Clash of Clans-style games are all the rage on mobile these days. In the last couple of weeks we've seen Age of Empires: Castle Siege and Star Wars: Commander arrive on both Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 and RT. Both games have the obvious appeal of their franchises behind them, but for my money Cloud Raiders from Game Insight has long been the Windows Phone Clash-like to beat.
One of Cloud Raiders' big draws is its truly cross-platform cloud save and multiplayer support. You can start playing on Windows Phone and pick up the same game on Android, iOS, or Facebook. Only one platform has been missing from that equation: Windows 8. Until now, that is. Cloud Raiders has finally arrived on Windows 8 and RT, and is fully compatible with the Windows Phone and other versions of the game. Read on to learn why you'll want to play Cloud Raiders on your tablet or PC.
Fortress in the sky
At the start of the game, you crash land on a floating island where you must build a base. Some of the buildings you erect will produce gold and clouds, the two soft currencies. So far, Cloud Raiders probably sounds like any other city building game – albeit with a fantasy theme.
Two things set this game apart from titles like 2020: My Country, though. For one, the city building component is far less complex. You won't have to worry about a billion jillion types of resources or hoping to find random items needed to progress.
Second: most of the buildings in your base have a military nature. Player bases will come under attack from both AI invaders and other players. Cloud Raiders is a Player vs. Player focused game (PvP). The fun part of the base-building component is testing your layout and defenses against the attacks of your fellow raiders.
The other thing you'll do lots of at your base is produce military units like grunts, archers, and bombers. Players always need more resources for base upgrades in Cloud Raiders, so why not go out and take those resources from your fellow players? Attacking a juicy base and looting the gold and clouds inside is quite enjoyable – assuming your team can handle the base's defenses.
Being inspired by Clash of Clans, Cloud Raiders has full clan support. Right now, joining a clan lets you share units with other clan members and engage in clan chat (global chat is coming soon). Clans have their own leaderboard rankings, providing an extra level of competition to the game. Clan tasks will be added to the game next week, helping clans work towards new upgrades for all of their members.
It just so happens that Windows Phone Central has a clan of its own. After restoring the clan headquarters building on your island, request to join the WPCentral clan. You must have a fairly high amount of valor (PvP ranking). We look forward to teaming up with you guys!
Taking Windows 8 by storm
Cloud Raiders comes to Windows 8 and RT with the most recent update that Windows Phone received one month ago. This update added a new Treasure Island that players can visit once a week, matchmaking improvements, and more.
This version also features the fairly new Goblins campaign, adding a welcome helping of single-player combat to keep you busy between multiplayer raids. Cloud Raiders requires an online connection on all platforms though, so it might not be as easy to play on a tablet without a cellular data connection like you'd have on your phone.
One advantage the tablet version has is prettier graphics – you can zoom much farther out, taking in the beauty of your island and the clouds beneath it. You can't zoom in nearly as far as on Windows Phone, but the increased resolution and viewing distance is actually much better for this type of strategy game.
Cloud Raiders is free to play and quite fairly monetized, so don't let the presence of IAPs scare you off. The ability to jump back and forth between Windows Phone and Windows 8 and RT versions (as well as other platforms) at will is super convenient, making this one of the best multiplayer raiding games to get into.
- Cloud Raiders – Windows 8 and RT – 193 MB – Free – Store Link
- Cloud Raiders – Windows Phone 8 – 84 MB – Free – Store Link
