![]() ![]() Once you're finished with a puzzle, they tell a wordless, melancholy story. There are no NPCs or journals to explain the history of the empty square you’re staring at. Most levels here are completely empty at first. After completing a puzzle, sometimes a slanted lampost will flicker on, illuminating a scene, working again as if magically healed by the blossoming environment. The relics of the past world have been left behind without a purpose but the game's presentation gives them a new life as part of the natural world. ![]() The waste you carefully place fertilises nature and this symbiotic relationship is what brings meaning back to the wasteland. Sure, dropping a big car on your garden will destroy everything and send the birds flying away, but this isn’t a game of tug of war. It never really feels like a contentious relationship. By the end, nature engulfs the scraps left behind. There's vegetation growing out of cracked concrete, through chain link fences and wrapping around massive hunks of metal. Each diorama becomes a hopeful, tranquil scene that begs you to take a screenshot. The process is just as satisfying as the end result. Each diorama becomes a hopeful, tranquil scene that begs you to take a screenshot." ![]() "The process is just as satisfying as the end result. Methodical placement is required to fit all the seeds and debris in a single, cramped box, especially since the placeable waste can cut off and destroy your gardens. But this doesn’t mean the puzzles don't need some brains. When your garden has conquered enough of the terrain, the level is finished and it’s time for you to move on to the next.Įach puzzle is a zen experience due to the game’s clean lo-fi art style, soothing ambient music and laidback gardening. From there, greenery will sprout from the concrete and grow more seeds for you to plant. Once planted, the seeds will only grow once you place remnants of the old world around them such as car carcases, old toys and broken benches. You have an expanding arsenal of seeds at your disposal: cacti, bamboo, vines, trees and so on. It's a suprisingly meditative game coming from the same developer that made the often intense micro-strategy of Kingdom Two Crowns. From there, it’s up to you to do some post-apocalyptic decorating, growing seeds and placing debris. Each scene presents a small corner of the wasteland, devoid of human life: an abandoned car park, an empty playground, a building's rooftop. Instead, Cloud Gardens is solely focused on the idea of revitalisation and nature taking back spaces… after we’re gone.Ĭloud Gardens’ series of puzzle-box dioramas perfectly convey the idea of rejuvenation. Refreshingly, the game doesn’t rely on any drama or conflict. Cloud Gardens abandons all the blood and tears. So many titles use the inevitable wasteland to emotionally torture their characters or as a playground to squash some monsters – or both. The post-apocalypse is often accompanied by violence, grit and gore when it comes to video games. Cloud Gardens is a competent, unique puzzle game and a contemplative, relaxing dreamscape, all rolled into one small package. ![]()
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