Cataclismo

Cataclismo needs a little more time in the oven to really polish up its systems, but it has great bones and Early Access will probably do it a ton of favors.

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"Cataclismo" is a single-player fantasy strategy game with a sensational plot and atmospheric gameplay, featuring delightful visuals and music. As the leader of humanity's last survivors, players must build and defend fortresses against waves of Horrors, managing resources and coordinating units in their defense. Despite some grinding and bugs, the game offers high replayability across various biomes for an engaging and challenging experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

93%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,405 reviews

story136 positive mentions

grinding15 negative mentions

The building mechanics are innovative and allow for creative freedom in designing defenses.
The art style and atmosphere are captivating, enhancing the overall experience.
The game offers a unique blend of tower defense, city building, and RTS elements, making it engaging and fun.

There are significant balancing issues, particularly with resource management and unit cap limitations.
The campaign is currently short and may feel incomplete, leaving players wanting more content.
Some quality of life features are lacking, such as better unit control and the ability to mass delete or recycle structures.

story
433 mentions
31 % positive mentions
65 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The story in "Cataclismo" has received mixed feedback, with many players finding it engaging and well-integrated into the gameplay, while others feel it lacks depth and can be tedious. The campaign, currently short and primarily tutorial-like, features a variety of mission types and a compelling narrative that hints at future developments, but some players express a desire for longer missions and more substantial storytelling. Overall, the art style and voice acting are praised, contributing to an intriguing atmosphere, though the execution of the story delivery has drawn some criticism.
- “The atmosphere surrounding the story made me really look forward to what was to come.”
- “The story is engaging and the base building elements are fun to play.”
- “Gorgeous visuals, spectacular worldbuilding, an amazing story and incredible gameplay to top it all off.”
- “The story is barely serviceable.”
- “I found the campaign story mind-numbing and boring.”
- “The 'story' they put in between the missions isn't interesting enough.”
gameplay
289 mentions
44 % positive mentions
54 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Cataclismo" is characterized by a unique blend of city-building, tower defense, and resource management mechanics, offering players a satisfying and engaging experience. While the core mechanics are praised for their depth and creativity, some players express concerns about balancing issues and the need for more content, particularly in the campaign and other game modes. Overall, the game is seen as a promising title with a compelling gameplay loop, though it still requires further refinement and updates to reach its full potential.
- “The setting, storytelling, gameplay, and art are all engaging and unique in their own way.”
- “The building mechanics are deep and strategic.”
- “The gameplay loop is fun, combining elements of city-building and survival with traditional wave-defense mechanics.”
- “The latest update completely removed this mechanic, making resource gathering incredibly frustrating and punishing for any larger settlement, notably anything you might do in endless mode.”
- “At full price, I don't know if I can recommend it until we get more updates to either the story or re-balancing some mechanics again.”
- “Unfortunately, there isn't much gameplay incentive to spend time on it though.”
graphics
207 mentions
59 % positive mentions
39 % neutral mentions
1 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread praise for their beautiful and unique art style, which effectively contributes to the game's atmosphere and world-building. Many players appreciate the charming visuals and the cohesive aesthetic that blends well with the gameplay mechanics, although some have noted performance issues and a desire for more aesthetic customization options. Overall, the art direction is considered a standout feature, enhancing the overall experience despite some technical drawbacks.
- “The art style is beautiful and the visuals help add onto the satisfaction of building better stuff!”
- “Gorgeous visuals, spectacular worldbuilding, an amazing story and incredible gameplay to top it all off.”
- “The art style is unique, fun mechanic of building a city and also managing it age of empires style but in this one you can hand build your defenses which is very nice in my books as I like some creativity!”
- “No color change options for aesthetics.”
- “Also, it's ridiculous how this game with shitty graphics manages to eat so much CPU, which is almost impressive by itself. How do you even manage that?”
- “I got Cataclismo on 26/07/24, at the time I didn't know that there is a bug with AMD GPU and the game where after some time playing the game may break something on the software of the GPU, or something like that, and glitch your graphics even outside the game. Everything turns into a buggy mess, full of overlapping artifacts to the point I could not even restart my PC because I could not see anything on my screen.”
music
38 mentions
47 % positive mentions
45 % neutral mentions
8 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with many praising its originality, atmospheric quality, and ability to enhance the overall experience. While some players find the soundtrack beautiful and fitting, others feel it lacks variety and can be overshadowed by ambient sounds. Overall, the music is generally regarded as a strong aspect of the game, contributing positively to its art direction and storytelling.
- “The music and art fit well and elevate the game, and it has a great vibe to it.”
- “The soundtrack is really nice, it fits the vibe well and is atmospheric.”
- “Expert art direction, music, and storytelling are sublime.”
- “The sounds are bare-bones, and I really would want more music, instead of the constant ambiance.”
- “Music could use a bit more work; I feel as if it was more dramatic it would elevate the experience of defending a large siege.”
- “The music and sound are okay, nothing really special.”
atmosphere
34 mentions
68 % positive mentions
24 % neutral mentions
9 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is consistently praised for its captivating and immersive qualities, blending a charming art style with a darker, more melancholic tone. Players appreciate the haunting sound design and the grim, eerie settings that enhance the tension during gameplay, creating a unique and engaging experience. Overall, the combination of atmospheric storytelling, visuals, and sound contributes significantly to the game's appeal, making it a standout in the tower defense genre.
- “The atmosphere, sound, and art style are charming, though undoubtedly striking a darker, more melancholy tone.”
- “Coupled with atmospheric sound design and a haunting score, the game creates a captivating yet unsettling mood that keeps the tension high during battles.”
- “The setting, graphics, score, and general vibe really make this a very atmospheric game, and the gameplay itself is absolutely on point, having a nice mix of complexity and simplicity.”
- “The world is grim, filled with ominous ruins and eerie atmospheres.”
- “The grimdark atmosphere gets the job done, and the campaign is decent.”
- “I really like the art style and the atmosphere of the game, again incredibly similar to tab with an overwhelming dark and gloomy vibe.”
replayability
24 mentions
33 % positive mentions
54 % neutral mentions
13 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is seen as high, particularly due to features like endless mode and procedural generation, which offer varied experiences. However, some players feel that the replay value diminishes after completing the campaign, suggesting that additional content or a roguelike element could enhance it further. The inclusion of community workshops and level editors is also noted as a significant factor that could contribute to long-term replayability.
- “Great game, tons of replayability, lego building feature very sleek.”
- “With community workshops available and level editors, this game has the capacity to be endlessly replayable.”
- “The map design is very good - I was pleased to see the endless mode has procedurally generated terrain which really helps with replayability.”
- “The only reason it loses two points is because there's not a ton to do after you complete the campaign, so replayability is not great.”
- “Not sure about replayability yet - after the campaign there's endless mode, but it remains to be seen if there's enough variation run-to-run.”
- “I will definitely come back to it, but the replayability and pacing aren't the right fit for me right now.”
optimization
18 mentions
39 % positive mentions
44 % neutral mentions
17 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization is a mixed bag; while many players report smooth performance and quick fixes for early bugs, others experience significant drops in frame rates during intense moments, particularly in endless mode. Some users noted that performance varies widely depending on hardware, with lower-end systems struggling to maintain playable frame rates. Despite these issues, the game's art style and architectural creativity are generally well-received, contributing positively to the overall experience.
- “Performance is great for an early access game, except for issues when there were thousands of enemies on the screen.”
- “Devs fixed early bugs quickly and it's stable and runs smoothly now.”
- “Your architectural creativity is what increases your performance here, so it's quite a satisfying fight.”
- “The whole idea is really cool, and I like the art style and building; however, the performance is quite bad.”
- “Add to that, constructible areas aren't that big, but you will need to plan large if you want to put various bonuses and optimizations to your defenses.”
- “I was expecting better performance from my RTX 2080 at 1440p, but it quickly runs very hot to maintain 72 fps at medium settings (which isn't catastrophic, but annoying in summer).”
grinding
15 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious, particularly in relation to the building mechanics, which often require repetitive block placement and lack efficient blueprint systems. While some enjoy the initial engagement of building, many feel that the process becomes monotonous and frustrating, especially when constructing larger structures or managing resources. Overall, the building experience is seen as a significant drawback, detracting from the enjoyment of the game.
- “Oxygen gathering is a neat mechanic, but gets really tedious if you don't plan carefully right from the start, which is hampered by the aforementioned lack of blueprints until later.”
- “Currently my only complaints are that unlocking things in endless mode is really tedious, and building roofs or intermediary floors in larger buildings is a huge pain, since you can only build sideways 1 or 2 blocks with the arches.”
- “Good ideas and the building system is fun to tinker around for a bit, but it quickly becomes repetitive and the lack of good blueprinting or mass cloning makes it very tedious.”
stability
11 mentions
18 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
82 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability is generally praised, with many users noting it runs smoothly and is less buggy than many full releases. However, some players have reported minor visual glitches and occasional brief freezes, particularly when placing objects. A significant concern was raised regarding a potential bug affecting AMD GPUs, which could lead to severe graphical issues outside the game.
- “Other than that, it runs great on Steam Deck too!”
- “Loving it so far, runs great, beautiful art style, and smooth gameplay.”
- “I got Cataclismo on 26/07/24. At the time, I didn't know that there is a bug with AMD GPUs where, after some time playing the game, it may break something in the software of the GPU, causing glitches even outside the game. Everything turns into a buggy mess, full of overlapping artifacts, to the point where I could not restart my PC because I could not see anything on my screen.”
- “Sadly, the game was buggy and needed patches to play decently, and I probably played more than 10+ years ago.”
- “The only other complaint I can come up with (and it is pretty minor) is that the game sometimes freezes very briefly as you go to place an object, and the object will then be built where your cursor is at the end of the freeze, rather than where you clicked originally, meaning you have to delete the object and rebuild it.”
humor
5 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its chaotic mechanics and creative building elements, providing players with a surprisingly entertaining experience. It combines elements of destruction and defense in a way that evokes laughter, making it a thrilling and amusing end-of-the-world scenario for those who enjoy a lighthearted approach to gameplay.
- “Pretty funny mechanic to play around with, and even fun from a creative structure perspective.”
- “Good if you like chaos, funny buildings, and destroying things.”
- “If you ever wanted to build towering defenses while dodging doomsday, this game is your hilarious and thrilling end-of-the-world escapade!”
character development
3 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Reviewers praise the game's character development for its appealing designs and engaging banter, highlighting the consistent beauty and thematic coherence of the character and UI illustrations. Overall, the character design contributes significantly to the game's enjoyable experience.
- “I also loved the character designs and banter.”
- “The character design, building design, UI illustrations, everything is consistently beautiful and on-theme.”
- “This game is fun, it looks nice, it plays well, and things like the UI and character design are well crafted.”
emotional
2 mentions
150 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players appreciate the game's integration of time and pausing mechanics into the narrative, which enhances the emotional impact and provides a satisfying sense of closure. The emotional resonance of the story, particularly in the final early access mission, has left a strong impression, contributing to a sense of addiction to the gameplay experience.
- “Also, a big plus for making the time and pausing mechanics integral to the story. The emotional beat and closure of the beginning in the last early access mission really got me.”
- “This game has an incredible ability to evoke deep emotions, making every moment feel significant.”
- “The character development and storytelling left me feeling a profound connection to the narrative.”