Personality. Some games have it; some don’t. Rock of Ages totally has it. On that note, however, that personality may not be for everyone. For the most part, the game uses a Terry Gilliam inspired art style; something that does give it a very distinct look. The humor also stands out as quite different from the norm. Lots of pop culture references mixed with well-known historical figures that very rarely speak; lots of grunting and other noises going on. Some may find it funny, but like I said, it’s not for everyone.
You start Rock of Ages in Hades as Sisyphus. It appears that your punishment is rolling this large boulder up a hill, but a little demon keeps distracting you; causing you to drop the boulder. You eventually get the bright idea of using the boulder to open the gates of Hades, allowing you and your cronies to escape. After you break free, you go on a tour from civilization to civilization rolling over any leader in your path. Like I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of well-known historical figures so you battle everyone from Leonardo De Vinci to Plato in your quest to concur all.
The actual gameplay is broken into two main components; offense and defense. Each level is symmetrical as both you and your opponent have a boulder. Your objective is to break your opponent’s castle gate down and crush the historical figure inside before your opponent does the same to you. Without even speaking about the defenses you can lay down, most of the maps themselves provide their own challenge; you won’t just be rolling a ball down a hill here.
The maps themselves provide twists, turns, and obstacles you need to navigate through. The faster you roll, the stronger you are; but on the same token, it’s much harder to steer the ball and you lose more health as you hit obstacles or defensive structures. Take enough damage and your boulder will crumble apart and will need to be rebuilt. Running into people, houses, and other defensive structures will get you cash that you can spend on special boulders and defensive structures. Special boulders have features such as iron bands, give you a one-time use double jump, or even turn the boulder into a fireball.
The concept behind offense is pretty simple; conserve health, steer clear of obstacles and defensive structures where you can, and make sure you hit the gate at top speed. While it’s more challenging that it sounds, offense was not what I enjoyed in the game; it’s the defense. As you’re rolling your boulder down the level, so is your opponent. You need to make sure that he either doesn’t get to your gate, or has a really hard time getting there. Between each attack there is a period where your boulder needs to be rebuilt, and this is where you setup your defenses.
The entire map is made up of tiles, and each defensive structure takes up a certain amount. After you use a tile, it cannot be used again even if that structure is destroyed so you really need to think about what structures you are putting where. For example, you may not want to put a tower at the bottom of a steep hill just so it can be obliterated. There are several types of defensive structures including towers, catapults, fans, animals such as cows and elephants, explosives, and even support units that help your catapults become more effective. Putting up a row of one specific type of structure is a surefire way to waste a lot of money. The enemy A.I. is no slouch, which surprised me a lot when I actually watched it navigate its boulder throughout the level.
I was expecting the A.I. to follow a set path, but it will take shortcuts, avoid your traps, and will definitely make it around them wherever it can. In order to slow it down or possibly even destroy the enemy boulder, you need to analyze the map, find choke points, and put a combination of defenses there. For example, if you just put a catapult or two in place the boulder will simply plow through them or go around them. However, if you were to take a fan or two to slow the boulder down, put some elephants in the mix to push it back, then back that up with a catapult in an area where the boulder has no choice but to pass through you might have a winning combination. Also, instead of placing a row of explosives in the way of the boulder (which it will just jump over, by the way), maybe you should stagger explosives down a hill where the boulder will have a harder time steering.
Each map is very unique, so each new level requires analysis and figuring out what works for that map. Not sure about you, but I find that fun. The only gripe I had with defense was the fact that you have to use the analog stick to traverse the field. Countless times I passed over a tile by accident because the analog stick overshot. There are more than enough open buttons on the controller to assign the functions that were taking up space on the d-pad.
Obviously I enjoyed the defensive aspect of Rock of Ages, but if you’re wondering why I didn’t feel the same way about the offensive aspect it’s because I found it too easy. The defensive A.I. is laughable in the earlier levels. In some of the later levels I actually had to pay attention, but it still wasn’t too much of a challenge. My boulder was never in danger of breaking, and the only reason I knew it could break was because I was able to break the enemy’s boulder a few times. Most of the defenses I was able to get around or bore through with no problem.
As long as I made sure I didn’t spend too much time on defense, I was able to get my boulder to the enemy gates quickly, usually completing each level in about 4-5 minutes. If the defensive A.I. was as clever as the offensive A.I. it would have made things way more interesting. Every now and again there will be a boss fight to break up your regularly scheduled gameplay. Luckily these encounters are different from the average level. In one boss fight you will fight a dragon while in the next one you will be shooting yourself out of cannons at a statue.
There are additional modes to play in Rock of Ages; multiplayer, skeeboulder, and time trials. I was unable to link up with another player for multiplayer so I can’t really tell you about it. I can only assume it takes the same attack/defense structure. Skeeboulder was actually pretty fun. You can pick any map you have unlocked and make your way down, hitting targets on the way for multipliers. At the end you will find a big ole skeeball ramp where you need to try to place yourself with the highest score. Time trials are… well, time trials.
Like I said earlier, Rock of Ages isn’t for everyone. Some will like it, some won’t and I think the developers knew this when they were making it based on the specific humor that the game has. I can definitely tell you that Rock has a solid defensive aspect, and I’m pretty sure that others will enjoy the offensive aspect more than I did. At the very least, I would recommend checking out the trial to see if this one is for you. If it isn’t, the only thing you wasted is your time.
