Cataclismo - A Curious Concept

Hey there, Thanks for tapping & Tuning into yet another of my articles- though this one is less a review, and more a quick foray, since I recently poked into the demo of Digital Sun's Cataclismo - A survival oriented real-time strategy game Promising Possibilities Whilst the Demo itself only covers two stages in the game, it does a decent enough job of introducing one of the game's central concepts. Specifically, while you will be engaging in the traditional resource gathering, unit building, and tactical distribution of your units- there's something -very- interesting that sets this game apart from its peers.

Namely, it's the approach it takes to base-building and the way you establish your defences. Walls are built brick by brick- both horizontally -and- vertically, allowing you to build monolithic structures with a surprising degree of complexity- if you make clever use of stairwells and multiple layers. It also enables a clever player to build base elements vertically- though, that -will- require a bit of forethought, since you need to account for buildings having an adequate amount of support. A Shallow Demonstration That said, the demo is just that- a taste of things to come, but one that leaves a lot of questions. For instance, it hints that Iris, the protagonist can gain experience, and will gradually accrue abilities which will allower her to better confront the 'Horrors' that will lay siege to your base at night. That said, this system doesn't seem to exist within the demo itself- so even if you go out of your way to slay horrors, you won't get anything new to play with her. Secondly, while it does introduce the idea of height based mechanics adding some slight shifts to units- in practice, you'll only be using two, at this juncture. (And while you do get to tinker with a small handful of unit upgrades- in practice, these only strengthen the unit, rather than adding more options insofar as their function).

To the Demo's credit there are a few things it does provide a better hint of. For instance, stages will start off by giving you a free 'day' to kickstart the bases you'll be building, before the first wave of nighttime horrors will arrive. From then on, you'll have to manage a combination of smaller waves during the day, and larger ones at night- which give you a general idea of the pace the full game will have. A pace which is notably customizable, since you can ramp up the game speed- and even skip the timer forward during the night to immediately initiate an enemy wave, if you feel prepared, and just want to get things over with- rather than waiting for the wave timer to count down. Admittedly, this isn't -that- varied, since I only noticed 2 enemy types, a smaller and larger type- whose tactics amounted to 'Zerg rush wall'. A Tale Untold The only other thing to note asofar, is that there is a fair amount of dialogue, both between the stages, and bits during it. If this pacing is indicative of the game itself- those hungry for a story are apt to get exactly what they're hoping for, since even the taste I was given did a lot towards establishing the tone of the game, and building up the world you'll be journeying through.

But is it enough to pique my interest for the full game? Ultimately, I'm unsure. Fundamentally, I think there's some really interesting ideas there, and for the creative sorts who love building robust and complex structures, this seems like the type of game that will be apt to resonate them. That said, that sort of logistical process isn't something I normally gravitate to, which is then further compounded by the generally lacklustre snapshot of the combat, and it's pacing. Really, the only element that I found myself being legitimately interested in was the narrative elements- but, if I do explore the game, it will likely only be if I can get better insight into it's content.

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