Game review: Babel Rising

Wouldn`t you just love to smite them with a big old thunderbolt?

Well with BABEL RISING by UBISOFT you can finally get that dream (of sorts).

Unfortunately the striking of irresponsible motorists is not available (pity) but you do get to play in the good old days of the Old Testament.

Now you are a jealous and somewhat irrational God in this game, you don`t want the pathetic little humans to build their tower and unite the human race for all eternity.

Oh no you have to spend your time dropping a variety of objects or basically smiting them in different ways using all four basic elements, earth, wind, fire and water.

This is all well and good but if God had used KINECT when he created the world, he would probably still be waving his arms around to this day trying to get it to recognise him.

BABEL RISING is a KINECT game at heart. The problem is the KINECT itself doesn`t agree, the controls are downright annoying and the voice recognition is frustrating.

I gave up in the end and went for the controller option (which is better, but not that much).

So moving on, what’s the gameplay like you ask? Well to be honest a bit fiddly and somewhat repetitive. There’s no real upgrade to your powers which is boring, and you can`t use more than two powers at a time, which is constricting and ultimately off-putting.

There is a multi-play element with split screen, so you can have another God join in and help with the smiting!

This is a basic tower game with you dropping rocks or thunderbolts, fireballs and even whirlwinds onto the poor defenceless humans as they carry blocks of stone up the tower, to make it higher.

This is all well and good maybe as an app on a phone or a tablet (which it is available as), but it’s just a bit dull for a console.

Whether it’s because the developers offering both KINECT and controller options have made this a little too complicated for its own good, I am not sure.

I found the accuracy with the controller a touch too shaky, and inaccurate, and as for the KINECT, forget about it!

This is another one of those games that is a great concept but poorly executed. It is good to see that developers are trying new ground with the KINECT and that is a good thing, and offering a controller option is a good idea which other developers should follow.

Summary

BABEL RISING offers much but delivers next to nothing really. Like I said it probably plays better as a phone app, but just isn`t interesting as a console game. The KINECT controls are a complete nightmare enough to test the patience of any God.

Get the iPhone/android version - it costs less and is not as frustrating.

I give BABEL RISING 5 out of 10 because I do believe in the KINECT and its good to see developers trying stuff out even if it doesn`t work.

Babel Rising

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Mondo Productions

Genre: Tower defence

XBLA

PSN

Release Date: 13th June 2012

By Dayvid Ryan