Review - Babel Rising

Sometimes you have to consider the possibility that if there is a God, he might not like you. I say 'he' but if videogaming is anything to go by, the almighty is nothing but an emancipated hand hovering high above the world like an arbitrary Roman Emperor, thumbing up or down to signify a thunderbolt or a gentle stroking. Not surprising given that it sets itself up as a god-sim from the off then, Babel Rising is an exercise in the cruelty of divinity. While NPC-controlled men try to build this biblical tower to the heavens, the deity thumb-squats, fireballs and destroys all builders like an omnipotent bouncer at the velvet rope of Heaven.

Making its way from the iOS and onto the XBLA, Babel Rising is another title that sits firmly within the "Why?" category. Aside from pilfering hard earned Microsoft Points, this short-form, tower defence-like title is at its best when played on dreary bus rides, in bored reception areas and with sweaty thumb swipes; as such, taking the experience into your darkened, gaming 'command centre' isn't really needed.



Although the name might suggest some kind of construction mechanic, the focus of Babel Rising is actually to stop the bite-sized engineers from building the tower of Babel. To help you achieve this goal, you've a number of godly powers at your disposal such as fireballs, earthquakes, Indiana Jones-style boulders and heaven-flung rocks. And initially, the experience can be quite amusing. The art style is reminiscent of Borderlands cell-shading, and the overall presentation of the campaign and side-missions shows some attention in porting. The divine retribution can be funny too; rocks suddenly crash to earth crushing those underfoot, walls of fire erupt around heretics and a boulder roll is always a comical way to perish.

Fortunately, the developers haven't simply copy-and-pasted the entire iPhone software over to the 360 and in doing so, it manages to set itself apart from its predecessor. Rather than being a flat 2D representation of Babel, it's instead a hulking, scaffolded-structure, with nice effects for divine powers and some amusing Worms-style deaths to boot.



For about 15 minutes then, Babel Rising is solid, polished, and entertaining experience… but only for those brief moments. Sadly though, there's little more to the action other than simply jabbing the A button and stamping out life. Powers recharge, abilities are sapped for a time, but really it's just a one note ensemble with nothing else to offer. Granted, tower defence games at the best of times are monodynamic oddities but this one takes the linear baton and runs with it. Within minutes, the earth-shattering boredom of lasting out 20 waves of builders hits home as you fight to stay awake. Even the occasional addition of retribution inventory grows stale, and it becomes apparent that there is nothing strikingly charming, nor addictive, about this XBLA adventure.

Even new additions such as co-op multiplayer and Kinect features are little more than half-hearted distractions and inevitably, they still boil down to the same old tedium. Babel Rising is ultimately a game about very little - it's the same old mechanic repeated over and over, which begs the question: why did this particular one track iOS performance need a console transfer? Sure, so for the relatively cheap price it's hardly the worst offering on XBLA, but neither is it the best. Indeed, a better time is had with this one on-the-fly, settled in the palm of your hand and ready for that quick burst of gaming…