Rock of Ages Review

**Smore ninja** · October 19th, 2011

When needing to defend yourself from people that want to murder you, one of the most ancient forms of defense is to hide behind walls so that they can’t get to you. In Rock of Ages, the main point is trying to counter this method of defense by rolling a giant rock into the walls until they fall apart. While I’m over-simplifying the gameplay, Rock of Ages is one of the most original games I have ever played. I’ve heard tid-bits of interesting information here and there, so I’ve been very interested to try this game out and Rock of Ages rolls out plenty of fun.

Rock of Ages is all about rolling through three different game modes: War, Skeeball, and Time Trial. Rolling around is great fun and all the tracks are entertaining. When you start going at high speeds it gets really exhilarating. Each track does have obstacles and its own individual twists and turns to keep rolling around fun.

The first game mode is called War and Rock of Ages revolves around this game mode a lot. The story mode uses this rolling type almost exclusively, which is great since this is also the best game mode to play. The story mode is a fun parody of human history mixed with references to popular culture or video games, in one case breaking the 4^th wall. The animation style made me think of Monty Python and all historical figures are nicely represented by the art of their time period. While these animated cut scenes are nice and are great for peaking interest in history, that is not why we are here. War is about you taking on your enemies by ramming their fort with your giant rock while they try to do the same to you on an identical track. After hitting their fort your rock is destroyed and while it is being rebuilt you can spend the time building defenses to slow down or completely destroy the enemy’s rock. These defenses range from catapults to towers to animals. All of the defenses can be used in many different ways ranging from obvious to sinisterly clever. All your defenses cost money which you gain in a few different ways: destroy your enemy's defenses along with structures on the track, causing the damage to the fortress, and if the building is available you can build a mine to generate money over time. After you build your defenses and your rock is ready, it’s time to roll down the track. You can select a one-time upgrade for your rock (which also costs money) and then you start rolling. The upgrades are all interesting and unique and add an entirely new strategic element to the game. You have to balance the decision of how much you should try to avoid your enemy’s defenses or smash through them as well as decide on how much time you will spend trying to earn money and which path you should take.

The other two game modes are Skeeball and Time Trial. Both focus more on speed over the strategic element of the game and both game types are really fun. Using the tracks that you unlock in story mode, you race down the course. In Time Trial, it's just you against the clock as you try beating the time to get gold. Skeeball is a bit more complicated. As you race down the course there are targets that you have to hit, earning you different point values. At the end of the track is a Skeeball ramp and, well, just like in regular Skeeball you aim for the hole that gives you the most points. In this case though, each hole is worth a different point multiplier and you directly control the ball. There's always a twist, and in this case it's that the multiplier is only granted to the person who lands their ball first. After three rounds, the person with the highest score wins. It’s a fun game of race; even with a high multiplier, if you hit too few items you can still be beaten while at the same time if you spend too much time hitting targets then your opponent can speed ahead and hit later targets and get a good multiplier too. It’s an intense scenario, but if you want to get some practice you can practice solo.

Rock of Ages is a fun and original game with a charming sense of humour. Having multiple game modes really makes sure that Rock of Ages will let the good times roll.

Overall Rating:
8/10

Click here to download the Free Trial or Full Game (800 MSP)