Babel Rising review

For their heresy, the old testament states that the ancient builders of the tower of Babel were miraculously given different languages, and lost the single tongue they once spoke in unison to destroy their deity, and soon left, unable to communicate. But were you or I that almighty, perhaps we would do things differently. Perhaps we would let loose our wrath on the foolish mortals, and remove them from existence entirely.

It may be the way of video games today, which call for blood at every turn, but in this case it may not be too far from the truth. The gods of other religions regularly killed not only those who opposed or blasphemed them, but even at times their most faithful followers. So, why not?

Babel Rising is exactly this tale. The tower of Babel is being built, and players act as the all-seeing, all-powerful force they seek to destroy. Of course, you aren’t all-powerful or all-seeing, and there are many hundreds and thousands of individuals searching to destroy you. Instead, players are given seven powers to eliminate the heretics, who attack in unrelenting hordes of stone-carrying artisans. These powers vary based on the game mode played, but include such famous plagues as fiery hail, lightning, massive wind, waves, and destroying a level of the tower.

Meaning, they’re all pretty weak. These are not the godly power we had in mind.

Attacks must charge, so players don’t get free reign to rain down pillars of fire on the unassuming builders. Only one attack is fast enough to use regularly, and at its weakest it will only kill one fleshy thing. Kind of pathetic. Worse yet, the more powerful attacks are so rare, that they may not be used more than once per game. Creative and well-timed use of powers does lead to bonus points (gods need no trivial points!) through point amplifiers. For example, call a meteor shower and then an earthquake, and you’ll earn double points.

This sounds good and fair, but in fact it’s fairly weak as a game. Creativity in gameplay is stifled by the slow recharge most attacks have, there’s little satisfaction in killing off even tens of builders because every one has another 20 behind him charging forward. And with only two game modes (two more are available for in-game purchase, a campaign and Fury mode, which speeds up gameplay.

For the price, it’s an easy bargain. Each game lasts anywhere from 5-15 minutes, depending on how good you are, so it’s not quite a five-minute hero, but pretty close.