Parents' Guide to

Epic Citadel

By Christopher Healy, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 9+

Explore a virtual castle and get wowed by the visuals.

Epic Citadel Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

Community Reviews

age 6+

Based on 1 parent review

age 6+

Not Really a Game

When I was around 10-11 years old, my school got a bunch of ipads for students to use, and this was one of the apps on it. The scenery is stunning, and the movement of the trees in the wind is incredibly soothing, but that's about all there is to this app. You can walk around, but can't interact with anything. Objects cannot be picked up. There are no people, no animals, nothing. As 10-11-yr-olds, we could not comprehend this fact. This couldn't possibly be all there was to this app. The graphics were so beautiful that it would have been a waste for it to be completely empty. I remember spending hours on this app desperately searching for the one thing that would trigger the start of the actual game. Nothing. I would scour the temple searching for a priestess to give me a quest, or try different combinations of routes around the citadel tring to unlock the start of a cutscene. Zilch. There were rumours among my classmates that if you went to a certain spot or did a certain thing, you could get the game to start but I never saw any proof of this. There was a certain ragged desperation to my efforts. The complete ghost-town emptiness of the app was incredibly eerie, and I was determined to dispell the creepiness. No dice. It has taken me literally years to realise that the reason I could not figure this game out was because there was no game to figure out. What I saw of the app was all there was of it, and I'll never get those hour back :/

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: (1):
Kids say: Not yet rated

If you accept EPIC CITADEL for what it is -- a showcase for some of the best graphics you've ever seen -- you're bound to love it. Sure, it would be great if we could go beyond closed doors, or down the outside roads that are gated off from us. And it would be awesome to see people milling about this gorgeously rendered ghost town. But part of what this app offers is excitement in anticipation of someday being able to do such things. Epic Citadel shows you the future of visual renderings on the iPad. And for now, it's a load of fun to explore all the various paths that are available in the citadel and get close-up looks at the astonishing details. As a free app, it is definitely worth downloading.

App Details

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