Modern gaming on the Xbox 360 empowers the player so much; even more so with the dawn of Kindle control. Whilst most games are happy to put you in control of a super human bald space marine, Babel Rising gives you the greatest accolade of all and makes you a God. God games usually have you helping the denizens of Earth by building up civilisations and on occasion laying the smack down to any pesky people who step out of line. In Babel Rising you are an angry God who is enraged by the humans trying to build a tower tall enough to reach you. Rather than sweeping the tower away in one mighty push you partake is a Real Time Tower Defence game.
Babel Rising is a game that plays similarly across all the different modes; survival, campaign, co-op. You must use up to 4 sets of powers to slow down and kill as many humans as you can before they finish the tower. You have localised powers that take out one or two enemies, trail powers that can mow down a line, and super powers that bring devastation upon many. With the control pad, the powers are let loose by pushing the required buttons. With Kinect you will need to wave you hands around like a surprised ape.
The game plays so much better with the traditional control pad, the camera is easier to move and the powers far more precise. The Kinect feels far too loose and you end up missing as many enemies as hitting. Seeing as the game is the same difficulty with whichever control you choose it is almost an impossible challenge to win in the later levels if you use motion control. The gameplay itself does not differ; a heavy slog of killing wave after wave of enemies – it soon becomes boring, especially when levels can take 20 minutes to complete.
You may wonder why I have covered Kinect controls so early in the review. It is because I want you to digest the information and forget it – Kinect is not available to use in co-op. In fact, if you have your Kinect plugged in you will find the co-op mode pretty hard to find, it only appears when using the controller. Therefore, reset the 360, unplug the Kinect and start the game again. Now we can play co-op, but you will have to drill through the menus to find it – start game – multiplayer (which looks like versus only from the image) – co-op. The fact that searching for the mode is so cumbersome may give you a hint about the quality…