Posted in: Games, Preview, Video Games | Tagged: Cloudbase Prime, Early Access, Floating Island Games, Steam

Dumb Fun With A Bit Of Humor: We Preview 'Cloudbase Prime'

Sometimes you get a game that doesn't really need anything special, it doesn't have to have the greatest graphics or sound, doesn't even need to be lengthy. It just needs to be fun and entertaining and you can settle down into it for hours. We got one of those games recently in the form of Cloudbase Prime from Floating Island Games and got an opportunity to preview it as it is now headed out of Early Access on Steam.

Now I can't tell whether this is simply the Early Access portion or if it's the way the game is designed, but Cloudbase Prime starts you off without any real backstory or much explanation behind what you're doing beyond the here-and-now. You start off as a pilot inside what appears to be a walking cell phone, talking to an instructor who sounds like Vic from Red Vs. Blue. The game has a real sense of humor for what you're doing, including making fun of when you use a keyboard instead of a controller for a game this basic.

Whichever control scheme you use, you'll operate a gun with your right hand and move platforms around with your left hand by selecting them and hitting the button to raise and lower. You can use this to clear a path, or stand on top and launch yourself up into the sky to cover more ground and get a bird's eye view of the situation. Platforms can also turn red and disappear in front of you, so be ready to move if needed. If you die, you'll respawn back on one of the closest platforms from where you died, but that may not be the best solution.

Along the way you'll have two primary objectives: kill enemies that stand in your way, and collect whatever it may be that you need to collect to solve puzzles and fulfill challenges to make the level end. It sounds simple enough, but the enemies can be bothersome and down right annoying if you don't roam around and clear them out. That's not including boss battles, which are a different kind of difficulty, but not one that's hard to grasp. As to the challenges, it all depends on how good you are at fulfilling tasks in a timely manner. If you take your jolly time it's going to take forever. If you're quick and rush through, you might get out and onto the next challenge soon.

At the end of every level you'll get launched out of a cannon tot he new area and collect fixing robots to help take care of other issues that are pending down the road. Some levels are all about killing enemies, others are about survival, some are about finding what you need to open and start things. So there's a nice set of variety that keeps the game interesting while not creating a hundred different scenarios. Also, keeping the levels active is the guiding voice who keeps making fun of your situation and your progress, so that's a nice bonus.

Overall, Cloudbase Prime is just dumb shooter fun, and that's really all it needs to be. It's a game you can throw on and turn your brain off to, and we all need those kinds of games once in a while to relax and give us something else to do that isn't always intense and hyperactive. It will be interesting to see how the levels progress and get updated now that the game is out of Early Access, but for now, it's fine for what it is.

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