Summary

Cloudheim is an adventure RPG that’s set after Ragnarok shattered the world. With your help, the old gods will be awakened, the corruption dispelled, and a new world will be formed from the fragmented islands. Don’t forget to craft a variety of items to sell in your shop so you’d have the funds to develop your base of operations and your hero on the back of a flying turtle, the Odinshell!

Plotline

In Cloudheim, the world has been left in pieces after Ragnarok, its lands broken into drifting islands suspended above the void. You are the chosen Runari who is destined to form the new world, but you need help.

A mysterious corruption is spreading across the islands. Only by awakening the slumbering ancient gods located on each island will you be able to dispel the corruption and guide Cloudheim toward a new beginning.

Gameplay

To start, you’ll first need to select your character. Characters in this game are interestingly fluid in the sense that you can change their combat ability simply by changing the weapons they equip. But of course, at the start, you’ll still have to go through the tutorial with the default weapons your chosen character has.

Once that’s done and you begin to get new weapons (or even can craft more), you can then pick and choose which weapons you’d like your character to focus on levelling first. Yes, this also means that your character can eventually be fluent in dishing out damage using any sort of weapon – you just have to put in the work to level their skills up!

This, in turn, means that the character you choose is mostly aesthetic in nature. Granted that you’ll be able to unlock other characters eventually, they do take a bit of time. So, best select a character that you won’t regret choosing… you’ll likely be stuck with it for a while!

In terms of gameplay, Cloudheim has a gameplay loop that’s addictively fun with a bit of grinding that I’d liken to MMOs. There are two main parts of the world, with one consisting of massive islands for you to explore, and the second being your home base on the back of the giant flying turtle, the Odinshell. Both feature quite different gameplays since your home base also doubles as a shop, so you can sell whatever you’ve crafted from the materials gathered from the islands or even on the back of Odinshell itself.

The islands, on the other hand, are where all of the combat comes in. There will be quests to complete, dungeons to venture into, bosses to defeat, and even fun little puzzles to solve. Ultimately, each island houses an ancient deity whom you’re supposed to awaken so that you, along with their help, can form a new world.

Now, exploration is one of the best parts of Cloudheim, I’d say. It’s both fun and rewarding, with plenty of secret stashes for you to find, some of which may even come with a simple puzzle or two, along with plenty of resources you can collect, including mining ores, harvesting herbs, and fishing, as well as enemies to defeat. I find the devs are super creative in hiding these stashes – they don’t usually do common hiding spots like behind waterfalls but they rather hide them at ledges, behind destructible walls, and sometimes even in caves. Luckily, these stashes have an iconic tinkling sound effect that is unmistakable, so if I hear that sound while I dash past some area, I’d double back to track down the source.

Combat in this game is incredibly fun as well. Being a Runari, you have powers that make you superhuman. Aside from having a powerful kick and dodge-roll, you can triple jump in this game, which allows you to scale really steep edges; dash at insane speeds, rack up attack combos, and of course, utilize a powerful lasso that allows you to swing – much like Tarzan – from one lasso point to another, or even rope something towards you. My favorite part of all this is how seamlessly you can chain everything up, and even use certain elements within the combat environment to great effect, such as lassoing and then kicking an enemy into a massive stone pillar, and bringing it down upon the other enemies below it. It’s physics-based, but only to some extent.

Boss and elite fights are super fun too, with attack patterns and abilities you’ll need to learn to avoid. Some enemies have abilities and can say… spit out poison that will damage you over time. Others may charge you. Luckily, all of these special attacks are choreographed, and there are pretty obvious indicators so you can react and respond accordingly. The trick is not to overwhelm yourself by taking on too many enemies at once, since the game likes putting enemies into groups.

Elites are generally found around the map, but bosses are only found in dungeons. Each island you journey to can be segmented into several territories, and most of them contain a dungeon portal that will bring you to an instanced zone with pretty linear paths to follow. Like the overworld in general, you can encounter some interesting puzzles in dungeons as well, but of course, they aren’t optional, so you’ll need to solve them if you want to proceed. Thankfully, the puzzles are very straightforward and easy, and you’ll unlikely be stumped at any point.

Alright, you’ve had your fun on the island – it’s time to return to your base on Odinshell. There are certain points in the game where you can do so, such as completing a dungeon or interacting with an activated Sylfstone, which functions much like a waypoint but with free heals. Note that you can generally find a Sylfstone to activate in every region on the island, so getting back to Odinshell is just a quick dash away, regardless of where you are on the map.

The gameplay shifts focus once you teleport back to Odinshell. Here, it’s all about crafting, building, and managing your growing population of Bilns. You can set up various crafting stations to turn all that ore, herbs, and food gathered into more valuable products like metal bars, weapons, keys, potions, and skewers. There’s even a purifying pool where you will need to first purify the corrupted ores you’ve gathered on the islands before you can process them. These stations are all, thankfully, automated, but you do have to restock them once the raw materials they need run out.

Once done, you can place the products (or even the ingredients if you’re really hankering for a quick buck) on the sales tables. Opening the shop will allow “customers” to visit your Odinshell via the portal to buy stuff from you. There are certain sales events that will grant a bonus for the sales of specific types of items. The cash earned can be invested into your base to set up altars that provide boosts to your character, as well as permanent upgrades to improve your character’s stats.

You also have a chubby monster pet called Gnasher. It’s always hungry, and you can actually feed it food that it likes to level it up. Each level up will come with a generous reward. In fact, you can even feed Odinshell itself, but I think the devs have yet to really flesh this part out yet because the last I checked, they have removed the players’ ability to feed Odinshell (for now).

Now, although everything is technically automated, you can attract bilns – they are basically adorable chibi creatures - to settle down in your base. You can build houses for them, just so you can increase their population. They don’t appear out of nowhere, though! You can summon them as long as you’ve got a biln whistle. It’s one biln per whistle, and you can then have them assigned to certain positions around your base, be it providing crafting boosts to your crafting stations or even have them embark on an adventure themselves to haul back a treasure chest for you to open.

Of course, since Odinshell is kind of like an island (in the sky) in of itself, there are also plenty of places to explore and secret stashes as well as puzzles to find here. Occasionally, resources like ores would fall from the sky, and you can go mine them, or you can check out the pond nearby to find fishing spots to fish.

As fun as the game is, there’s one huge concern that many players have about the game – its need for players to be constantly online, even if they are playing a solo game. This might be a huge dealbreaker for many PC gamers – personally, I know a few who’d skip a game if this is a feature. Understandably, they worry that the game would be completely inaccessible to play even offline in case the developers decide to pull the plug. However, the developers have clarified that instead of solely relying on their servers, they decided to go with peer-to-peer hosting, so in case the servers are yanked, you technically will still be able to play the game. It’s actually the same concept as torrent or blockchain.

Another issue, which I’m glad to say the devs are currently working on, is the fact that the host world has all the progress. So, if you’re playing with a friend and he’s hosting, once he logs off, you won’t be able to retain everything you’ve painstakingly unlocked – again, the game can be a bit grind-heavy – in your own world.

Lastly, being an early access title, the game does still have a lot of features that are works in progress, such as island reputations and the photo mode. If you’re the sort who can’t stand placeholders or missing features in your games, then you might want to wishlist the game first and wait until the devs flesh out the game more.

Community

Cloudheim supports online co-op of up to four players. Considering how much fun it is to explore the world and battle any creatures along the way, it’ll definitely be better in every way if your buddies are involved. If you and your friends or siblings don’t mind a little joshing about in between dungeons and fights, you can enable the Friendly Impulse option to allow you to kick and lasso other players for fun in base or everywhere. There’s even an “unbridled chaos” version you can unleash if that’s something you and your team are into.

Graphics/ Sound

The art style of Cloudheim leans toward a colorful, stylized-cartoon fantasy aesthetic – think bright, dreamy skies and soft lighting. Characters and environments often have a slightly exaggerated, “playful” look, thanks to their smooth shading, and bold, vibrant colors. The visuals do a great job balancing charm and vibrancy with the sense of mythic adventure that fits its premise. The game also features a photo mode, which is perfect since there are plenty of breathtaking locations around the place, but it’s still slated for a future update.

In terms of sound, the game features a range of tunes that work well with the theme and the environment to create the perfect atmosphere for every occasion, be it during a particularly chaotic sales rush, a creepy dungeon run, or when you’re simply running about Arcania, trying to find every secret hidden in the area.

Conclusion

Cloudheim is, without a doubt, one of the more entertaining adventure RPGs I’ve played in years! It offers a vibrant, stylized fantasy world with a fun mix of action, chaos, crafting, and cooperative play. Its bright, cartoon-ish, and magical art style sets the tone for a world that feels playful, fantastical, and full of potential. The combination of physics-driven combat, base building, and exploratory freedom gives it a strong identity among modern action-RPGs.

While the early-access version shows promise, especially for players who enjoy chaotic co-op, creativity in combat, and flexible gameplay loops, it still has room to grow. If you like lively, unpredictable adventure and don’t mind some rough edges, Cloudheim is definitely worth keeping an eye on.