Babel Rising 3D Review: Punish free thinkers on Windows Phone and Windows 8

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone Windows 8 Surface

Terminal year Ubisoft released its kickoff Xbox game for Windows Phone, Boom-boom Rising 3D. Mando Productions created the original game while Advanced Mobile Applications ported it to Windows platforms. Babel Rising arrived simply a month before Windows Phone 8. One time the new mobile Os launched, the game turned out to be Windows Phone eight-incompatible.

Luckily for Windows Phone gamers, Ubisoft did the correct matter and brought Babel Rise 3D dorsum as a new, separate Windows Phone 8 version before this month. Not only that, they also published a Windows 8 version. All 3 versions are content identical, with the Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 versions naturally running smoother and in higher resolutions. It's high time for our full review.

Mankind should know its place, says God

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone 8
All screenshots from Windows Phone 8 version.

In Populous, the original god game, players took on the function of a god tasked with protecting his people confronting those of an invading god. Boom-boom Rise ditches the protection aspect, instead casting players as an angry god.

This detail god does stuff like killing people for cut their hair, looking backwards, or being the children of a actually pious guy. Yep, Boom-boom Rising is about that god. Specifically, the premise comes from the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, in which the humans who dared to build history's first skyscraper met with divine punishment.

In each level, humans will flock towards the belfry base at the center. Each one who reaches the tiptop of the current construction adds a bit of pinnacle to the structure. Once the tower is completed, you'll get a game over. To filibuster or end that from happening, you'll call on divine powers.

Powers that be

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone 8

There are four sets of powers to unlock: earth, fire, wind, and water. Each power set offers three types of powers:

Drop: Tap the screen to drop an object on enemies' heads. The most rapidly usable ability
Drag: Concur a finger on one side of the screen and drag with the other finger to create a line of fire, etc. that destroys multiple enemies.
Drag powers don't work all that cracking in exercise. The path of destruction frequently goes through a wall of background chemical element, partially or completely missing nearby enemies. It would be far ameliorate if the path automatically stuck to any pathways enemies use. Additionally, the path of destruction often cuts off instantly or much shorter than its maximum length for no good reason, wasting the ability'southward use.
Ultimate: These powers slowly charge as yous play and can't be used oftentimes. Tap the screen with three fingers or shake the device to activate them. You lot'll unleash an attack that kills large numbers of enemies, including a Bible-mode overflowing.

The drop and drag powers take a shorter time to make full up and become usable than ultimate powers, but you still can't just activate a single power equally much equally you want. The idea is to switch dorsum and forth between both sets of powers in order to keep your offense going.

To toggle power sets, players have to select the opposite set from one of the top corners of the screen. I find jumping back and forth on the bear upon screen cumbersome, particularly given how quickly the enemies advance on harder levels.

Some powers demand to be unlocked, and all of them can be upgraded multiple times. Y'all'll purchase them in the store using coins earned from gameplay. Everything costs ways too much relative to how few coins you earn, almost as if Babel Rising was designed to be a free to play game. And the not-gratis iOS version does sell coins every bit In-App Purchasess, but the mobile Windows versions lack IAPs.

Entrada and Survival

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone 8

The game offers both a 15-stage Campaign and an endless Survival style, also referred to equally Quick Play. Oddly, the entrada isn't designed to be played from start to finish in a single setting. The difficulty ramps upwardly so quickly that just a few levels in y'all'll observe information technology impossible to accelerate. The solution is to jump into Survival and grind for coins.

Survival style isn't a bad feel, but the money payouts are across miserly on the default phase. You'll play for x minutes without earning plenty to upgrade even a unmarried ability. What the game doesn't tell you is that higher survival stages pay better than the starting i. You lot can buy the highest phase and just die direct away to earn 70-100 coins with minimal endeavor. Do that repeatedly and y'all'll amass a healthy cache of coins to spend on upgrades.

Forcing players to grind Survival before they can brand any existent progress in Campaign is an unfair way of artificially lengthening the game. Powers have fashion besides long to charge and lack decent killing ability until they're fully upgraded. Fifty-fifty at maximum upgrade, everything takes likewise long to recharge for my liking. Essentially, the developers built in a lengthy flow of unfun before players tin become to the properly fun part of the game.

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone 8

Even one time you've upgraded everything and returned to Campaign, information technology'southward no walk in the park. Campaign difficulty merely gets also brutal. I struggled with the tenth stage repeatedly before giving up. In the past, readers claimed that the Windows Phone 7 version is impossible to shell. Well, people have beaten every version, but I tin run into why you'd think it was incommunicable. The unfriendly difficulty is another a way of lengthening the game without adding new content.

Windows 8 Controls

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone 8
Between waves you tin can sometimes play this ship-sinking minigame.

The Windows 8 version offers the same touch controls as the telephone game. It also adds 2 more control options: mouse and keyboard or Xbox 360 controller.

The mouse and keyboard option allows players to switch betwixt both sets of powers instantly via the scroll cycle or CTRL central. That makes juggling powers and so much easier. Clicking the left mouse button uses the 'drop' ability, clicking and dragging activates the 'drag' power, and infinite bar unleashes the Ultimate power.

Similar the mouse pick, the Xbox 360 controller generally works better than touch controls. The left stick moves the cursor, while the right stick changes the camera bending. Instead of toggling between both power sets, all 6 powers go their own button. A, Ten, and Left Trigger control i gear up of powers while B, Y, and Right Trigger use the other prepare.

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone 8

Carte du jour navigation is where both boosted command styles have problems. The mouse pointer is way also minor during menus and easily gets lost. Merely it could be worse...

Worse indeed, the Xbox 360 controller can't control the menus at all! Printing Beginning to break and you can't fifty-fifty return to the game without using a mouse or touch screen – Start really should unpause equally well. The lack of carte navigation with the controller makes no sense considering the game already has mouse cursor-style command during gameplay. It would take minimal development attempt to enable bill of fare navigation with the controller.

Achievements

Babel Rising 3D for Windows Phone 8

All iii mobile versions of Babel Ascension take the aforementioned 12 Achievements. Each version has its own list still, meaning a player who owns multiple platforms can buy and run through the game on each 1 for more than GamerScore.

The game has a grinding Achievement for killing 10,000 workers that should take several hours to go. Luckily y'all tin can track kills from the Stats screen under Help & Options.

Ane of the phone versions (not sure which) has a glitchy Achievement for using each passive power and scroll once. According to Arsenic 17's Achievement Guide, users who experience trouble unlocking it volition demand to reinstall and get later it earlier completing the campaign.

Overall Impression

The concept behind Babel Ascent holds a lot of promise. Playing every bit a god and taking down hapless human being sapiens should make for a wickedly good fourth dimension. But the actual implementation here needs some work. Constantly toggling betwixt powers and waiting for those powers to refill is none also satisfying (though better on Windows eight with mouse or controller). I'd much prefer existence able to spam the drop and drag powers as quickly as I like.

Besides, Babel Rising is besides hard for its own good. A game like this should be aimed at casual audiences, making them feel powerful every bit they strike down hordes of weakling humans. Instead, it puts the player god at the mercy of his or her creations. How is that godlike?

Difficulty issues aside, let's hope that Ubisoft enables Xbox controller back up in the Windows viii version's menus shortly. If I had to play only one version of the game, it's definitely the one that works with mouse and keyboard or controller.

Babel Rising 3D – Windows Phone 8 (No trial) – 41 MB – $2.99 – Store Link
Babel Ascension 3D – Windows 8 and RT – 130 MB – $three.49 – Store Link
Babel Rising 3D – Windows Phone 7 – 72 MB – $2.99 – Shop Link

QR: Babel Rising WP7 QR: Babel Rising WP8

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