Mini Review: Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break - Fun, Oddball Tower Defence with Awkward Level Editor

Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break isn't a huge departure for the series; it's still an odd mix of tower defence and, er, chucking a boulder down a precarious hill. The comical, historical story mode remains the main attraction, with plenty of adversaries to defeat and side activities to play. You'll be playing skee-ball and racing down obstacle courses as often as waging war.

The main mode has you building up defences using various unit types before your boulder is ready to rock. Once it is, you need to make your way down towards the enemy's castle, dodging the units and hazards they've placed. With heavy controls and high speeds, this can be tricky business. The first to bust down the castle door wins. It's a bizarre concept that works surprisingly well, and with lots of unit types and plenty of different boulders to choose from, there's an ounce of strategy to proceedings to keep you engaged.

The headline addition to the formula this time is a level creator, but it's this aspect that's weakest. Controls feel convoluted and the whole process feels too rigid -- it'd take some dedication to create fun stages for others to play. Speaking of which, the community levels menu is somewhat borked; on several occasions, the game has gotten stuck loading in user-made maps, forcing us to close the game and try again. A level editor seems like a natural fit here, and will surely keep it alive for a time, but some work needs to be done to smooth out the experience.

That said, there's still lots of fun to be had. The game is rough around the edges, but the core gameplay is solid and it shines in multiplayer. If you're looking for something different, this is worth a try -- just don't expect to be building masterpieces.