Rock of Ages was referred to as a tower defense with a twist by many including Atlus. Its Monty Python style visuals are one of kind on Xbox LIVE, but how the game stack up against other tower defense titles like Defense Grid and Toy Soldiers? Let’s find out in our review.
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The game features both a single player and multiplayer component, and multiplayer offers both local and Xbox LIVE play options. The single player offers a decent length campaign including a few ‘boss levels’, and there’s virtually no limit to course designs which you’ll come to learn quickly. The basic premise of the game is to destroy the door to your opponent’s stronghold first and crush the character inside. The tower defense aspect is supposedly added in my creating catapults, blockage towers, and more to slow down or knock your opponent’s boulder off the map. Unfortunately, the tower defense aspect of the game is completely unbalanced and might as well be non-existent.
During the short phase where your boulder is being readied for battle, you find yourself in tower building mode. In this overhead view of the twisted map, you see light and dark tiles presented below. Placements can only be set onto the light tiles, and each has a cost attached to it, and there are also multiple levels per placement as you unlock more during the campaign. You can place large creatures to force the boulder off, probably the most useful placement in the game because they’re indestructible. Normal towers are typically crushed with ease by a boulder and they don’t slow you down enough to really change the outcome. Generally, the first person to launch their boulders for each round will be the one to win the game, but this also depends on them making it down the long and hazardous track in decent time as well. There are also some collectible keys to collect during the offensive phase of the game, but you’ll only need to get a few in the long run, and these allow access to more levels in the campaign.
A quick note on the multiplayer – don’t get too excited to jump online. Fortunately there is a community available to play against, but 3/5 matches end up in a lag-filled mess that makes a game like Rock of Ages impossible to play properly. If you manage to find a good connection though, it’s decent fun but not really any different than the single player component of the game.
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The track design is one of the coolest features in the game and there are no limitations to what you can expect to encounter. You’ll find yourself jumping chasms, rolling uphill, downhill, crushing through towers and people, and even dropping off cliffs to reach the stronghold first. Each level will take roughly 3-4 boulders, depending on whether you can afford a powered-up model with spikes, lava, or other enhancements. The more you destroy on your way through the level then the more cash you’ll earn to use on placements or upgraded boulders.
The most unique quality in Rock of Ages is obviously its Monty Python and ancient Greek art direction. Levels are detailed by cut-out style decorations and they’re all so different from one another that you’ll want to continuously take a moment to appreciate the visuals on your way down the mountain. The soundtrack compliments the way perfectly with the sounds of Mozart and the very famous piece, “Dies Irae”. It couldn’t be a better fit for a game of this style. Sound effects otherwise are decently done but there’s nothing you haven’t heard before in a videogame.
Rock of Ages fails in terms of being a true tower defense title, but it succeeds in being an otherwise fun and original experience. The campaign will last a few hours, but once you’re finished with that there are not many reasons to go back to it. The multiplayer could use some work to make it run smoother on a more frequent basis, and towers need some major balancing to really call this a tower defense game, but it’s still fun for what it is. Great style and design and a wonderful soundtrack make it in an interesting and enjoyable platformer to say the least.
| Rating | Description |
| 7.0 | Gameplay Tower defense? Hardly. But it does have some fun platforming aspects and finding the quickest path down to the goal is pretty fun! |
| 9.0 | Graphics Ancient Greek, Monty Python - call it what you want. It looks awesome and it's completely original compared to anything else I've seen on Xbox LIVE. |
| 9.0 | Sound Mozart. Enough said. |
| 8.0 | Final Score |
