You play Sisyphus, who has escaped from his ancient Greek
mythological hell, and proceed to go on a rampage across Europe
and throughout time, taking on notable characters such as Leonardo da Vinci,
Napoleon, or The Plague. There is plenty of humor here, as well as classic art,
and generally the campaign serves as a way to expose you to the various levels
and characters, but also includes some fun boss fights, such as one where you
defeat a giant recreation of the statue of David, which has been outfitted with
a cannon within his head and another above his waist, by repeatedly hitting him
in the fig leaf.
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| Yep...this game is a bit different. |
As for the gameplay itself, well, it really consists of two
parts. Not only will you be attacking your enemy, during which time you take on
the roll of the rock and must navigate a treacherous course of natural hazards,
pitfalls and enemy placed defenses, but you must also defend your own gates,
taking advantage of said hazards, pitfalls, and available defenses.
Attacking is usually pretty simple - navigate the course and
stay as intact as possible, then hit the gate with as much force as your can
muster. Most of the obstacles you'll face will be placed by your opponent, and
I'll cover those in a minute, but there are natural obstacles too - from giant
cannons that will fire on you, making you loose a few chunks of rock or just
generally knocking you off the course, to big cloud guys that will blow you around,
to the layout of the course itself. Most levels feature some kind of major
obstacle - that cannon or wind guy - but there are smaller hazards that can be
far more dangerous if you're not careful. Channels of water, while clear of
defenses, make movement slow, costing you valuable time and exposing you to
enemy fire. Stair steps that you must jump up will chip off a bit of your
boulder each time it lands, until you lose your first layer, and then your
second, and then suddenly you are no more. Even if you do survive, your
diminished mass is far less effective at smashing gates.
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| The normal path is from the top right all the way around the bottom to the castle in the top left. Or, if you're lucky, you could fight your way uphill along the center, then across the islands, and land right next to the gate. |
Defense is a little different, and I'm not sure if it's more
about strategy or dumb luck. There are a variety of buildable defenses at your
disposal, such as towers to impede progress, cows to push enemy boulders around
or off the edge, fans that do very much the same, or explosive barrels that
help expedite the process of breaking down that boulder. Each of these requires
two things: gold, and a buildable square. Gold you get by dealing damage,
mostly by ramming the enemy gate, but also by destroying his or her defenses,
or just smashing some of the random objects around a level, like pottery, or
some unfortunate townsfolk. As for actually placing your defenses, you'll have
to look for buildable squares, denoted by the lighter color tile. Each defense
uses up a single tile, which it then turns black for the remainder of the game,
preventing you from building anything else in that spot if it were destroyed.
Some defenses also turn large areas around them black, so you can't just
cluster a bunch together, though if you're smart about it you can place all
your small defenses and then your large one, to really sure up an area.
Hopefully you've done a good job by the time your enemy starts rolling, because
defenses do take some time to build, and are extremely vulnerable during that
time. Still, you aren't completely out of luck once your enemy is moving - you
can use your castle's catapult to deal a bit of extra damage, and if you're
really lucky, or really good, you can even destroy their boulder, which could
be the difference between defeat and victory.
There are two other things that make this game a bit tricky
that I haven't mentioned yet. The first is that the offensive and defensive
portions of the game happen at the same time. You do not get dedicated time to
take pot shots at your enemy with your catapult, or to fine tune your defenses
at the end of the line, other than the slight downtime between rolls. You can
of course opt not to roll, but if you get behind by a turn or so, you're living
very dangerously, because it generally only takes 3-4 decent hits to break down
those doors. The other catch is that there is a bit more to your offensive
abilities than I've already covered, specifically purchasable one time upgrades
to your boulder. Been having trouble breaking apart? Well, then get the iron
strapped ball to be more resilient to defenses. Or maybe you get the fireball
to do extra damage. Still, you could get the tar ball, which turns several
tiles unbuildable each time you land.
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| So that's a self reference inside of a reference to The Matrix, while also referencing the activity involved. Forget the fourth wall, they broke them all down. |
Overall, Rock of Ages is a pretty fun game, with everything
from the humor of attacking historical characters like Leonidas (from 300), and
then watching him dance around and squeal when you break down his doors, to the
intensity of navigating a weaving course at high speeds without flying off the
edges and losing precious time, to the rush of finding a secret path that lets
you finish the level in half the time. Being the completionist that I am, I
collected all the keys that can be found in the game - three in each level -
and so I took a bit longer than many others who only collect the minimum to
advance might, taking me about 5 hours to complete. There are other modes too,
beyond just the campaign, such as a skeeboulder mode, and of course
multiplayer. The game is worth every bit of $5, though I have seen it as low as
$2.50, so pick it up the next time it's on sale - 7 out of 10.
So, the final breakdown:
Score: 7/10
Suggested Price: $5
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