I thought “Rock of Ages” was cleft for me, I really did. Following their first-person fighting game, “Zeno Clash,” which surprised everyone by not being horrible, the genre-colliding folks at ACE Team have made what promised to be video games’ most interesting mash-up yet: the gravity game (think “Marble Madness,” “Super Monkey Ball”) crossed with tower defense (think “Lock’s Quest,” “Plants vs. Zombies”). With simple, immutable rules and a clear objective, these two genres stand next to puzzle games and platformers as the most immediately appealing in all of gaming. One has you roll a ball toward a destination, the other has you setting up defenses to thwart a constant stream of attackers. If an odd couple like “Zeno Clash” could work, “Rock of Ages” could be one for the — well, you know.
The game tells the story of Sisyphus, whom you may remember from classics class as the guy doomed to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it fall back down, over and over till eternity. Where Greek mythology ends and “Rock of Ages,” begins, Sisyphus realizes he can use the boulder’s momentum to his advantage, guiding it to smash his enemies and perhaps someday free him. This realization leads him on a journey through time, in which he fights everyone from King Leonidas to Cardinal Richelieu amid gorgeous graphics that are an overt nod to the wonders Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam worked with paper cut-outs.
| ‘Rock of Ages’ |
| » Systems: PS3, Xbox 360, PC |
| » Price: $10 |
| » Rating: 2 out of 5 stars |
Playing as Sisyphus, it’s your job to roll boulders, one at a time, downhill through your enemies’ defenses to damage their castle. Thing is, your enemies are meanwhile rolling boulders toward your castle, and you get about 30 seconds between rolling sessions to build various walls, windmills and catapults to slow down and/or damage enemy boulders, reducing their impact on your castle.
Two problems: The building phases are not nearly long enough to set up anything sophisticated, and on top of that, the defenses make hardly any difference, to you or your enemy. Most maps make it no problem to go around or even jump over any obstacle, so this theoretical hybrid of gravity game and tower defense is in fact a mere racing game, as whoever barrels down the hill faster automatically wins.
In a way, you have to hand it to the folks at ACE Team. They made, on paper, the best game of the year, which is no mean feat. Here’s hoping for a sequel that lives up to its concept.
