It’s become incredibly normal to play games about farming, decorating or cooking when you just want to unwind. For me though cosyness often isn’t what my brain needs to relax, and I’d rather focus on something like a puzzle. The wrong sort of puzzle can be more frustrating than relaxing, but when you find the perfect one it can be a lovely zen activity. Games like Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon and Grindstone have kept me sane after long days, and their near endless replayability meant they could do so for years. I’m adding Cloudscrapers to this list now too, although its building based gameplay is very different.
There’s a story involving magic and a guy who’s clearly possessed by some sort of ancient evil, but really Cloudscrapers is all about the gameplay. The goal is simple, use your blocks to build the tallest tower possible. The issue is though that you’ve only got a limited supply, and that each row of the tower must contain three blocks before you can stack it any higher. Getting more blocks isn’t too difficult though, as long as you complete some quests.
You’ll always have a list of quests to complete at the side of your screen, which are essentially just pictures of blocks stacked in a certain way. To complete them you just have to copy this pattern on your tower, but using the same material blocks to do so. There are three functionally identical block types you’ll use to build, stone, wood and nature. At first it seems particularly simple to just copy lines of wood and trees, but you’ll soon realise to maximise your building potential you should try to use previous chunks of building to complete new quests. As long as the blocks are still on the screen it’ll still count as a perfect L shape if you plop a single square on top of your current structure, and this is much more material efficient.
Alongside your regular blocks you’ll also unlock a selection of special power blocks, which can be used to make quest completion even easier. The magic block counts as every material, and as such can be used to complete multiple quests on a single overlapping portion of your tower. There’s also a shuffle block which refreshes your quests, which is ideal when you run out of a specific material so can’t complete your remaining missions. There are even blocks that help you deal with environmental hazards, which are unfortunately always on the way.
To ensure building the perfect Cloudscraper isn’t too easy, the game throws lots of annoying elements your way at every opportunity. There are gas clouds which corrupt your tower, and make it so the blocks in the noxious fumes don’t count towards quests. Another area features falling swords, which plunge down from the sky and slice through chunks of tower in the process. You’ll need to carefully manage your shield and bomb tiles to deal with them, otherwise you’ll struggle to recover from the disruption they cause.
The final special element of Cloudscrapers that brings all these systems together are the blueprints, which allows you to create specific buildings by making a pattern out of your cubes. An oasis that’s crafted will spawn a complete row of nature tiles above it, which is perfect for when your quest list is full of green. One building actually expands the play area outwards so you can dodge hazards more easily, whereas another lets you gamble materials for fabulous prizes. The blueprints are a really clever element that I was always excited to grab as I climbed, and there’s a nice variety of them.
While many of the more interesting aspects of Cloudscrapers are granted as you climb, you can also unlock extra blocks and blueprints between runs with the currency you gather. These permanent upgrades are a great way to ensure you keep climbing higher and progress in the campaign (which is essentially just three set height stages before you go off into endless mode). There’s nothing fancy about how you obtain the upgrades or anything special you need to do to unlock them, but they provide a nice sense of progression.
I really enjoyed my time with Cloudscrapers, and can’t really think of much to complain about. The small amount of story thrown at you still feels too much I suppose, just because of how unnecessary it feels. There are also runs where you’ll do particularly badly for no reason (especially before you’ve got lots of upgrades) and this feels more frustrating than is needed.
Cloudscrapers is a seriously clever puzzle game unlike anything else, which is just the right level of brainteasing for a relaxing evening. The different systems all interact in clever ways, and this ensures you’re constantly learning how to build better. Cloudscrapers isn’t going to leave my Steam Deck any time soon, because its soothing sounds and compelling hooks are simply second to none.
