An invasion of flying saucers from Planet X? Killer brains from outer space? Robot men on the sun? Is this a lost Ed Wood masterpiece? No, it’s a new tower defense game inspired by 50’s science fiction films. Witness the diabolical plans of King Gorg of the Gorg! Hear the seductive voice of space siren Sereia inside your mind! Cower in terror before the might of the Sunbots in… Unstoppable Gorg!
This game shows just how much a decent game can be enhanced by good story-telling and a clever premise. It’s a competent tower defense game, but the music, story, custscenes and visual design elevate it to a must-play game for fans of Plan 9 From Outer Space and other cheesy sci-fi movies from the 50’s.
Forgoing the use of CGI custscenes, Gorg rather uses live actors and old newsreel footage to tell its story of an alien invasion from… Planet X! The brave Captain Adam must save his kidnapped girlfriend from the nefarious King Gorg and along the way, humanity also finds itself fighting a race of psychic brains from Jupiter, plus sentient robots who live on the sun.
The leaders of these alien factions are played by live actors who wear silly costumes and are filmed in black & white on deliberately cheap sets. They taunt the Player between missions with melodramatic monologs done with deadpan authenticity, and terrific voice work. Gorg will have fans of classic sci-fi laughing out loud even as they quake in their puny human shoes!
The music also recreates the atmosphere of old-time space stories. It gets rather repetitive after a while, but still adds to the aura of Saturday matinee. Even the menus get in on the act by replicating the controls of a rocketship, and by labeling locked missions as “Mission X”!
In terms of the actual mechanics of the game, it’s essentially a tower defense game, but Unstoppable Gorg does have a few unusual features. As with the genre, players must defend a base from incoming waves of enemies by setting up a series of automated defenses. Instead of controlling the usual towers or turrets, Players control orbiting satellites that circle a planet or spaceship.
There are a limited number of slots where the satellites can be placed, and these are spread out at different distances from the base. Once placed, these satellites revolve around the base in an orbit of a fixed distance from the center. This means that the Player can re-position them along that orbit at will, and this is is one of the distinct features of the game. Some levels will remove this option to increase difficulty, and some will make satellites revolve on their own without any player control.
The standard selection of defense types is available, some are constructed cheaply but provide limited firepower, others are extremely effective against certain enemies but weak against others. Other satellites will strengthen nearby allies, and there’s even one that creates an energy field between other satellites. In addition to this there are several special powers that can be activated for a temporary debuff against enemies, like slowing their progress, or inflicting a small amount of damage on every enemy on the screen. All of these features should be familiar to fans of the tower defense genre, but Gorg offers some fun little deviations plus the distinct sci-fi theme.
There’s a simple economy system in which players have to earn money by placing certain kinds of satellites, and each level has a limited number of satellites that can be in orbit at any moment so there is a balance between earning money and fighting enemies. The more powerful defenses cost more money, of course, and each type of structure can be upgraded for the right price. There is also feature where players have the chance to earn upgrade points on every level, and these upgrade points are carried over from mission to mission.
The three alien factions mentioned above are slowly introduced during the first half of the game, and they each have unique types of ships with special vulnerabilities. Many levels involve multiple factions of enemies attacking at once, but players have a limited selection of satellite types that they bring on each mission, so good planning is required to stop the unstoppable Gorg.
Completing a mission will unlock new satellite types, and completing bonus objectives will yield further bonuses, like “Challenge Missions”. There are 21 levels in the main storyline, with each having an unlockable challenge mission that adds in special restrictions. On top of that there are several difficulty levels, plus an Arcade Mode that has players fighting off endless waves of enemies and uses a simplified economy system. All of these variations add a good deal of play time to Gorg’s rather short story mode.
The Unstoppable Gorg is available for PC and iPad, with an Xbox Live Arcade edition coming in the future. While the actual gameplay itself is only average, this game’s aesthetics and story warrant a strong recommendation for people who have a liking for goofy science fiction cliché’s.
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