Citadel


Title		Citadel
Game Type	3D Action
Players		1
Compatibility	A500+ or better
Submission	Terry Everest

Review
        Citadel is a doom clone of  a shooter and unfortunately, like
many attempts to imitate the classic 3d shooting and searching game it is
largely unsuccessfull.

    The simple plot is that you are trapped in a citadel but it is not an
old building by any stretch of the imagination.  You must search the
corridors for components of a bomb and once you collect the lot you use it
to destroy the citadel and complete the game.  What ruins this outlook is
the presence of many deadly enemies who want to kill you and many locked
doors and mazes.

        I am afraid that this is where the game particularly dissapoints
because of the following major flaws.

        The enemies are very odd, some are aliens which are reminiscent
of a spoof sci-fi and others are ninjas which use throwing stars to assault
you etc etc. The point is that they are slow and stupid and far less
challenging than they should be. The levels are flat, there are no stairs
or slopes to enjoy nor any real outside sections.  The gameplay has some
elements of puzzle which boil down to wandering around in search of
keycards, doors and the bits of bomb. There are the obligatory ammo and
health bonuses and also the occasional bottle of wine which renders you
useless and produces a stagger effect on your movement which can be very
annoying.

    The game starts in some kind of laboratory which is virtually empty
but has objects in it which cannot be interacted with or destroyed.  You
move on to what is essentially a large maze and you will get bored before
you get killed which is why it is hard to say nice things about it.  You
can progress with patience and skill but after a while you long for
something else to do and it is not forthcoming.

The graphics are good but clearly this is no quality 3d engine such as
that in Doom and it runs in a small screen and quite slowly.  With a good
Amiga you could run this at decent speed and at full size and you would
probably get good graphics. However the negative elements of the game
far outweigh the good points and I would not recommend it to anyone
especially as it has poor sound effects, and awful boring scenery
throughout.  It does not inspire and it is rarely engaging for the brain,
I would compare it as a close contender to the PC classic from id
software Wolfenstein 3D .

W3d is however better than citadel because it has the most excellent
sound effects and boss speech like   "Aaaaaeeeeeeeiiiiiii!!!" when people
die or phrases like "Ein decline americanum" from the bosses.  W3d is the
only game where you can kill hundreds of Nazis (no offence, its wartime)
and even Adolf Hitler himself.

For those with a good amiga you should get the latest Doom or Quake that
you can because even the originals are far, far better than Citadel which I
am giving a generous 55%

        Overall you should avoid this shadow of a game and its not really
worth a look even for free.

                    " creating an awful original game is better than an
average imitation of a great game."  tel





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