On the surface, Cities Skylines 2 is a game of modern problems. Your citizens don't just need houses – they need commerce, mass transit, multi-lane highways, and an effective power grid. These seem like 21st century stresses. But, as it turns out, governing the ancient world is equally complex, and its people just as demanding. A combination of Colossal Order's genre-leading city builder and the historical setting of Civilization 6, Citadelum is a new strategy game where you're in charge of constructing, overseeing, and leading a Roman city during the height of the empire. 'Cities Skylines but you're Julius Caesar' is an extremely strong pitch. This could be the new city builder of our dreams.
Citadelum is split into three broad gameplay periods. At the start, your chief obligation is to harvest resources and lay the foundations for your first settlements. In this stage, it feels like the preliminary hours of Age of Empires – your earliest achievements are modest, mere amenities like houses, walls, and maybe an aqueduct.
Once you have a foothold, however, the city building game evolves into something else. You're not bound to a single metropolis. Instead, you can expand across the world map and start to create settlements that will maximize production and keep your people fed, watered, and happy.
But this is where it gets difficult. As well as your human population, you also need to keep the gods happy – this is Ancient Rome after all. So begins the third stage in Citadelum. The Pantheon is fickle and demanding, and every god wants their own way, and plenty of tribute.
The problem is, if you build temples to one of them, the others might have a tantrum and destroy a chunk of your city in retribution. Of course, you can always go your own way, ignore your deific bosses, and pursue a humanistic, egalitarian society driven by raw science – although you'll probably get a lightning bolt through your head.
If you want to give Citadelum a try, it's available on Steam right now for $19.99 / £16.79. You can get it right here.
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