BABEL Rising by Bulkypix has officially been ordained into the App Store for just $0.99 cents, as yet another real time action oriented tower defense variant, but with a somewhat unique twist. In that it puts you in the shoes of an angry and jealous god desperately trying to prevent armies of workers, from building a tower in honor of another more popular god, by employing your almighty powers of lightning, wind, and earth-quakes (just to name a few).

Noteworthy Features:

• OpenFeint Integration
• Additional Content can be unlocked via in-app purchases
• Unique gesture and multi-touch controls

Major Complaints:

• Hard to find tutorial
• Charge/Re-charge times get frustrating after awhile
• Little if any randomness, besides wave intensity

Indeed, BABEL Rising brings together a frantic gameplay experience, with noticeable style and polish. Its got all the right ingredients of a New & Noteworthy tittle, and even managed to snag the number 1 top paid download spot in France, but for a game that sets you up to be godly, the level of satisfaction you get from the gameplay is somewhat open to interpretation.

Gameplay

The gameplay of BABEL Rising is very much like a real time action oriented tower defense variant. In that waves of workers march in and must be stopped. In order to do this you are giving 7 different godly powers to use by initiating them through various gestures to stop as many workers as you can in real time.

When you start a round, the workers will slowly march in (increasing as the session progresses) from either the left or right side of the screen and begin to construct a tower in the center of the play area. It’s up to you to try and destroy them as quickly as possible before they get a chance to add their piece to the tower.

As the tower begins to take shape (which it does at a relatively fast pace), the endless army of workers will begin to start adding levels to the tower, one on top of the other. When the waves of workers appear with their blocks they will have to make it all the way up the steps to the top level in order to add a new piece to the tower. Unfortunately, when a piece is added to the tower there is no way to actively take it out, aside from using the ultimate power which will instantly wipe out a whole level of the tower, but takes a very long time to charge. Once the tower reaches what looks like the Eye of Providence (aka the all seeing eye of god) it’s completed and that means game over for you.

One major variation between BABEL Rising and traditional action oriented tower defense games, is that it gives you access to all 7 powers from the on-set, right at the beginning of the game. So instead of unlocking abilities as you progress, you must contend with different charge/recharge times for each individual power (the stronger the power is the longer it takes to charge/recharge).

While this makes more sense for an action-oriented tower defense game, it is implemented in such a way that diminishes the essence of mindless action. As a matter of fact, BABEL Rising pushes you to utilize the godly powers more strategically and as wisely as possible, during the course of the session. This is certainly not a straight forward positive nor a straight forward negative for the gameplay. In fact it really depends on your expectations of what the game is all about, and of course your personal preferences.

Which is to say if you’re looking to just jump in and mindlessly fry some dudes with lighting, you may be a little disappointed. On the flip side though, if you’re looking for a game that pushes you to think and react efficiently in a very challenging situation, you will be extremely satisfied with the gameplay.

There is 4 modes of play included in the game:

Classic

The classic mode is sort of like the ‘quick play’ flavor of the game. It throws you in a quick round with balanced difficulty and power charge times.

Divine

The divine mode is nearly identical to the classic mode, albiet with a different background and a slight increase in difficulty.

Fury

The fury mode is similar to the classic and divine mode but swaps out the background and enemies, while ramping up the pacing (dificulty and charge/recharge) a bit. The main difference (from a presentation perspective) is that instead of preventing armies of workers from building a tower to honor another god, you must prevent a horde of demons from building a tower to escape hell. Its an interesting twist of content to say the least, and it somewhat justifys the fact that this mode must be unlocked via an in-app purchase of $0.99 cents before you can play it.

Campaign

The campaign mode tries to throw in a mix of game progression, un-lockable levels, and character development to the game whereby as you progress trough various levels you can upgrade attributes of your powers. It’s an interesting mode that feels more like a complete solid experience rather then an arcade experience but unfortunately its not included in the game as it must be unlocked via an in-app purchase of $0.99 cents too before you can play it.

Presentation

BABEL Rising’s presentation is sharp and spot on for a game of this type. Its graphics are stellar, the animations are smooth and charming, even the soundtrack and sound effects are top notch. It all adds a precedented amount of personality and atmosphere to the game.

The only issue of note is that the game’s UI is not very intuitive at first. I think a lot of the initial frustration I had with the games controls and gameplay would have been easily alleviated had the developers force fed the tutorial in the first session. Unfortunately though the tutorial is listed separately and many gamers will not even know it’s there until after they are already frustrated.

While playing the game you will notice 7 graphical on-screen icons that represent the 7 godly powers that you can use, located at the top of the screen. These icons also indicate each individual power’s charge level since all powers (except the ultimate power and earth-quake) have multiple levels of intensity. It may be a bit overwhelming and confusing at first especially without running through the tutorial before you jump in a game. In my ignorance I found myself tapping the on-screen indicators thinking they were on screen buttons to initiate the power, or thinking I had to draw a line from the on-screen indicator to the ground to activate the power, all being wasted efforts. Needless to say it was very confusing to figure out, without a tutorial in context, but after the tutorial it all made perfect sense and once I got the hang of all the gestures and got acquainted with all of the charge times the gameplay really began to shine, if only for a short while.

Therefore I highly recommend you run through the tutorial first. It’s the ABC Book icon on the main-menu at the bottom, in the middle of the in-app shop on the left and the Bulkypix cross-promotional channel on the right.

Controls

BABEL Rising‘s controls are mostly driven by gestures, which felt perfect for the touch-screen. In fact the only on-screen buttons present are the Eye of Providence (which is used to initiate the ultimate power), and the pause button on the bottom left corner of the screen.

The 7 powers are as follows:

The Divine

Simply tap on an enemy to knock them out as if you were punching them.

Lighting

A vertical swipe with one finger, where you can draw a line of lighting down to aim the lighting bolt, then simply lift thumb/finger off the screen to unleash the lighting thus frying any enemies in its path.

Meteor Shower

A two finger vertical swipe down, will initiate the meteor shower. Its not very accurate though, especially once the tower reaches 2-4 levels high.

Wind

Do a horizontal swipe with one thumb/finger from left to right where you want the wind gust to blow off enemies. It can be done on only one level of the tower at a time.

Tsunami

A two finger swipe from left to right will initiate the Tsunami, destroying all enemies in its path, but it can only take out enemies on the bottom (ground) and first levels of the tower.

Earth-Quake

Simply shake the device to start the earth-quake. It will literally wipe out most if not all enemies on the screen, or leave them stunned for a second while you easily pick them off with subsequent taps and lighting bolts.

The Eye of Providence

This is the ultimate power and the only way to destroy parts of the tower. In order to initiate this power just tap on the eye and watch a huge beam of energy wipe out a whole level of the tower and instantly vaporize any enemies unfortunate enough to be on that level at the time.

Price

BABEL Rising is eloquently priced at a cool $0.99 cents. However after it’s all said and done in order to unlock all of the content included in the game (so far), you will have to drop another $2 bucks to get the Fury and Campaign modes. This isn’t a deal-breaker by any means, although I’m sure some customers will be disappointed, but me personally I can appreciate the option to pay or not pay for additional content.

Score: 3/5

All in all, I was legitimately impressed by BABEL Rising‘s presentation and the overall package. There is plenty of content included and the presnetation is most definitely polished and professional.

However, in all honesty the frantic nature of the gameplay is not the most enjoyable experience. It’s fun no doubt, but only for a short amount of time, unless you find an experience that is more about challenging you to think and react efficiently… fun, in which case this game is perfect for you. For everyone else though, if you’re looking to jump right in and fry some dudes with lighting without no limits just for the fun of it you might want to hold off until a free mode is added, one where there is no charge/re-charge limits to contend with. If that does get added in a future update I would have no qualms bumping up the score to a 4/5.

Also of note, is that this game is somewhat lacking in the replay value department. Sure there is in-app purchase driven content which adds new twists and minor features to the gameplay, a whole plethora of  in-game achievements to grab and OpenFeint driven leader boards to compete on, but other then that there really isn’t that much replay value in the core experience of the game. Which is to say once you have played through a couple rounds you have pretty much experienced all the game has to offer.

BABEL Rising on the App Store.