Tempest Citadel
Aartform Games · 2018 · Strategy, Indie, Simulation
PC
Mixed62% · 26 📈 Making a comeback 70%
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About Tempest Citadel
Tempest Citadel is a base building game set on a storm-ruled planet in which sci-fi and fantasy collide. Assume the role of an enigmatic Captain from Terra, whose past and future are yours to shape, as he embarks on a mission to explore a deadly world that promises wondrous and terrible power.
But you are not the first to come.
Armies of ruthless enemies hide within the clouds, hungry for the blood of the weak and the foolish. From gene-spliced psychics to cyborg dark-mages, other factions have claimed the ancient sites which hold the technological marvels you seek.
Can you build, grow, and risk enough to stand against your enemies? Will you forego mercy against those who would show you none? Do you have what it takes to fight for control of this world and claim the secrets of the ancient dead race that once ruled it?
Your mission was a lie. Your first moments waking from cryostasis bear this revelation, and you find yourself in a corner of the cosmos that you know nothing about. Only one thing is clear: those that sent you knew full well what they were doing.
Beneath you, a planet sleeps imprisoned by the planet-wide storm ruling its surface. What you're after – your true mission and your only way home – hides deep under those rage-fuelled clouds. And the price of ultimate power is always the most dear.
Tempest Citadel sees you building a city in the clouds, module by module, and leading 100 unique crew members into action, be they Soldiers, Scavengers, Workers, Researchers, or Medical Experts. You pick their role, their training, their equipment.
Explore a Tech Tree of over 200 research items, enhance your crew with Perks, Augs and Psionic abilities. Gather resources and build up your base and squad equipment.
The primary goal is to explore the surface. You start by scanning and picking sites to send expeditions to, using any intel you can find to pick the best squad for the terrain, weather, and opposing forces. Preparation is vital; once your squad lands, the battle plays out automatically.
Survival means conquest, so a big focus of research and production is optimising your attack squad and your city defences. With a full array of Sci-Fi weapons, armour, and augmentations, you can make anything from Bio-Enhanced Super Soldiers, to Exosuit-Wearing Assault Troopers, or even Psychic Stormweavers. Ultimately, choosing the right tool for the job is essential to victory; the right squad design can often overcome sheer strength in numbers.
With a large crew to manage, you have options to auto-equip based on a role, such as "Assault Runner", "Skirmisher", or "Sniper". When you resupply with new weapons and armour, your crewmembers choose the best for their role.
Successful missions can yield research data, such as blueprints and schematics, as well as scrap and tech items. Back at the city, these are vital to unlocking the 200+ node research trees, and constructing 170+ modules, items, and weapons.
Missions will also have a cost, both material and human. If your soldiers fall in battle, you can bring them back with all kinds of technology - but they might lose their humanity in the process.
Your progress on the planet is beaten back by 5 enemy factions, each with their own troops, tech specialities, strengths, weaknesses, and storylines. Overcoming them is no easy feat. Further, the day-to-day running of the city is interrupted by tactical and social dilemmas that lead to great risks – but also to lucrative opportunities.
Aartform Games' previous Steam releases include the empire building economics sim Spice Road and a fun sculpting program Curvy 3D
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What lost secrets lay hidden beneath the eons-old storms? What unimaginable treasures await your finding? What will you sacrifice to find out?
Be the Captain of the Terran ship.
Brave the dark reaches of the storm world.
Build a Tempest Citadel that will outlast them all.
But you are not the first to come.
Armies of ruthless enemies hide within the clouds, hungry for the blood of the weak and the foolish. From gene-spliced psychics to cyborg dark-mages, other factions have claimed the ancient sites which hold the technological marvels you seek.
Can you build, grow, and risk enough to stand against your enemies? Will you forego mercy against those who would show you none? Do you have what it takes to fight for control of this world and claim the secrets of the ancient dead race that once ruled it?
Your mission was a lie. Your first moments waking from cryostasis bear this revelation, and you find yourself in a corner of the cosmos that you know nothing about. Only one thing is clear: those that sent you knew full well what they were doing.
Beneath you, a planet sleeps imprisoned by the planet-wide storm ruling its surface. What you're after – your true mission and your only way home – hides deep under those rage-fuelled clouds. And the price of ultimate power is always the most dear.
Tempest Citadel sees you building a city in the clouds, module by module, and leading 100 unique crew members into action, be they Soldiers, Scavengers, Workers, Researchers, or Medical Experts. You pick their role, their training, their equipment.
Explore a Tech Tree of over 200 research items, enhance your crew with Perks, Augs and Psionic abilities. Gather resources and build up your base and squad equipment.
The primary goal is to explore the surface. You start by scanning and picking sites to send expeditions to, using any intel you can find to pick the best squad for the terrain, weather, and opposing forces. Preparation is vital; once your squad lands, the battle plays out automatically.
Survival means conquest, so a big focus of research and production is optimising your attack squad and your city defences. With a full array of Sci-Fi weapons, armour, and augmentations, you can make anything from Bio-Enhanced Super Soldiers, to Exosuit-Wearing Assault Troopers, or even Psychic Stormweavers. Ultimately, choosing the right tool for the job is essential to victory; the right squad design can often overcome sheer strength in numbers.
With a large crew to manage, you have options to auto-equip based on a role, such as "Assault Runner", "Skirmisher", or "Sniper". When you resupply with new weapons and armour, your crewmembers choose the best for their role.
Successful missions can yield research data, such as blueprints and schematics, as well as scrap and tech items. Back at the city, these are vital to unlocking the 200+ node research trees, and constructing 170+ modules, items, and weapons.
Missions will also have a cost, both material and human. If your soldiers fall in battle, you can bring them back with all kinds of technology - but they might lose their humanity in the process.
Your progress on the planet is beaten back by 5 enemy factions, each with their own troops, tech specialities, strengths, weaknesses, and storylines. Overcoming them is no easy feat. Further, the day-to-day running of the city is interrupted by tactical and social dilemmas that lead to great risks – but also to lucrative opportunities.
Aartform Games' previous Steam releases include the empire building economics sim Spice Road and a fun sculpting program Curvy 3D
---
What lost secrets lay hidden beneath the eons-old storms? What unimaginable treasures await your finding? What will you sacrifice to find out?
Be the Captain of the Terran ship.
Brave the dark reaches of the storm world.
Build a Tempest Citadel that will outlast them all.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
The game is OK, and I do recommend it for what it is. This is a game where a lot happens automatically, including the combat. There is an OK story, but it seems like in some areas maybe it was translated poorly? Some of the writing is odd at the very least. The game mostly plays itself. Your soldiers auto fight combats. Your engineers auto build equipment and modules. Your scientists automatically research new stuff for you. What you do is set the priorities on what each of these people do for you. Then you speed up time to the next event.... which might be a mission on a planet or a new breakthrough or a new bit of story. So it is mostly a simulation game. On easier difficulty levels you don't seem to be able to make a bad choice. On harder difficulty levels you have to be much more focused. The game isn't great, but it isn't bad, and it has it's own style. 6/102 found this helpful
Combat is boring, characters get stuck in environments, and some of the sound effects sound like a guy making noises into a microphone. Pass.
NOTE: MY OPINION OF THIS GAME IS NEUTRAL/AVERAGE/MIDDLE THUMB, BUT SINCE STEAM DOESN'T HAVE THAT OPTION, I'M GIVING IT A THUMBS UP. Tempest Citadel is a strategy game with an interesting premise and setting, placing you in command of a floating citadel on a mysterious storm-covered planet. Over the course of the campaign, you manage soldiers, research new weapons and upgrades, and fight with several factions on the planet. While the progression systems, classes, and research tree initially suggest a deep tactical experience, most of the game’s mechanics are heavily automated, with battles resolving in under a minute and much of the equipment and research handled automatically. Because of this automation, much of the potential strategic depth ends up feeling superficial. Outcomes often depend more on RNG than on meaningful player decisions, making save-scumming a more effective strategy than careful planning. The biggest issue is the FATE mechanic, which quietly penalizes losses and even close victories, potentially locking players out of the best ending without clearly explaining how it works. In the end, Tempest Citadel isn’t a terrible game and can be a chill experience if you’…
An interesting idea implemented in a janky and haphazard way, with the feel and content quality of a mobile game, or of early 2000s Slav-jank. Short version: This is a mobile-style game that bears the same relationship to base-building and tactical strategy games that arcade rail-shooters bear to actual tactical shooter FPS games. The art style is technically good, but weirdly inappropriate. There is a ton of sloppy lack of attention to detail, in both text (and the game does give you reading assignments) and mechanics (from mere opaque or irrelevant mechanics, to actively player-hostile and depressing/unenjoyable mechanics). The combat is interesting but very, very alpha-ish and janky. The UI has some absurdly bad design choices (again, feels like mobile port with PC UI as an afterthought). Overall, it's amateurish and feels like editing oversight and QA did not happen. ---- UI is not the worst I've seen, but it's pretty bad. The rule is basic: if you don't have incredible insight into UI conventions such that you are blazing a trail, follow convention. Don't be weird, special, or creative. UI is quality of life, not your artistic opportunity. Do NOT mess with system k…
Strap in ya big, shiny, boy tiddAys cuz they's goin' for a jubble!
If you enjoyed X-Com and are okay with trading turn based tactics for a top down real time combat system, this might be something to check out. If you also wish that X-Com had a bit more story elements and background lore to the missions and quests you started, than this is something you should check out. I'm someone who loves world building and has no problem with reading large sections of text so I've thrived reading through mission details and other story elements the game puts together. And i have a lot of respect for this game as it also lets me decide when I want to read most of it. I can go and complete a few levels, then come back and read all the extra information or just completely ignore it all together. It took a bit of time to get used to the real time combat. I came into this game expecting a more hands on experience with the combat. But after some time playing, I found I really liked this approach to combat. I really enjoy getting immersed in the games I play and letting the squads take on combat on their own really felt like I was the commander giving out orders and tasks for my teams to complete. But there were also a few times it was a little frustrating watch…
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