Come and Take a Walk With Me

When life asks you its toughest questions, where will you stand: on what is right or what you feel is right?

Citadel is a philosophical sci-fi visual novel that puts you in the amnesic mind of a person waking in a primordial soup attached to a grotesque umbilical mass of…something, with nowhere to go but the faint lighting of buildings and a towering structure in the horizon. There’s a lot of questions put in front of you very early and Citadel is perfectly fine leaving you with them.  With no signs of life around you and a derelict path almost guiding you to the buildings afar, you’ll make the trek to the mighty citadel to seek answers of who you are, where you are, and when/why/how you are.

Citadel marks progress on your journey through three buildings, each carrying hypothetical scenarios that ask you questions to gather a basis on your morality in situations where doing the right thing may not be the correct option.  The reasoning for these questions stay mum as to not waver your decision in any way as you traverse through the mysterious town.  Without delving too far into the story, each of these questions will guide you to one of multiple endings that show off a collective “cause and effect” of the decisions you commit to.  They’re all intriguing branches and are each worth going through, and that recommendation is made all the easier considering I was able to see all of the endings in about an afternoon’s worth of game time.

I loved the old-school MS-DOS style of graphics and sound, all touted as being created by the one-man band of Liam Atkinson.  The sombering chiptune soundtrack combined with the 8-bit backdrops of black, white, and shades of green create a brooding atmosphere that does well to keep you engaged with what’s ahead.  A small miss are points near the ending of the game that are just multiple times louder than everything else in the game. These are meant to be jarring, but are loud enough to be a bother to the ears.  May be worth avoiding if you see them coming.

For the game’s length, the amount of branches doesn’t overstay its welcome or bloat its message. I was a little disappointed with a few areas that felt like there would be an opportunity for a multiple option scenario, only to be given one.  A couple of these are explained properly with additional playthroughs. Without revealing too much, there was a location I would’ve been delighted to stay at if only to see how the plot would’ve developed, but I was only given the choice to move forward and felt a little bummed.  The story makes you lonely and we had a chance to not be!  Ah well.

After an afternoon of clicking through Citadel’s story, embracing the artistic palette presented, and engaging with the finer questions it looked to present, I enjoyed my time with it! For a first time developer, I’m impressed with the foundations laid and direction Citadel took with its plot. That little chiptune during the TV segments is gonna be stuck in my head for weeks; no forgetting that one.

7/10

Review code provided by developer.