Citadel: Forged With Fire | A Verdict Rewritten

I like to be upfront, and honest when I've made an unfair judgment, or shared something that does not hold true. My recent verdict for Citadel falls in line with that very situation. I had disclosed that the grind on the servers were unfairly balanced according to resources made available, and the pace at which your character levels up. While my claim holds true on some servers there exists other custom servers that allow for fast tracking leveling, and material harvesting. Each server comes labeled accordingly, and through menu toggles you can sort through the various custom lobbies within the listing. Both on the PVE, and PvP side of things. I recently got into a PVE server for my area, and leveling was quickly done as was the harvesting of needed materials. Making it an experience on par with the singleplayer I absolutely adore, but with other online players accounted for. The stress on the servers wasn't bad either though there still exists some lag, and frame rate drops.

Citadel: Forged With Fire | PVP, PVE & A Final Verdict

I've spent some serious time in all three of Citadel's modes of play. I've tried out the easy grind, and the slow and methodical grind. Both offline, and online. For the most part it's the same experience throughout. All modes incorporate the same base crafting, and building mechanics while featuring the same maps filled with the same quests, looting opportunities, and boss/creature battles. Singleplayer itself can be played alone with the tedious grind settings in check or with advanced mods turned on that will allow you to enjoy the game without the hassle of needing to really farm or grind for anything. The opposite goes for multiplayer server play where PvP, and PVE demands the tedious grind in order for you to build your created character up to a point that he/she can engage in the endgame activities. One thing holds true any way you choose to play though, and that is the fact that character leveling does not reset upon death. This allows for picking up where you left off with the ability to craft everything you've unlocked through experience gained as well as your equipped gear still intact. It goes without saying that backtracking to pick up lost loot will be required if you want to regain all you've collected.

Citadel: Forged With Fire | Mechanics & Impressions Update

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.

Citadel: Forged With Fire | Impressions Thus Far ...

Citadel is a game I need to spend more time on than usual to gain a proper perspective of what it has to offer on a full scale. That having been said I have played it to a point I'm getting a proper feel for the type of grind, and crafting it entails. For those of you who don't know "Citadel: Forged With Fire" is an MMORPG sandbox type of game that can be played in singleplayer or on PVE, and PvP servers. It's about a magical world of wizards borne from flame who can fly around on broomsticks, and dragons. Wizards that can engage in combat, and build fortified castles beyond imagination. The world itself is brought to life in a beautiful, and colorful rendering done on the Unreal 4 engine. It pushes the PS4 to it's limits, but looks quite impressive for the console port that it is. As far as gameplay is concerned you'll find that in singleplayer it is smooth. There is no game breaking lag, or frame rate issues that really hinder the gameplay. For now I can't say the same for PVE or PvP, because I've yet to play on the provided servers.

From your character's creation at the main menu startup to their birth from a fiery pit in-game, and the grind that follows you'll be able to level up, and grow your character's set of abilities. It is ultimately through experience earned, skill points applied, and learned crafting skills that you'll be able to establish your sustained existence as your created character in the world of Citadel. The Touchpad menu from which everything is done in regards to this, outside of character control, houses six different themed diamonds for each interactive sub-menu that will give you quick access to everything that can be done. This includes the equipment loadout, the crafting, the crafting skills, the spells, creature taming, and your House or clan setup. It's a quick access hub for all you can do with your character, and the world around you. Much more streamlined than other games of the same genre.

Slender: The Arrival (PS4)

Slender man, and the creepy lore he was derived from have become a household name in terror in many ways, and across many forms of entertainment. Initially developed as a Steam game for the PC, Slender Man took the simple premise of clue collecting, isolation, and an unusually sinister stalker, and combined them to make an experience that could best be described as a living nightmare. The protagonist in the original games, and in this follow-up sequel who were made to suffer the nightmare usually had only a flashlight, and camera at their disposal. They were made to wander abandoned areas of varying sorts to collect pinned up clues that basically held a warning that the Slender Man was watching them, and that he was coming to get them. As you trekked through darkly lit forests, abandoned buildings, and whatnot as these characters you would catch glimpses of the Slender Man moments before the camera suffered from static interference. The mere sight of this lanky apparition was meant to frighten the gamer in a jump scare fashion, and keep them on the edge of their seats as they set out to complete the game, and for the most part it did it's job. The point of the games, and expansions, if there was one was to find all eight pages, or clues before the Slender Man got to you. You either did it, or you suffered that fatal final scare. In a slightly similar fashion as that of the first games, and expansions 'Slender: The Arrival" once again incorporates the eight page theme, and adds a twist with some objective based levels that build upon the simple nature of the original Slender Man tale.