I've spent some more time tinkering around with Citadel's singleplayer mode, and I've noticed some things that I did not notice before including a whole other menu of options that further simplifies the crafting system, and character progression. If you startup singleplayer after having created your character, and played around a bit you will find an 'Advanced' option at the main menu continue point that has a series of sliders, and toggles that will allow you to tweak things like player points earned, whether or not you need to farm for materials, and other useful things tied to the character, and crafting mechanics. It's basically a mod menu of sorts that allows you to enjoy the game without having to slowly grind to a point that you can craft the things you need in order to fortify your long term existence in the various locations that you can begin in. The spawn areas, or beginning locations number three initially, and will open up more as you travel outward into Citadel's world visiting quest givers, and facing boss fights among other things. The game also offers the option to fast travel via portals that bring up a map with marked points of interest. A map that shows various icons, or points of interest that you can go to, to engage in various MMO oriented tasks. The very map that can also be brought up by pressing down on the DPad in-game.
As I mentioned in my previous impressions breakdown the touchpad menu which acts as your main hub for crafting, creating spells, organizing tamed creatures, adding player points to the four base stats, and managing your "House" comes sub-divided into three categories pertaining to gear, recipes, and building supplies. All of which is located on a left side icon based menu system that changes the crafting menus, and material selection based upon which icon you choose. In regards to that a lot of what you'll see in the touchpad menu isn't named until highlighted, but does offer appropriate icons to point you in the right direction. Furthermore the individual materials that can be crafted from base materials have a drop down menu where you can see the required materials as well as the required number of materials. There's even flavor text on the right side of the menu telling you where you can find the materials you need. It should be noted that some items that can be crafted will require special work stations that must be placed on flooring in order to be able to create the item, or items.
In the beginning ...
When you first start off in Citadel you'll be initially tasked with running errands in a sort of collect-a-thon for a guy in wizard garb. This acts as an introduction to the mechanics, and helps your character level up to a point they can go out into the open world, and progress from there. Also at the starting castle ruins, or safe zone you'll find glowing stones that showcase tutorial tips for beginners. It helps to better understand what it is you should be doing. Outside of the ruins lies a safe zone barrier. Once you cross it into the world your adventure becomes one of life, and death. Upon death you can respawn, but your gathered materials, ingredients, and loot will be left behind where you died in a sack that can be recovered if you travel back for it. It's location will be marked on the map with an "X".
The building ...
Building buildings in Citadel requires a lot of materials. A virtual crap ton of materials. It is a piece by piece ordeal that will have you placing floors, walls, roofs, doors, windows, decorations, and even work stations for use in crafting the finer things in the game. To bring up the building menu you will need to press left on the DPad. This will bring up a handful of main menu options on the right side of the screen including wood, spells, and decorations. Pressing "L2" on any of these will sub-divide the menus into a selection of individual pieces that can be crafted, and placed where their red outline appears using the "R2" button. Access to, and crafting with the work stations will require that you approach them with materials needed in stock, and press 'SQUARE' to activate the crafting menu option. From there you can craft what that particular work station allows.
The Gameplay ...
I do hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the more I've played Citadel, even in singleplayer, the more I have noticed it puts a strain on the PS4 console. The cooling fan kicked on the hardest I've ever heard it, and during these spikes the game would lag or freeze up momentarily. It's obvious the graphics, and animation maxes out the PS4 hardware's potential performance. I don't think the developer altered it much from the PC port, and this is likely the reason why it performs the way it does. I imagine, but am not for sure, that this hardware abuse could reach even more staggering levels in the server side of the game. The parts where the massive multiplayer modes take place. I'm very tempted to stop the review here as I fear it could burn up my PS4 if I continue to press on. I will let you know how it goes if I choose to give it a go though. For now just be aware that this is the way it is.
As I mentioned in my previous impressions breakdown the touchpad menu which acts as your main hub for crafting, creating spells, organizing tamed creatures, adding player points to the four base stats, and managing your "House" comes sub-divided into three categories pertaining to gear, recipes, and building supplies. All of which is located on a left side icon based menu system that changes the crafting menus, and material selection based upon which icon you choose. In regards to that a lot of what you'll see in the touchpad menu isn't named until highlighted, but does offer appropriate icons to point you in the right direction. Furthermore the individual materials that can be crafted from base materials have a drop down menu where you can see the required materials as well as the required number of materials. There's even flavor text on the right side of the menu telling you where you can find the materials you need. It should be noted that some items that can be crafted will require special work stations that must be placed on flooring in order to be able to create the item, or items.
In the beginning ...
When you first start off in Citadel you'll be initially tasked with running errands in a sort of collect-a-thon for a guy in wizard garb. This acts as an introduction to the mechanics, and helps your character level up to a point they can go out into the open world, and progress from there. Also at the starting castle ruins, or safe zone you'll find glowing stones that showcase tutorial tips for beginners. It helps to better understand what it is you should be doing. Outside of the ruins lies a safe zone barrier. Once you cross it into the world your adventure becomes one of life, and death. Upon death you can respawn, but your gathered materials, ingredients, and loot will be left behind where you died in a sack that can be recovered if you travel back for it. It's location will be marked on the map with an "X".
The building ...
Building buildings in Citadel requires a lot of materials. A virtual crap ton of materials. It is a piece by piece ordeal that will have you placing floors, walls, roofs, doors, windows, decorations, and even work stations for use in crafting the finer things in the game. To bring up the building menu you will need to press left on the DPad. This will bring up a handful of main menu options on the right side of the screen including wood, spells, and decorations. Pressing "L2" on any of these will sub-divide the menus into a selection of individual pieces that can be crafted, and placed where their red outline appears using the "R2" button. Access to, and crafting with the work stations will require that you approach them with materials needed in stock, and press 'SQUARE' to activate the crafting menu option. From there you can craft what that particular work station allows.
The Gameplay ...
I do hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the more I've played Citadel, even in singleplayer, the more I have noticed it puts a strain on the PS4 console. The cooling fan kicked on the hardest I've ever heard it, and during these spikes the game would lag or freeze up momentarily. It's obvious the graphics, and animation maxes out the PS4 hardware's potential performance. I don't think the developer altered it much from the PC port, and this is likely the reason why it performs the way it does. I imagine, but am not for sure, that this hardware abuse could reach even more staggering levels in the server side of the game. The parts where the massive multiplayer modes take place. I'm very tempted to stop the review here as I fear it could burn up my PS4 if I continue to press on. I will let you know how it goes if I choose to give it a go though. For now just be aware that this is the way it is.
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