City of Brass

If you're a rogue-like fan and wanted to kinda feel like you're stuck trying to escape the treasure room from the movie Aladdin.. This game is for you. It's beautifully addictive and fun. The blessing/burden system allows you to tweak the difficulty to your liking and the multiple different playable characters changes up the game enough to keep it fresh for the "just one more run" syndrome your bound to encounter.

The game is nice for a permadeath game. I would say than it is a little bit too much difficult, sometimes there is too much ennemies in the same room. At least, the portal allow you to play further so you don't have to play the first levels over and over. Some characters are really weak, knowing how the game is difficult and merciless, would have been great to boost them a little.

so first the things I liked:
-the setting is really something special. the small bit of lore is creative and interesting and the visuals and music are gorgeous
-the combat feels great. very responsive and surprisingly fun for a first person slasher

what I didn't like
-the roguelike nature of the game prevents it from living up to its true potential. the combat never really seems to gain any depth outside of characters that you unlock via just playing the game. I think challenges to unlock them a la Risk of Rain would be preferable. More importantly, the random upgrades you acquire as you play really dont seem to be very impactful or game changing.

my verdict: worth picking up on sale just to experience the creative stuff indie devs are cooking up

This game is like a delightful diet buffet: there is a little bit of everything in there, but it's very light - like melee oriented gameplay, with some physics, a little bit of verticality and platforming, some rogue like stuff, and even a little bit of immersive sim spices into the mix. I like it, it's nice, relaxing, light, it doesn't want you to grind anything - there are no DLCs, no paywalls anywhere, juste a simple fun little game... it's adorable
I haven't heard of thoses Bioshock guys in a while though, I hope they're doing well

It is definitely fun, but only truly fun if you enjoy roguelike games. I definitely do not enjoy starting from the first level every time. But thank gods they made 3 checkpoints to which you can teleport with 3 wishes you have (after you reach them first time of course; 3rd teleport costs all 3 wishes).
Also, quite often best strategy is not to fight which for me feels a little contradictory to the point of action games, but here it is either that or making a costly mistake somewhere.
Wish movement was a little more responsive, but I've seen devs saying that this is intentional, to make player think twice. Well yes and no. It just makes it harder, imho.

Runs perfectly on the Steam Deck and looks great.
It has a fun gameplay loop and looks pretty. You can make your own decision after watching gameplay.

It is surprisingly funny FPP roguelike with Prince of Persia vibes (ohh man, I miss these games), but only for a few runs/until one or two completions. It has some problems with balance: some items are too OP, and others are almost completely useless. Also, ranged characters make cheesing bosses too easy. But its biggest sin is that, unfortunately, it is also too repetitive: same enemies, bosses, and low item variety. But a few first runs are very entertaining, and the game is definitely worth getting at -90% price.