Cloudbuilt is a gorgeous 3D cell-shaded platformer with gameplay speeds that would make Sega’s blue mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, jealous. As Demi, a young women hospitalized for life-threatening war injuries, you are placed in the role of her subconscious as you traverse a series of floating levels in search of answers to her condition.
The gameplay is based on tried and true platform mechanics as you rely on your speed (i.e. jetpack) to run along walls and jump over wide gaps in the playfield. The first level serves as a simple tutorial that explains the controls and how to use the environment to your benefit. After completing the first level, the game doesn’t hesitate to send you into a world filled with spike covered walls and outlandishly difficult platform jumps that require patients, precise timing and plenty of practice to complete.
As you progress through the game, you will encounter rapid firing gun turrets surrounded by forcefields. To destroy these turrets, you must hold down the left mouse button to charge a missile attack. This will shatter the forcefield, allowing you to destroy the gun turret with your standard cannon. Mines and other obstacles constantly block your way, and they must be destroyed to eliminate the blockades they create.
The game’s biggest challenge is climbing the insurmountable walls that comprise most of the levels. Some walls can be easily overcome by just running and jumping, but taller structures require the player to run on walls by pressing Space bar, and then holding the Shift Key to activate your jetpack. The jetpack has a limited amount of fuel, so it’s important to pick up refueling power ups (i.e. yellow cubes) as you race up tall walls. Missing these cubes will result in Demi falling.
The gameplay focuses on maintaining momentum. Certain levels require precise timing as you run along branching walls, and climb towering structures just to jump in mid-run to an adjacent platform. And while most of the levels have branching paths and puzzles to solve, you must maintain your speed the entire time. The acrobatics in Cloudbuilt can be frustratingly difficult, and failure to make a jump or to climb a wall will happen often. But despite the high degree of difficulty, the game rewards the player for completing a level by grading their performance and calculating how many times they have died, for example.
As you complete each stage, several more will unlock to create a network of patterns related to Demi’s subconscious mind. Simple monologues, which play out as emails on a computer, occur between levels as Demi tries to piece together the events behind her hospitalization. The story is really deep, and begs the age-old question – who are we really? The unexpected amount of soul searching involved really leaves a lasting impression. It also gives you the determination to continue playing just to find the answer to Demi’s condition.
Gamers who play Cloudbuilt will find themselves overwhelmed with self-satisfaction, especially when they overcome a near-impossible obstacle or complete a level where survivability was minimal at best. And this is how the game plays out — it constantly has you saying, “Just one more time”, but it never seems to end there. The tight controls and compelling story grab you from the start, and it’s difficult to put the game down.
Cloudbuilt is an evolution of the 3D platformer genre. Its blistering speed, rock-solid controls and intriguing story raise the bar for all future platform games to follow. Gamers that didn’t participate in the beta owe it to themselves to play this game; it’s phenomenal.
Mike Pittaro
Platform: PC (Available on PC)
System Requirements
• Minimum:
◦ OS: Windows 7
◦ Processor: 2GHz Intel Dual Core processor
◦ Memory: 2 GB RAM
◦ Graphics: 512 MB OpenGL 3.2 compatible card
◦ Hard Drive: 3 GB available space
◦ Sound Card: Any compatible soundcard
Developer: Coilworks
Publisher: Rising Star Games
ESRB: N/A
Price: $19.99
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |  |
| Incredible 3D cell-shaded graphics. | |
| Sound | |
| A rockin' sound track complimented by ear-shattering explosions. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Solid controls, incredibly fast gameplay, and a compellingly deep story. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| Cloudbuilt is an evolution of the 3D platformer genre, bar none. | |
