I’m always a fan of a good simulator, whether it’s zoos, theme parks, farms, or city-building. When the Roman city-builder Citadelum was brought to my attention, I knew I had to jump in, and I’m so glad I did. Citadelum blends strategy, simulation, and style to create an addictive experience that I can’t seem to put down.
Citadelum is what happens when you blend SimCity with Age of Mythology and then ramp things up to 11. The game takes place in Rome, and you need to build a functional city for your people. However, what is deemed functional varies as your town evolves and your residents demand more. What I thought was going to be a peaceful sim game turned into a little ball of chaos when things like armies and angry Gods came into play, but more on that later.
As Citadelum begins, players focus on building homes for working-class citizens known as Plebeians. The first essential structure to build is a Forum, and everything in your new city must connect to it in some way. As a musical theatre nerd, I couldn’t help but mutter, “A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum” every time I started a new build. From there, players must provide basic necessities for their townspeople, such as Fire Stations, Engineer Posts, Iron Mines, Stone Quarries, and Logging Camps.
“Citadelum blends strategy, simulation, and style to create an addictive experience that I can’t seem to put down.”
From there, your city will start to grow, and you will need to expand. Patrician housing is needed to bring in “Elite Residents” who pay taxes and allow you to expand and pay your Plebeians. These people are a bit harder to please and require more elaborate crops, entertainment and more as time goes on. There is a balance you need to strike between expanding both kinds of housing.
Plebeians also need work in Citadelum; otherwise, those without jobs will start resorting to crime and bring down something called “People’s Favor.” This is where you can see the overall happiness of your city and things like Crime, Homelessness, Housing Needs, Health, Worker’s Wages, Patrician Taxes and Gladiators, Races and Theater will affect this. Yes, you heard me, there are Gladiators.
Every time you expand into a new kind of need, like health or entertainment, you will need more Plebeians to work, money and resources to build it and space to put it where it will have the biggest effect on your residents. All of the buildings have a radius of what they affect. Mines and other similar buildings will bring down Desirability. Fire Stations only cover the buildings within their reach. Even buildings like Granaries and Warehouses can only house items within their areas.
All of these things are something to consider when you need to expand your cities, but in truth, if you aren’t thinking about them from the moment you lay down your Forum, you will start to run into issues. Citadelum really makes you think about what goes into building a city, whether that is decoration, types of food, basic needs and more. It goes a step further to break down each step as well. Though in something like Roller Coaster Tycoon, you can just pay to build what you want, Citadelum requires you to start at the base of each issue, like farming resources.
These are very similar mechanics to something like Cities: Skylines 2, but Citadelum goes above and beyond, weaving in war mechanics and the wrath and favour of various Gods to spice things up. This is where my comparison to something like the Age of Mythology comes into play. Eventually, you need to explore, build an army, develop trade routes and defend your city.
These mechanics go a few levels deep in Citadelum as well. If you want to build Recruit Barracks to build your army, you will need to make sure you have everything that the army needs to succeed. That means you need Bow Workshops, Swordsmiths, Armor Workshops, and Shield Workshops. You also need training areas to develop a well-rounded army that includes Archers, Guards, Centurians and more. But wait, there’s more. If you aren’t farming the right resources to train those people—like meat, wheat, fish and ore—then you can’t train your army.
“Citadelum really makes you think about what goes into building a city, whether that is decoration, types of food, basic needs, and more.”
The intricacies of development in Citadelum are several levels deep, and they always keep you on your toes. There are six gods to keep happy as well, and each of them has different requirements to keep them satisfied. Some require wine or crops, and you can even sacrifice animals or villagers in their honour. If you don’t meet their needs for too long, they will come down to your city and wreak havoc. Keep them pleased, however, and you can bring them down to bless your farms, residents and more.
There is a lot going on in Citadelum, and I certainly liked some aspects more than others. In terms of the Gods, I could get behind needing to choose one and keep them happy, maybe even one or two. But later in the game, you need to keep all six happy (Minerva, Mars, Jupiter, Pluto, Apollo and Ceres) and this requires more and more temples as time goes on. Even two for each God is 12 temples, and those are needed pretty early in the game progression once they unlock.
As I mentioned previously, each building only affects a certain radius, and keeping these spaced out but still reaching a city felt impossible. Something I wish most city builders would consider is that a building’s radius shouldn’t have to be a perfect rectangle around a building. It would be nice to customize the area they cover, not necessarily in size, but in direction. It would make for some much nicer layouts, that’s for sure.
“I was genuinely impressed with the visuals in Citadelum, from the detailed soldiers rushing into battle to trees blowing in the wind.”
I also feel like the combat in Citadelum is a bit of an afterthought. It sits in a different window that I often forget about, even though there are subtle reminders on the screen when something happens. These feel like just a way to include more to manage and a means to create a trade route. The battles are fine, but ultimately, the weakest part of Citadelum.
I was shocked to see the blood and gore when you finally take part in a battle, which isn’t a bad thing. I was genuinely impressed with the visuals in Citadelum. The soldiers rushing into battle was fun to watch, albeit a bit messy. When I zoom into the outskirts of my city, trees and grass are detailed and blowing in the wind. I found myself zooming as far in as I could to watch my workers run around with wheelbarrows, delivering from the market or bringing items to warehouses. Even checking out the inside of homes as they progress and develop was a lot of fun. Citadelum really puts detail into each world you create.
There is also a progression to the story in Citadelum that allows you to meet certain goals and move on to the next map, where the game walks you through new mechanics. You can just choose any map you want instead, however, or continue on a map you have met the requirements of if you’d rather see your world continue to develop. Each map has different difficulties, starting resources, and even whether or not combat is required, making things clear and concise before you jump in.
All told Citadelum is a game I just can’t stop playing. Even with some of the mechanics being less than ideal, there is still a part of me that wants to master them anyway. Citadelum is a city builder that goes above and beyond, with beautiful visuals that are truly impressive for a simulator. Citadelum is an easy recommend to anyone who loves a city builder or simulator and is looking for a challenge.
