7.2 /10 1 Votes
Engine Unreal Engine 3 Publisher Atlus | 72% Metacritic Initial release date 31 August 2011 Developer ACE Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genres Tower defense, Racing video game Platforms PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows Modes Single-player video game, Multiplayer video game Similar ACE Team games, Tower defense games, Other games | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rock of Ages is a tower defense racing video game developed by ACE Team and published by Atlus. Unlike ACE Team's first and previous game, Zeno Clash, Rock of Ages is powered by the Unreal Engine 3. The game was released for Xbox 360 on 31 August 2011, for Microsoft Windows on 7 September 2011, and for PlayStation 3 on 15 May 2012.
Contents
Gameplay
The game combines tower defense strategy with a rolling ball mechanic similar to games such as Marble Madness and Super Monkey Ball. The aim of the game is to use a large stone boulder to attack the enemy's castle at the bottom of the hill, while using various defensive structures to defend your own. Players can use a variety of obstacles to defend the path leading up to the castle, such as buildings, dynamite, windmills and animals. Players can also plant money farms in order to raise the funds needed to use certain objects. The player can only add obstacles on green colored landscapes, which turn unusable when obstacles or money farms are planted on top of them. When ready to attack, the player can take control of a boulder and roll it down the hill, avoiding obstacles in order to attack the enemy castle's gate. If the player has enough points, he can equip the boulder with power-ups, such as armor or magma, which enhance the boulder's defensive or offensive capabilities, though they will lose this power up if the boulder takes sufficient damage. Once the boulder hits the gate, or their boulder breaks after taking too much damage, there is a small recharge period before another boulder can be launched. The player wins if he can break through the castle gates and place his boulder in the centre of the castle, killing the opponent.
The game includes a story mode, which is loosely based on the myth of Sisyphus and features various stages and boss levels, and several multiplayer modes. "War" features two players attempting to break each other's castle gates, whilst "Skee Boulder" requires players to race down a lane hitting targets before landing in skeeball-style board while attempting to land their boulder in the target with the largest score multiplier.
Rock of Ages features a chronology which spans across five time periods: Ancient Greek, Medieval, Renaissance, Rococo and Goya. Each time period features a unique, Pythonesque art style during gameplay. The team narrowed their selection to these five periods from a larger pool of 16 time periods which included Neoclassic, Prehistoric, and Impressionism.
'Pebble of Time'
As a prank for April Fool's Day, ACE Team created a page for a fake independent developer in which the developer claimed in broken English that he'd been working on an indie title called Pebble of Time for the past 8 years, and that ACE Team had stolen his concept. The developer then claimed he was releasing his title for free to undercut support for Rock of Ages, and provided download links for his working prototype. Edmundo Bordeu later updated the site to reflect that it was indeed an April Fool's joke.
Reception
Rock of Ages received favorable to mixed reviews upon its release. It holds an average of 72/100 for the Xbox 360 version, 74/100 for the PC version and 68/100 for the PlayStation 3 version on Metacritic. Inside Gaming Awards gave the game its 2011 Most Original Game award.
Sequel
A sequel, titled Rock of Ages II: Bigger & Boulder, which introduces a new four-player multiplayer mode, is set to be released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in Q3 2016.