Empires throughout history have asserted their right to rule by claiming the legacy of the Roman Empire. While Abylight Studios is more humble than Charlemagne or Suleiman when it comes to their new Roman city-builder, Citadelum, it’s clear that the game draws upon the greats in the same way. Citadelum feels like a return to the Sierra City Builder series (Pharaoh and, of course, Caesar) in ways that both make the game a delight and hold it back from being something more.
Set during the first days of the Roman Empire, as Augustus consolidates power in the wake of his uncle Julius Caesar’s assassination, Citadelum charges you with constructing new settlements throughout Rome’s Imperium to support the rising Emperor’s military campaigns. This can be done via story missions or a sandbox mode, but either way you’ll turn an empty map into a bustling city - or fall prey to enemy raids, riots, or bankruptcy if you aren’t up to the task.
If you’ve played any city builder in the last twenty years or so, you shouldn’t have too much trouble getting into the basics of Citadelum. You’ll need to set up work camps to extract raw materials and farms to grow food, build houses for your citizens, and markets to distribute goods. Fire stations and engineering posts keep buildings in good working order, and as the city grows the people will start to demand entertainment in the form of religious festivals, theaters, and gladiatorial games.
While Citadelum isn’t breaking any new ground in terms of its gameplay loop, population management is tied to the Roman class system. Your people are either plebeians (commoners) or patricians (nobility), and you need both for your city to thrive. Plebeians do all the jobs in your city, and require payment from your treasury. Patricians don’t do any work, but instead pay taxes as long as their houses are well-maintained and within the range of a Tax Office. Unlocking new buildings requires increasing the population of both classes, which means bringing in more goods and services to attract more settlers.
Of course, the Roman Empire’s strength lies in its size and the interconnectedness of its cities. you may send out scouts to explore the surrounding territories, seeking other Roman settlements to trade with or relics to offer up to the gods. There are also enemy armies on the world map - either barbarians or Marcus Antonius’ rebels - and while they won’t attack your city directly, they block scouts from exploring until they’re dealt with and increase the frequency of raids. A half-decent guard force and some walls are enough to deal with the raids, but to chase off the armies you’ll need a legion of your own.
Recruiting legions is a slow and expensive process, and the payoff is only a rudimentary battle system largely determined by numbers and a rock-paper-scissors mechanic. Infantry beats Cavalry, Cavalry beats Archers, and Archers beat Infantry, but enemy armies are usually so large that it takes a long time to build up enough force to even remove one.
Luckily, you’re able to speed things up by invoking the gods. Worshiping the Roman pantheon is the biggest throwback to the City Builder series; by building temples, holding festivals, and sacrificing the occasional pig (or human), you can earn a blessing from a deity. Mars conjures trained and equipped soldiers out of thin air, Jupiter makes your people forget their troubles for a time, and Ceres ensures that your farms are bountiful, to name a few. On the other hand, if you neglect to worship a god for too long, they’ll unleash their wrath, causing buildings to collapse or crops to fail.
When a god interacts with your city, they walk around on the map with a glowing aura. It’s corny in the best way, and feels straight out of the year 2000.
While Citadelum is a fun, no-frills city builder that allows for an escape to a world of villas and vineyards, it doesn’t have anything to truly set it apart from the pack. Ultimately, the build order on each map becomes the same; there aren’t any branching tech trees or real choices to make with your resource production. You’ll need everything that you can produce at some point, and usually in the same order.
This is a particular weakness given that the game has Steam Workshop support and a map editor, and the developers seem very keen to let players create and share their own corners of the Empire. Without more gameplay variety, though, or some very extensive modding, I’m not sure how many players will be encouraged to utilise these options. In Citadelum’s current state, one map plays pretty much like any other.
This is the kind of indie game that I would love to see succeed, and the next steps post-launch, both in terms of ongoing development and community support, will be crucial in determining whether it’s remembered as a Justinian or an Honorius.
