Citadelum Review

Time does fly. It feels like yesterday when I was spending day after day planning a city's structure that would adequately keep its population, logistics, production, and diplomacy in shape. The city-building RTS genre pretty much grew with the help of games like Caesar III, Zeus, and Pharaoh. Even though these games are deemed classic, the standards they set back then have yet to be contested by any game or even come close to them.

Triskell Interactive released Pharaoh: A New Era last year, which was more of a remake of the original Pharaoh, only adding a new layer of visual improvements. When Citadelum was revealed, most of the genre fans, including me, were intrigued.

The game takes visual cues from classics like Pharaoh and Caesar III, paying homage to them while adding a level of detail suited to modern city-building RTS games. I was initially drawn to this game because it seemed like the old Impression Games series. Yes, in some ways, it does, yet Citadelum simplifies some things while complicating others.

Those who like the classic city-building games from Sierra or the recently released Pharaoh: A New Era will find a home in Citadelum. As a reference to the Impression Games' city-builders, especially those with gods, Zeus: Master of Olympus in particular, Citadelum is a charming game that transports you to the late Roman Republic and early Empire eras.

Unlike in Impression Games, however, you'll actually need resources to construct buildings, so you'll want to tread carefully when you initially expand each game. And it's not as simple as putting up a few buildings; you'll have to collect resources, grow your city, discover new areas, trade commodities, and lead legions of enemies.

From maintaining desirability to optimizing the market, firehouse post, engineer hut, and more, all of the old mechanics are here. Everything that keeps your city functioning efficiently, down to the smallest detail. While Citadelum's gameplay adheres to the traditional city-building settings, it also incorporates other elements.

Your mission is to build a prosperous town while balancing the requirements of the lower-class Plebeians and the higher-class Patricians. In each level, you begin with a blank slate and build a classic Roman city from the bottom up. This includes housing, food and water, entertainment, and even military, while the game's campaign and sandbox modes allow you to experience a variety of scenarios.

But unlike Caesar III, where you have a genuine reason to keep going with each mission, Citadelum's campaign mode isn't filled with engaging obstacles. Sadly, even the sandbox mode lacks imagination. However, building homes isn't the only thing that needs doing; you also need to supply things like food, water, entertainment, and so on.

You can also add gardens and statues to increase the desirability of different places and upgrade the residences. Better housing allows for more people to live in them, which increases both the workforce and tax revenue. The more expensive houses do come with a catch, though: your residents will naturally demand higher-end services and goods.

You get to pick your starting city, but it doesn't really matter in terms of gameplay. You can cultivate whatever crop you want, access whatever resource you want, and upgrade buildings to max with little effort, regardless of whichever map you start.

And no matter which map you choose, the game easily gets boring due to the lack of variation. Since you start with all the resources you need, trading and interacting with other cities is limited. This removes a fundamental feature that made the original Sierra games so appealing: the difficulty of managing resources, something that Frostpunk has injected exceptionally well, and managing and creating trade routes, which Ara: History Untold did nicely.

You won't feel like you're making any progress or facing any real challenges because the gameplay is so simplistic, and after a few campaigns, you'll unlock everything. There aren't any interesting obstacles in the campaign, unlike games like Caesar III, where you have a genuine reason to keep going with each objective. The sandbox mode lacks creativity as well. Although you have the option to select your starting city, it won't have much of an effect on the gameplay.

The excitement of overseeing manufacturing, logistics, diplomacy, and population balance is noticeably lacking or neglected in Citadelum. In terms of resource diversity and production chain diversity, the gameplay is likely to feel a bit narrower in Citadelum.

To a large extent, the difficulties are mitigated because acquiring the necessary resources to construct a thriving city is not too difficult. Even the trading routes are quite simple, and most of the necessary items can be readily obtainable on every single map.

As a city-builder, Citadelum isn't overly focused on the military, but the different maps are fun to explore, and the military side is more visually polished than in Impression Games' games, like how we've seen combat mechanism in Manor Lords, the game grants you the option to switch to different battle formation prior to an attack.

You can simply drag the unit to make a formation, and the troops rush forward blindly. But the AI isn't very good at it and will occasionally break the formation if they come across any tree or something like that. Sadly, however, you can't invade surrounding cities. This makes the game even less engaging from a military perspective and reduces the depth of strategy. Though combat is never a stronger forte of this genre, so don't expect a level of strategic depth like Diplomacy is Not an Option.

Citadelum isn't perfect, especially when it comes to giving each map a clear goal or strategic heading. Themeing was a strong suit of the older city builders; for example, you could create an industrial city to cover the large expenditures or establish a farming-based economy to foster a very large population.

Regrettably, Citadelum also falls short in this regard, too. There doesn't seem to be enough reason for the cities to differentiate themselves or adopt unique strategies; thus, they all end up repeating the exact same pattern.

Another throwback is the god's mechanism, allowing you to construct temples for different gods and honor their blessings through festivals. There are six gods in the game, and they offer several effective incentives that can be earned by replenishing divine favor. For instance, if your food supply is getting low, you can replenish your farms by offering to Ceres or for an army to Mars. The same goes for Apollo, Jupiter, Minerva, and Pluto.

You can always shake things up by adding the element of gaining the gods' favor or, if you're in the mood, defying them. These gods, however, can be furious if you disobey them for an extended period and might cause disaster in several ways.

While this does increase the stakes, I find these divine favors to be a tad overpowered and nearly unnecessary. However, they do assist. For instance, by allowing Mars to summon fully armed troops, you can simply avoid producing weapons and armor.

The best part of Citadelum is its visuals. The graphics are crisp and well done, like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms 8 Remake, and I love how you can zoom in to investigate each structure. It really brings the game to life. Peeping inside allows you to get a glimpse of the detailed interiors or observe your craftsman in action.

This thoughtful addition prompts you to pause and admire the reality of the world you are building. I missed the piece of dialogue from random people when selecting them while they were roaming around the streets. It's something the developers might want to add to future updates.

Honestly, I really wanted to like Citadelum. While it successfully captures a retro vibe, the content is simply insufficient to hold my attention for a longer period, as is the case with games of this genre. While it's great that the game wants to experience the golden era of the city-building genre, Citadelum falls short of expectations in terms of complexity and innovative gameplay. The lack of diversity, though, is something Abylight Studios might want to improve upon to capture the audience.

Ultimately, Citadelum had immense potential to be an extraordinary game, but only if it had more complexity and variation. Abylight Studios made a decent attempt to engage newcomers to this genre by adding a stylish look to a retro genre, and they might still accomplish that if they keep working on the game's features.

I really hope they keep feeding the game with further updates. Because those who lived in the days of Caesar III, Zeus, and Pharaoh intensely longed for the days of those old-school city builders. Citadelum has much to improve to reach that height, and I hope they do. If you're a newcomer to this genre, Citadelum would be a nice start due to its less complexity, but the oldtimers won't find any joy in the game.