your defence, allowing you to manipulate the environment – like turning off traps – and buy precious hearts to top up your health.
Each run-through sets you back to a bank balance of zero, so acquiring the funds to buy these items requires loot. It’s everywhere in the city streets – the citizens must have been showering in the stuff before the apocalypse – so you can quickly amass a small fortune. However, given that your high score is a product of the loot procured before your death, you want to be thrifty about the way you spend it.
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— Uppercut Games (@UppercutGames) May 4, 2018
Thankfully your trusty whip, always attached to your left hand, can grab loot that is out of reach and reel it back into your purse as a frog might pull in a fly. The whip is an unusual weapon, but a vital tool in not only securing passage through the City of Brass, but in separating the game from likeminded titles. Outside of nabbing loot, it can be used to grab parts of the environment so you can swing to different areas, or out of trouble if you’re getting swarmed.
But it’s in combat that it proves its true value. Whipping a foe, whether they be charging you or oblivious to your presence, can have a multitude of effects. Get them in the head and you can stun them, allowing you to leap in for an easy hit. Hit their legs you can trip them. Their hand and you can disarm them.
Depending on the class of foe, and how many are coming at you at once, thinking about this and combining it with your scimitar slashes, shoves and slide kicks is vital to success.
Playing Under Pressure
Which brings us to the final, yet unrevealed gameplay feature that brings City of Brass’ many gameplay flourishes together into something truly addictive. You only have a set amount of time to complete a level. Fail, and a fireball of death homes in on your location and vanquishes you instantly.
In a game where you can’t mindlessly run through the stage Doom-style due to the risk of running over upwardly thrusting spikes or some other booby trap, and where you need to explore for loot to buy the power-ups you need, the presence of a timer – just eight minutes when you begin – creates a pressure cooker environment.
Strategy becomes everything. Too much time spent with any one gameplay element at the cost of ignoring another – such as looking for loot, luring enemies into traps, shopping at a genie – will doom you to be damned.
The presence of blessing or burdens – modifiers you can apply to the game world to help alter the difficulty – does give you a chance to manipulate the terms of play and keep that frustration/reward dynamic set to your own personal requirements. We’ve still got to get deeper into this city – no easy task – and see how the traps, enemies, environments, and power-ups grow to keep up your desire to press on.
This will be what helps take this game from good to great. Uppercut Games is certainly a developer making a name for itself, following innovative work on titles like EPOCH and Submerged. And our initial reaction to City of Brass is that Uppercut Games has a real winner on its hands.
You can grab it on PC, PS4, or Xbox One.