Rock of Ages

Developer: ACE Team | Publisher: SEGA | Release Date: 2011 | Genre: Action / Strategy / Indie / Racing | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Poor Sisyphus, doomed to roll a massive boulder up a hill only to watch it roll down again as soon as he nears the top. In Greek mythology, this went on for all eternity, but the outcome is a little different in Rock of Ages by ACE Team. Here, we see Sisyphus go on a rampage with his giant boulder, which he uses to smash everything in his way. After breaking out of Hades, Sisyphus and his boulder tear through Sparta, Wallachia, Rome, Paris, Madrid, and many other locations while occasionally stopping to defeat a boss or two.

Although the campaign mode is about Sisyphus, you are actually in control of his giant boulder. Your goal on each level is to use this boulder and smash down the door to the fort where your opponent is hiding on the opposite side of the map. Meanwhile, they are trying to do the same to you, so the victor is whoever can smash down their opponent’s door and crush them with the boulder. To make things a little more interesting, each course is quite twisted and convoluted, so getting to your opponent is not a straightforward process. To complicate matters further, both Sisyphus and his opponents can also place defenses on the course to hinder or even destroy rival boulders. Defenses can only be placed in certain spots and require money to build, so you can’t go wild with them, but they can turn the tide in your favor if you are lucky.

After smashing your boulder into your opponent’s fort door, it takes a short while before it is rebuilt, and you can do it again. During this waiting period, you can plunk down more defenses if you have the money or try and take potshots at your opponent’s boulder yourself as it rolls towards your fort. You need to smash your opponents’ defenses to earn more money, while later levels allow you to purchase mines that generate income instead of providing defenses. However, as neat as the whole tower defense element of the game is, most of the time, levels are won by whoever can reach their opponent’s fort the fastest. Supposedly, the size of your boulder and the speed at which it smashes into the fort door determines how much damage it does to the door. However, the difference in damage appears to be negligible, and we completed most levels with only three hits or four at most. The short period of time available to place defenses also makes it hard to come up with strategies other than stacking up whatever you can afford at choke points. Defenses play even less of a role in the early stages, as you can simply jump over most of them, but later in the game, it can be very beneficial to slow down your opponent or destroy their boulder outright.

If you prefer offense to defense, you can also spend your cash on upgrades for your boulder instead. These supposedly do more damage to enemy structures but only last for one round and can be lost if you take too much damage or land up in water in the case of the flaming power-up. Whichever strategy you choose, speed is of the essence, and most rounds tend to be won by whichever player dawdled the least on the way to their opponent. In the campaign mode, most levels can be completed in under ten minutes, and we usually finished each level on the first attempt. Of course, the game has some achievements that can extend the playing time, such as collecting the special keys on each map. Typically, you only need to collect enough of these to unlock the next area, and getting to them requires a bit more effort.

The campaign is set across five very distinct periods of art, so you can expect to see everything from Ancient Greek to Medieval, Renaissance Rococo, and beyond. The irreverent treatment of the different art styles of these eras is the highlight of the game and we looked forward to each new level just to see who we would be facing. The cut scenes introducing your opponents, who could be anyone from Leonidas and Leonardo da Vinci to Vlad The Impaler and Napoleon, are laugh-out-loud funny in a Monty Python kind of way. The game is also packed with pop culture references, with the spoof of Castlevania to introduce Vlad being a highlight. Others, such as the 300, Matrix, and Lord of The Rings, are more dated. The boss battles use a completely different approach compared to the rest of the game and tax your platforming skills instead. Since you control massive boulders, maneuverability is not exactly its strong point, but some of the fights are funny nonetheless. For example, one of the bosses is a giant David statue whose weak spot is exactly what you would imagine.

The story mode can be completed very quickly, but thankfully, there are a few other modes to keep players busy, too. Time Trial sees you trying to reach the opposite end of the level as quickly as possible, while SkeeBoulder requires you to hit targets on the way down and then try to land in the highest-scoring hole at the bottom. These modes are obviously the most fun in multiplayer, both local and online, but can be played on your own for practice. War mode, which follows the same formula as the story mode, also works better against a real human opponent as they tend to be more unpredictable and challenging than the computer.

Rock of Ages makes use of Unreal Engine 3, and while the visuals are not exactly state of the art, they certainly have a lot of charm and character. The 2D paper dolls used for your opponents are hilarious, and the animations must be seen to be believed. The levels and all obstacles are rendered in 3D, though, and look very decent. There’s even a picture-in-picture view of your opponent’s boulder so you can see what they are up to while you control your boulder. The soundtrack is just as wacky, but the sound effects really steal the show. Once again, everything sounds very tongue-in-cheek and Monty Pythonesque, especially the fart sound when you crush an opponent with your boulder. When it comes to steering your boulder, a controller with analog sticks feels much more natural, but a mouse is much better for placing defenses in the top-down sections, so we ended up playing the game with a keyboard and mouse combination. If you plan on playing the game in split-screen mode with a friend, then two controllers are highly recommended, though.

All in all, Rock of Ages is a lot of fun while it lasts, which is unfortunately not that long. The campaign mode is quite funny but not without flaws, and the concept feels more suited to multiplayer. Instead of developing good defense strategies, the best way to win is usually to find the fastest route on the map. It’s nice that new defenses are introduced on almost every level, but most of these are just upgraded versions of older ones that cost more. When falling off the track, it is easy to become disoriented after the giant disembodied hand picks you up and places you back. The handy signs pointing the right way help in this regard, but they are not always visible depending on where you are placed. Finally, there were a few occasions where the physics felt a bit wonky. Despite these gripes, we had fun with Rock of Ages, and considering the low asking price, it’s a great little game to play when you feel like something that doesn’t require much mental effort.