Clear Sky is an imaginative puzzle game that allows you to fill the world back up with color. Japanese developer Qmax combines gorgeous style with simple puzzles. While Clear Sky has the look of a great game, it lacks in substance. The puzzles are too easy and there isn’t enough content to make this game shine as brightly as it should.
Paint the Town
Clear Sky consists mainly of puzzles. Each puzzle has a different task you need to complete and is essentially just Candy Crush. Instead of cute candies and sodas, you get cute hearts and paintbrushes. Each level requires you to either clear a certain number of shapes or unlock paintings trapped behind the puzzle. Normally, as you go through the levels, they get harder. This title tends to stay the same throughout. Each level is frustratingly easy and offers no challenge.
As you progress through the levels, you earn crystals that you can use to fill in the painting on the main menu. Once you fill in all the spaces, the picture is full of color and goes to your gallery to view. Progressing also unlocks a new chapter of the story. The story isn’t as appealing as it sounds. There isn’t any dialogue, but the animation runs smoothly and is understandable without the need for words.
Clearing a level gives you blue crystals and rainbow crystals. Rainbow crystals fill in part of the painting while blue crystals do almost nothing. One thousand crystals let you retry a level without losing a heart but other than that, blue crystals are pointless. Since the puzzles are so easy, you don’t really need these.
Paint Me a Melody
Clear Sky has a beautiful piano soundtrack to match the stunning art design. The main menu sound is relaxing and serene. While playing a puzzle, the sound gets annoying quickly, especially after you clear the puzzle when all the sounds accumulate. The music does match the aura of the game.
It’s a good thing the game is pretty self-explanatory, or you might not be able to work your way through the menus. There is very little written content in Clear Sky, and anything that is written is small. Besides the title, everything else has Japanese and English written together. Sometimes, it’s difficult to understand what’s going on or what a new puzzle tool does. The game decides to show you by forcing you to click on something a certain way to teach you the mechanics.
Finding your way around this title requires a little tinkering. Once you find where everything is, hopefully you won’t get stuck. A few times, I got stuck and couldn’t click the exit or back button. It would show that I was, but it wouldn’t work.
Reading Between The Lines
Clear Sky has a way of being so eye-catching, yet tediously boring at the same time. At first, you will be amazed at how nice everything looks. Then, you get over it. This game has a great base for something unique, but really fails to deliver anything other than a simple match-three game. Everything is very adorable but lacks any real gameplay other than the puzzles. The other features don’t offer any more excitement and are just as tedious.
Hardcore?
Maybe
Clear Sky is a beautifully designed puzzler that needs challenge and features that won’t leave it feeling so dull. Without a whole lot to do this title fails to hold your attention and feels more like a chore.
