Babel Rising: PS3 Review

Babel Rising: PS3 Review

Released by Ubisoft
Platform: PS3

Ever wondered what kind of god you would be?

Sure, there's plenty of those kinds of games out there on the various formats where you help to build up worlds, create new lives and send an army off to war.

But what about one where you simply kill those trying to construct a tower using only the elements to pick off the would be heretics?

Well, that in a nutshell is what Babel Rising has to offer - a chance to kill everyone as they try and go about their daily business.

As the ant sized Babylonians try to build the tower, it's upto you to use earth, wind, fire and water to thwart their every attempt - and the more of them you kill, the closer you get to increasing your wrath-o-meter which then helps you unleash a super-powered version of the elemental takedowns.

It means you can unleash a massive boulder which then rolls from the top of the tower, squishing everything; or a major wind storm blowing everyone off their intended course of action - and it means you'll have some fun taking out the good guys for a change.

Babel Rising is quite a nice notion for a brief time waster - a series of mini games and challenges (such as killing 12 waves of workers or 40 priests) give it a brief endurability - but while it's fun initially to play and there's no more of a vicarious thrill than watching a whole horde of these little creatures being taken out by one massive blast, I'm not sure there's hours and hours of play with this title.

Graphically, it's nicely put together albeit very simplistic - but there are some troubles getting the camera to readjust and it can make for a tricky time trying to track down where all the builders have gone; particularly if they're over-running the ramparts with their rush to build.

Outside of the core MO of the game, there's a fair amount of repetition; a survival challenge is simply that and relies on you killing and destroying to stop the tower being built and a tournament challenge sees you performing different ways of killing the Babylonians without being overrun.

All in all, while Babel Rising is a nice concept, it seems to quickly run foul of itself by having nowhere else to go with the gameplay itself. Probably a short term title to play, it's good fun for a morning or so but anything long term may leave your god complex somewhat wanting.

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