Cataclismo Preview: LEGO Building Blocks with a Monstrous Twist

Moonlighter is an awesome game in its own right, but having spent about a dozen hours playing it, none of the many tricks up its sleeve could've prepared me for the developer's next flagship title, Cataclismo. Produced by Digital Sun, Cataclismo is the unlikely combination of a real-time strategy game, a city-builder, and a LEGO-level sandbox that is bound to wow you, this way or the other.

Yes, it's just that good.

An obvious caveat to keep in mind right off the bat, though, Cataclismo is coming out in Steam Early Access on July 22, which means we won't get to play its full, finalized, 1.0 build for some time yet. Digital Sun expects to stay in Early Access for about a year, which is plenty fair enough, and gives us a solid idea of just how far along this game really is.

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Cataclismo Preview

I find it interesting just how similar Cataclismo's story is to that of Destiny. Only conceptually, mind, but it's still a curious, perhaps even lovely parallel: here, too, humanity has been torn to shreds by a mysterious force, to the point that single super-city remains, fending off Horrors left and right. In Cataclismo, the titular cataclysm ravages the lands, sending out a mysterious - though lovely-looking - fog from which the aforementioned mutant Horrors emerge.

There are no Guardians here, though. No Light, either: it's just you, a magically-infused commander from whose perspective the majority of the game is played out, and bricks. Loads and loads of bricks, which can be stacked onto one another to deal with Horrors.

You can probably see where this is going, by now. Cataclismo is a game about clever use of resources and terrain: you need to funnel the Horrors into killing fields and cut them down before they can tear down your walls. The core gameplay loop isn't novel, in and of itself. The way that Cataclismo goes about presenting it, though, is.

A thrilling genre combo that does not leave you wanting

Cataclismo is very concrete and deliberate in how onboards the player in its opening hours. As the tutorial proceeds, the game shifts from being all about small-scale squad-based combat into something like a tower defense title, and then moves further into this niche by showing off its RTS base-building elements. There's a bit of everything here, and the end result is a delightfully interactive combat sandbox.

By the time your first proper defence mission rolls up, you've already figured out how to handle and train new units, build some really snazzy fortresses, and protect your townfolk from the Horrors. It's all way more intuitive than I expected it to be, personally, because Cataclismo has way more layers to its gameplay than it seems at first.

When you're not figuring out your supply lines, you're building up your defences. When you're not building up your defences, you're probably dealing with the Horrors. When you're not dealing with the Horrors, you're optimizing those same old supply lines you started off with. It goes in circles, and thanks to Cataclismo's awesome building system, it's all a joy to interact with.

All the usual gameplay modes, present and accounted for

While some recent strategy games might've decided to move away from Skirmish gameplay in lieu of something more... novel, that's not the case with Cataclismo. Obviously, once the game releases in its 1.0 form sometime down the line, the main campaign is going to be the big draw. However, for the time being, I feel that the Skirmish and Challenge modes will be more important.

Certainly, the early, finished parts of the Campaign work great as an onboarding opportunity, but the complexity and difficulty of Cataclismo don't come into their own in the campaign just yet. Instead, I highly recommend jumping into Skirmish and Challenge modes for repeatable and procedurally-generated encounters, respectively.

There's a lot of stuff to do in Cataclismo even this early on, is what I'm getting at.

Great first impressions, with lots more to come

It's not rare that an Early Access game comes out rather rough around the edges. It's fine, though: that's what Early Access is for! Not the case at all with Cataclismo, though. I was honestly taken aback with how polished and spruced-up the campaign is in its early stages. Of course, I cannot vouch that this is the case as the game continues: Digital Sun obviously hasn't finished the game, and so we shouldn't expect the game to be done. It straight-up isn't.

Yet, the bits that are there are satisfying and there's no shortage of content in this game. Heck, even after you're through with the campaign content that's available right now, you can just jump straight into good old Skirmish mode and you're golden.

Play Cataclismo on July 22!

With all of that out of the way, we still recommend that you wait and see for yourself whether Cataclismo is the right fit for you. The game is coming out via Steam Early Access on July 22, and if you're interested, you're going to be able to purchase your very own copy right here at 2Game. Stay tuned for that!

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