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What happens when you take retro shooter gameplay that you’d find in the old Quake, Doom, or Marathon games and add in some anime girls? You get The Citadel. What happens when you do it again? You get its sequel, Beyond Citadel. Created by a solo dev who appreciates old FPS games and waifus in equal measures, Beyond Citadel has now arrived on Steam a couple of years on from its highly-rated predecessor. Judging by its early Steam user scores, it seems to be carrying on the trend, too.
While many of the most popular anime games around are suggestive narrative adventures or sprawling gacha RPGs, Beyond Citadel is different. Many have poetically called the first game in the series a ‘gooner shooter,’ and I’m afraid to say that is probably the most accurate genre description around for it and its new sequel. Sigh.
Beyond Citadel is aesthetically very similar to the first game and continues the story. The Citadel is one of humanity’s last strongholds against an evil force known as the Apocalypse, but in Beyond Citadel, it has fallen, and it’s up to you to head beneath the fortress to investigate a strange signal and reclaim it.
There’s a wide array of weapons for you to find, from your classic assault rifles to futuristic energy weapons. There’s a focus here on making gunplay feel as realistic as you can in a fast-moving, retro boomer shooter like this – the condition of your weapon will degrade over time, there are vastly different recoils and spray patterns, and your guns can jam at any moment too.
During your journey through the game as the anime protagonist The Martyr, you will encounter allies that will aid you in your fight against the Apocalypse – coincidentally, they too are anime girls. It really is a fusion of aesthetics and a collision of worlds, this game, but just like its predecessor, Beyond Citadel is racking up plenty of positive Steam reviews.
The first game boasts a “very positive” 94% rating, but so far, its sequel is trumping it, with Beyond Citadel sitting at a huge 98% rating based off of an early flurry of 140 reviews. That’s something that solo developer ‘doekuramori’ can be proud of.
If you want to learn more about Beyond Citadel, try out its Steam demo, or grab it while it’s got an introductory discount of 10%, head over to its store page here. Just a warning, dear reader, that if you’re going to watch any gameplay videos, search the game on social media, or head on over to any Citadel forums, you probably don’t want to be doing that in public…
For more brutal shooters, head on over to our list of the best FPS games. For more solo dev or small development team gems, our best indie games list is where you want to go.
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