June 23, 2010
Intro
Babel Rising places you at the hands of god, gazing over the land with your power and authority. But it seems you power has dwindled, and those pesky worshipers are building a tower. A tower for what? A tower to raise themselves to your level? It is your job to stop these foolhardy citizens with all the powers at your disposal, and prevent them from building the tower of Babel.

Use powers such as the tidal wave using a range of gestures.
Gameplay 4/10
Babel Rising is a high score/survival game where you try to last for as long as possible, by prevented oncoming swarms of builders to build the tower of Babel. You have 6 powers at your disposal, including lightning, tidal wave and earthquake. Each power takes a certain amount of time to load, according to how devastating the power is.
Each power has three stages to it, each more destructive and longer lasting than the next. As the power loads you have the option to use it in each of these three stages. The longer you wait the better the power will be, but can you afford to wait?
There is also the Divine Eye, which an extremely rare power to come across. When the eye at the top (you, the god) blinks you can tap it destroy the highest layer of the tower.
Apart from the rare, Divine Eye, there is no other way to destroy the tower, and this makes Babel Rising seem like a never ending struggle. A good example of a high score/survival game is Doodle Jump. In Doodle Jump, points are measured in your success, as the higher you go the higher score you get. Babel Rising is the opposite, and all you see is your demise, as the builders continue building. Yes it was satisfying when you watch those builder get electrocuted, but most of the time you had to resort to the finger of god power, where you tap on a builder and he would crumple. Most of the time though you helplessly watch as loads of builders run up your almost completed tower with no powers. If you do have a power, you use it, but it only does a quarter of the damage you hoped it would. This became monotonous and boring after a while, and the whole experience was very disheartening.
There are 4 game modes that are available in the game, and I got exited when I saw ‘Campaign Mode’ in the list. My heart then sank when I read it was DLC. A campaign mode is exactly what this game needs, and by offering it as DLC only seems as if the developers have given me a half finished game, which I have to spend some more to complete. I really don’t like DLC, and when I buy a game, I expect to get it all. Then again the DLC is only $0.99/£0.59 which is nothing, but I still think it is bad. The other modes are Classic, Divine and Fury. Classic is just the normal mode. Divine is normal mode made harder. I found the Divine mode to be even more disheartening than the Classic mode, and I never play on it. Fury is another DLC where impure souls of heretics are trying to escape hell, and you have to stop them. It is supposedly ‘faster and more violent’ but I don’t know how it differs from the normal game apart from the people being red.
You also have the option of downloading 2 free backgrounds for the game. This may make the game a bit more varied but it does not impact the game in any way, nor really changes the games look and feel. I don’t see why they could not have come with the backgrounds in the first place.

The graphics are nice and detailed.
Graphics 9/10
The graphics are detailed yet remain simple. The backgrounds are smooth, and create a ancient atmosphere. The characters are neat and the tower of Babel is detailed. Also the attacks are vivid and accurate. Also the game ran very smooth with no lag.
Controls 8/10
Each power is initiated by a hand gesture on the device. For example the lightning is dragging your finger from the sky to the ground where you want it to hit and the earthquake is shaking the device violently. This makes great use of the iPhone’s/iPod touch’s controls and the gestures seem smooth and perfect for the iPhone/iPod Touch, however, in the game you mostly use the touch of death power (the weakest) which only involves tapping on a person, which is very boring and repetitive.
When I first opened the game I went straight to the gameplay expecting to be led through a tutorial, however when I wasn’t and I failed miserably without knowing what to do. It took me a few minutes to find the tutorial, but it would have been much better if it started with it.
Sound 4/10
I hate the soundtrack while playing the game. It is a high pitched chanting that really gets on my nerves. The soundtrack whilst in the menus is good if not a bit too harsh and the sound effects whilst using powers is realistic and suitable.
Menus 7/10
The menus are ok, but not great. The options can be unclear at times, especially with the tutorial, but I was able to navigate them and get to where I wanted. The menus do look very nice though, and keep with the theme of the game.

Lost once again.
Longevity 3/10
There is OpenFeint integration with leaderboards and achievements. The leaderboards in OpenFeint are confusing with 9 different categories with no noticeable distinction between them. The other game modes would have been great, if they weren’t DLC. A campaign is just what this game needs.
There is of course the different game modes, but 2 of them you have to buy, with the other one being a harder version of the first. I love the idea of a campaign mode, but to be honest I have not enjoyed the game enough to spend some more on it.
The actual gameplay is repetitive and gets boring after a while. There is hardly any replay value in Babel Rising as it is.
Cost 4/10
Babel Rising cost $0.99/£0.59 which in my opinion is too much for what you get. The shocking replay value and gameplay really lets this game down, and I would only recommend this game for this price with the campaign mode included.
Conclusion 39/70 – 3/5
Babel Rising is missing key elements that make a great high score/survival game and is just no fun. A campaign mode would have heightened it’s chances but I would not be prepared to spend more just to get it. Not recommended.
Babel Rising on the App Store.
For cubyte’s take/review of Babel Rising please click here.