Cataclismo Review — Brick-Built Tower Defense

Cataclismo is a new RTS tower defense game in the vein of They Are Billions, where players must defend their base and resources against endless hordes of terrifying monsters. From its early access playtest, Cataclismo’s 1.0 update has taken an already solid foundation and fully fleshed it out, delivering on the developers’ vision and the excitement of the game’s early access followers. With its incredibly unique base-building mechanics, Cataclismo just might be one of the best tower defense games in the genre.

If you’ve been following TryHardGuides for a while, you’ll know that I covered the early access launch of Cataclismo. My initial impression of Cataclismo was very positive; I thought the game had great mechanics, a phenomenal setting, and was super fun to play. There were, of course, several areas that I’d noted needed improvement before leaving early access. I am happy to say that while I would have liked to have seen some of these areas expanded on a bit more, the game has essentially improved upon every criticism I had.

If you are completely unfamiliar with Cataclismo, the They Are Billions comparison in the first paragraph should give you a pretty clear idea of the gameplay. If not, Cataclismo is a resource-gathering, tower defense game where, after certain intervals of time, your base is attacked by huge hordes of enemies, and it’s up to you to build defenses and deploy soldiers to fight them back.

Where Cataclismo becomes really unique is with the game’s building mechanics. Think of the game as having a Lego-style building mechanism; almost everything you build is stackable, and you are given a set of basic square parts alongside things like stairs, ramps, etc. You are incentivized to build very tall structures. Not only do certain troops get bonuses from attacking from heights, but the higher a stone structure is, the stronger it becomes, with towering stone monoliths being the key to victory. Pair this mechanic with support structures such as area-of-effect ammunition boosters and range-increasing parapets, and you’re in for a game that can be as challenging as it is liberating with its building mechanics.

The only limit to what you can build in Cataclismo really is the imagination, with the game’s mechanics allowing for some truly impressive castles and cities. It is therefore always a shame that mine get destroyed so early, never allowed to reach their full potential.

The idea of height and building upwards is not just something that exists through the game’s mechanics but is also cleverly portrayed in the world-building and map design. Cataclismo tells the story of a cataclysm that spawned a beautiful but deadly mist throughout the world. The mist hangs in the low places of the maps, creating impassable, unbuildable zones from which enemies spawn to attack. The game is all about height and lighting tall structures with the help of the elevated terrain and removing the darkness with the help of torches and beacons. This makes the game’s core building mechanic feel intuitively part of the world itself and makes everything just make a bit more sense.

This mechanic was already solid in the game’s early access launch and has only become better as the game has been further developed. In the 1.0 version of the game, Cataclismo has improved upon its building mechanisms with further support blocks and mechanics to play with. A personal favorite of mine is certain troop-buffing buildings, such as the fire arrow support building, which makes defensive builds not only stronger but much more immersive.

The addition of teleportation buildings, something that was previously a backer-exclusive mechanic, makes exploration a safer and more emphasized mechanic, something I often struggle with in these types of games. Nevertheless, I still found myself turtling pretty hard in my recent playthroughs of Cataclismo, nervous about sending my troops too far away from my safe, tall walls. Something that, of course, always eventually led to my destruction.

Reinforcements, a new system that offers you a selection of rewards after surviving a wave, also adds a nice, rogue-lite element to the game’s endless mode.

Something I criticized Cataclismo for in its early access version was a lack of unit diversity. And, unless I somehow completely missed them in my extensive early playthroughs (both in my first review and the hours I’ve spent playing in my free time), it would certainly seem that the launch version of Cataclismo has addressed this issue with the inclusion of several new troops, as well as ways to modify the existing ones. That being said, while the diversity is appreciated, I would have liked to see the imagination of the developers shine through with an even further expanded roster of troops. Maybe this is something we can see in a future update?

Outside of the expanded roster of troops, Cataclismo has also included several new buildings. While I would have liked to see further customization options or variations of buildings such as houses, yet that is asking a lot and is more of a wishful request than a serious criticism.

Finally, the bugs I experienced during Cataclismo’s early access launch, most specifically a pretty severe frame-drop issue that was, for some reason, only in the game’s endless mode, seem to be no longer present in the game’s launch version. It would seem that, alongside Cataclismo’s other improvements, many of the balance issues, performance issues, and general bugs have been fixed, polished, and perfected with the game’s official launch.

TryHardGuides was provided a PC review copy for Cataclismo. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Cataclismo is available on Steam.