I bet most people who play independent downloadable games have a love-hate relationship with this type of game: when an indie game is good, it’s downright brilliant, a diamond in the rough, shining against the play-alike dross that is so prevalent in the mainstream market. And when an indie game is bad, it’s downright disgusting. Rock of Ages, the latest effort from indie developers ACE Team (the team behind Zeno Clash, the esoteric first-person brawler), falls somewhere between these two extremes, and in fact can be said to have these two extremes within itself. It’s a pretty solid game when it plays like it’s supposed to be played, but there are times when its concepts fall apart, eroding its fun factor significantly. Rock of Ages is a game that can only be described as a combination of tower defense and Super Monkey Ball. The object is to roll a giant boulder down a mountain, past obstacles that your opponent sets up (in the style of tower defense, naturally) and crash it into your opponent’s castle gates, with the intention of knocking it down and squishing the opponent inside.
Meanwhile, your opponent is trying to do the same thing to you, therefore you have to set up defenses of your own; these range from towers that block paths, to creatures that push the enemy boulder, to projectile launchers to wear it down, and so on. It’s a very novel concept, and when it works the way it’s supposed to, it’s a lot of fun. There are a couple of variations on this gameplay theme that extend the fun as well, and these are a Time Trial mode for when you just want to push the boulder down the hill as fast as possible, and even a Skeeball mode that’s as much fun as, well, the skeeball arcade machines of yesteryear. Unfortunately there are some flaws which hold back this game’s true fun potential and sort of cause its core concepts to work against it. For one thing, in Rock of Ages’s single-player mode, the enemy AI is often quite brutal, unforgiving, and downright unbalanced. The AI opponent apparently can build defenses much more much faster than you could ever build in the same amount of time, and by the time the AI starts rolling its boulder, the defenses you manage to build are so meager the computer-controlled boulder can easily roll past them.
You do have a few advantages, such as being able to upgrade your boulder to do more damage to the enemy gates, or have the boulder take more damage, but later in the game the AI gets those same advantages, rendering whatever you have a moot point. Furthermore, the tower defense building controls leave a bit to be desired, being unwieldy and confusing. Selecting defenses to build is a chore, and placing them equally so thanks to a cursor that is uncooperative at most times with no option to adjust sensitivity – the only time the cursor’s sensitivity is affected is when you zoom in or out on the battlefield. Controlling the boulder itself is a lot of fun, however, as it feels like it should: a heavy mass that is appropriately affected by the laws of physics, and it crashes into objects with a satisfying sound every time. However, if you’re not precise on the courses, it can often cost you dearly. The amount of damage you can do to the enemy gates is dependent on your velocity, and if you don’t have enough velocity by the time you reach the end of the course, it puts you at a distinct disadvantage over the course of the game.
If there is one aspect of this game that is brilliantly executed, though, it’s the presentation. Whoever was behind the artistic style of Rock of Ages has obviously watched way too much Monty Python, but that’s not a bad thing, as the overall look and feel mimics the hilarious Terry Gilliam animations of the classic Monty Python series: animated cutouts of classical artwork throughout history are brought to life to comically gut-busting results. Sound effects likewise take off those often found in Monty Python material, with plenty of silly noises abound when your boulder smashes through obstacles and squishes hapless victims in its path. The overall presentation does a lot to make you feel like you’re playing an interactive version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Rock of Ages, overall, is a funny but flawed package; a few tweaks here and there, such as the ability to adjust the difficulty and/or cursor sensitivity would’ve made this a much more appealing downloadable game choice. Still, there are plenty of hilarious moments to be had, such as in the single-player cutscenes, and especially in the multiplayer modes where both sides can be more evenly matched. Buy it if you’re a fan of Monty Python, or have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription to play against other players, but take a pass if you’re easily frustrated.
