Cloudscrapers Review – Reaching For The Sky, Block-By-Block

Cloudscrapers is the newest addition to the minimalist strategy game genre. Players build towers, aiming to reach as high in the sky as possible, managing their resources by conserving and using blocks to fulfill different block patterns. As the game goes on, players can earn unlocks that help make each run easier and aid in making each tower higher.

Nyx, the game’s protagonist, initially introduces you to the gameplay and shows you the way as you progress. He gives a very short introduction, but then doesn’t pop back up again for a while. I expected Nyx to be more interactive and help the player through the game more, but it feels like the narrative is only reinforced sparingly.

The goal is to complete quests, which are for different combinations of stone, nature, and wood tiles. You can either get more currency (treasure coins) or more resources to continue doing the quests. As you place different block tiles, you naturally build your tower higher. The higher you go, the more environments you will encounter. You are also able to come across extra resource tiles, treasure coins, and blueprints as you build, too.

Reaching higher biomes by meeting the altitude threshold will also trigger new events, unlock more of the narrative, and help you learn more about the mystical creatures that lurk in the sky. After you run out of tiles, your run ends, and you return to the Research Center to use your treasure coins to make yourself stronger for your next tower build.

Players must use blueprints along the way. Blueprints are specific block combinations that give you a helpful advantage, such as extra wood tiles. The more blueprints that are hit, the more likely the player is to reach the next biome. You can also equip different power-ups, like a shuffle block that changes your quests and a power that lets you take a block back three times per run.

I think Cloudscrapers has a nice appeal; it’s a cozy strategy game that I can see many fans of the genre enjoying. However, to me, the game is missing some important aspects that make a good game really come together. The first glaring issue for me is the narrative. I am an avid enjoyer of a good storyline. Cloudscrapers introduces the story well with Nyx at the beginning, and I was very excited by the prospect of a thorough storyline that would be effortlessly intertwined across a certain number of tower trials.

However, the story feels unstructured, and I think it needs more narrative woven throughout the game. For example, let’s say a player is stuck on the lower levels in the mid-20’s tower height. This player will not receive any story prompts to help them or guide them on how to improve, which I think is a grave mistake. Of course, it is a cozy strategy game; however, there should be more guidance on building better towers and reaching higher-altitude biomes, a feature that I think would benefit every player, not just those struggling to reach higher levels.

I also think guides should be added to help players learn how to build the best towers, since there is undoubtedly a good way to build them and plenty of wrong ways – as I found out through trial and error. With these changes, I think Cloudscrapers would be substantially better, and I also believe it would reach a wider audience, such as first-time strategy gamers, those who don’t game as much, and younger gamers.

The graphics are good, but nothing stands out as special or different from other games within the genre. The soundtrack is calming and brings the player some peaceful vibes as they build. In a technical sense, Cloudscrapers performed well, but once again, I would be worried if I had technical issues in such a relaxed game.

Overall, I think Cloudscrapers is great for people who love cozy, minimalistic strategy games. However, I think the developers could change a few things to reach a wider audience and improve the overall gameplay experience for every player.

Angel reviewed Cloudscrapers on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing, and our score will not be changed.