In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said “Let there be light” and there was li – oh wait shit, no, they’re at it again! Grab your thunderbolts God, some Babylonians are trying to build an effing tower!
Babel Rising’s original roots are with the android community, being known as one of the most “well-made timewasters” to ever grace a mobile device. The game takes a unique spin on the popular Tower Defence genre, in which you play as (you guessed it) our lord almighty God – a divine being so kind and generous that he absolutely can’t stand the idea of Babylonians building a tower that touches the heavens, uniting mankind with his holiness. So good Old Testament God realizes what must be done to win the hearts of human beings – he must wreak vengeance and slaughter all those busy workers by commanding the elements: Water, Earth, Wind and Fire.
Sadly there isn’t much more to it than this, meaning Babel Rising’s definitely a game that’s built to occupy a few hours from time to time whenever you’re feeling bored. Until the novelty wears thin, using the elements to achieve your sadistic goal can be very rewarding and entertaining despite the restrictions of a very claustrophobic camera angle. The idea is to use local attacks (ones which target small groups of workers) until a gauge is filled, and once that is done you are able to unleash an “ultimate” attack (including tsunami’s, sandstorms, meteor showers and my personal favourite – a rolling boulder that crushes all the workers who are moving up the helical ramp) which is extremely effective in wiping out vast numbers of the Babylonians.
The “enemies” (if you can morally call them that) approach the tower from two different angles, meaning you must constantly be on your toes to avoid them reaching the top of the tower and vanishing in a puff of smoke. For longevity, there is a survival mode which is identical to the single-player experience but without a time limit, and an enjoyable local multiplayer in which you achieve your goals via co-operative play.
All in all, Babel Rising is definitely suitable for android devices but is perhaps a little limited for this console generation. Whilst I’ve yet to play the game on a 360 (this review has been based off the PlayStation 3 version) I’ve heard some negative things about the Kinect support – although I can’t really comment for sure. All I can assume is that it’s a flawed system which doesn’t respond well enough to your commands; a real issue for a game like this which requires real accuracy and rapid play to stop those lemmings from making it to the peak. Fortunately you can play this game with a controller (and that works obviously very well) but if you were looking to purchase this game just for the Kinect support you’ll probably be bitterly disappointed. Babel Rising is undoubtedly an entertaining Tower Defence game; however for that entertainment to be fully utilized this game really is best played in brief bursts. Doesn’t sound like your cup of tea? Don’t let God know, we all know what he’s like…
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