Rock of Ages

Rock Of Ages
Developer:  ACE Team
Category:  Miscellaneous
Released:  Sep 2011
Usual Price:  £6.99
Hours Played: 2
Controller Compatible:  Yes
Rating:  0 Stars

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The thing is, Rock of Ages just looks like it should be a really good game. The Monty-Pythonesque art-style, done in the cardboard cut-out / Terry Gilliam mould, gives it a classy and sophisticated edge - especially with the rich historical references - and the USP is also promising; it's just that the actual gameplay doesn't quite tick the boxes.

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Menus, Progress & Stats

Cardboard cut-out historical figures from throughout European history shuffle onto the scene at the title-page. As they huddle around a huge rock, you'll get a list of options that will show a leaderboard, allow you to change the art-style of your rock, give you help and options and let you dive in - and, of course, let you exit the game. Single Player leads you to four modes, including a story mode which you'll need to do to unlock the slopes in the other modes. The level-select screen in the story mode lets you move an avatar around a crude map that link locations along a dotted path. Locations represent slopes and each gets unlocked as you complete previous slopes in the story.

Other modes include an Obstacle mode - that has you racing against a computer-controlled rock - and a Time Trial mode that presents a slope for you to roll down in the quickest possible time. Each of these give bronze, silver and gold awards in accordance with your best time. Bronze is fairly doable but the silver and gold awards seem pretty difficult to achieve. Overall, you get about 20 slopes which are thematically linked to various eras in history. The menus are well done with tasteful colour-schemes, and that well-polished Monty Python style. Both Obstacle and Time Trial mode feature a carousel like level-select menu screen with a screenshot of each map showing up as you flick through, along with your best time and current medal for that slope.

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Gameplay

Story mode is what you'll encounter at first with the first two being tutorial in design. Initially, you control a huge rock and simply steer it down a winding slope in order to crash into a door with the greatest force possible. You need to exert the greatest force possible on this door because another opponent is doing exactly the same thing to your door and you need to crack theirs open first. Between each run, you go to an overhead view and place obstacles on your slope with money earnt (from crashing into things in the previous run) to make life difficult for your opponent. You may also upgrade your rock into a more powerful one like attaching huge iron straps to it or making it like a fireball.

All this may sound fine and dandy and, with the fine artwork drawing from a rich historical tapestry, you may think it adds up to an exciting title but unfortunately this is not the case. For a start, the physics of the movement of the rock itself seems as if its sliding rather than having any sort of grip on the surface. Secondly, you always seem to have to hit the door precisely three times no matter how much momentum your rock is travelling at. This just seems to make the idea of having to build up speed a kind of nonsense. Finally, the obstacles that are placed on the slope to slow the opponent down don't really seem to make a great deal of difference. This may suggest the Obstacle or Time Trial mode are better but they seem equally pedestrian and dull in comparison. 

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Conclusion

With so much fanfare and polish helped largely by the classy art-design, I'm afraid the game is a massive triumph of presentation over its rather bland and unexciting gameplay design. As gameplay usually trumps everything else, I have to say that had it been the other way around I may have gotten into the game with more enthusiasm. Yes, it's beautiful to look at; yes, I loved the references to the Gods and the heroes of Greek mythology; yes, I laughed out loud at some of the humourous cut-scenes... but with loads more absorbing racing games out there, Rock of Ages will not be a game I'll rush back into.