Ignore the low playtime, I played about half of the game via an early build on the dev's blog.

tldr: A well made Marathon-style boomer shooter with an intresting setting that also just so happens to be a guro fetish game (maybe)

Sorry if this is disjoined and nonsensical I am completly unable to put my thoughts into coherent words and this isn't a essay so I'm just going to spew words until I'm done.

Like the first game Beyond Citadel is a boomer shooter, but unlike most which try to emulate the old doom style, Citadel is much more like Marathon, slower, more methodical that type of thing. And let me just say this right away but this game is a massive improvment from the first in pretty much every regard, gameplay, graphics, level design, everything basically. Something I like quite a bit about this game is it's... clunkiness(?) what I mean by this is that something as simple as reloading is way more involved than a normal shooter, instead of just pressing R to reload there's a sepreate button to remove the magazine from your gun and then another button to put another in and than another to ♥♥♥♥ the gun. Now that may seem like needlessly making something easy more complicated andddd you are right! But it's cool I like it! Of course the reloading isn't the only thing like that, your helmet is your UI which is to say you can take it off and play with no UI if you so wish, there's diffrent types of armor and you can look down and ah... see it's lovingly crafted details. Okay and that's a perfect segway into the other thing to talk about this game and that is to say that this game is very horny and is almost certainly a fetish game (I will not say it is 100% because at the end of the day I do not know the dev, nor do I speak their language) What fetish you may be asking? It's guro or more plainly gore, And if that is something you don't like and turns you away that is completely understandable. Personally I find the gore so over the top and goofy that I can't find it perverse or anything like that, it reminds me of those old anime OVAs filled to the brim with crazy ♥♥♥♥ and in the end it really isn't any worse than Gears of War or like Happy Wheels and ♥♥♥♥. Anyway, moving away from that, some other things I think are worth pointing out, the character designs are good and interesting, even more so if you are into weirdo ero-guro sci-fi cybernetic stuff, the guns are cool, a stand out for me is the assault rifle that is a Chauchat with a laser beam for an underbarrel. The sprites and the art for the menus are all nice and it all has a concrete style to it. Yeah I like it :)

Beyond the Citadel takes what made the first game great and expands upon it in positive ways. Singular color palette and corridors get you down in the first game? Now the sequel opens up with a sprawling deserted battlefield littered with the bodies of dead demons and man-eating bug-monsters. Lack of gun porn? Now the game has an intricate reload system that lets you manually eject rounds, fast reload by dropping cartridges (that NEED to be picked up afterwards, or else you'll be down an entire cartridge and those are expensive). Not enough movement options? Now the game has charged jumping, parkour systems, and more vertical levels that require mastering these new abilities. Not enough crotch-riding lewd art of Martyr? Now there's a gallery and a bunch of gravure art of Martyr and her sexy friends to collect. Not enough gore? Now enemies will behave in various ways while dying on the ground, ranging from pulling out their sidearm and continue pelting you with bullets or pulling the pin off of a grenade and hoping to catch you in the ensuing blast. Sad by the lack of lore? Now there's more characters to interact with, dialogue, and tidbits of lore to read up on, with the pieces you recover from each demon revealing more about Martyr's past in visually graphic silhouettes. Not enough incest? Now the game is about Martyr's incestuous love for her little brother and why the forces of Heaven can't stop her love quest (and her quest to stop the Apocalypse but that's secondary).

Basically, if you found the first game interesting, the second game is exactly the sort of game a follow-up should be: more of the same but refined and with a hell of a lot more of it!

Beyond Citadel is the evolution of over a year of development by Doekuramori, improving on their work from the first game. I'll put it in a short blurb, for the sake of brevity, and to get my point across.

More guns.
More blood.
More guts.
More movement mechanics.
More, More, More.

having finished the game, I can say with utmost certainty that my faith in the ability of the developer to provide a unique and exciting game play experience was not at all misplaced. They delivered and did so with meticulous care and consideration for their target audience.

The gunplay is significantly more intensive and complex, with a full manual of arms experience in loading, charging, and reloading weapons, as well as switching between at least 3 types of weapons in each slot, making for more varied and individualized arsenals for each player's tastes and preferences. New enemy types provide their own unique challenges throughout the game, and a few from the original show up, too.

Level design by far has improved significantly, through set piece battles and eclectic locations, each stage has its own charm about it, along with new environmental hazards to navigate, like jump pads and vertical navigation, which adds yet another dimension to gameplay.

Doekuramori's artistic flair shines even brighter than the previous game, with clean spritework and smooth animations throughout the game, though there were moments where the quality of the sprite would appear blurry, it wasn't for more than a moment, before the images rendered properly, and it did not detract from the game at all for me.

The story is complex and genuinely original, providing an intimate telling of a personal story that is interesting and not at all overbearing. You could play the whole game from start to finish, one could infer everything throughout without having to stop and go searching for lore through the internet.

The gore and violence in this game have been a hallmark of the series so far, and it's clear that with this release, Doekuramori leaned into it even more, which in my eyes is a plus. There is a visceral and 'real' element to the destruction of your enemies, and the dev knows how to implement it in a way that matters.

If you liked the first game, get this.
If you didn't like the game, rest assured, you're not going to like this one either, move along.
If you're new to the series, get the bundle.