Game Review
Unstoppable Gorg Review
Nailing an aesthetic can go a long way towards making a game memorable. Titles like Team Fortress 2, The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker and Rayman: Origins are memorable not only because they're fun, but also because their unique visual design and music help set them apart. In this regard Unstoppable Gorg also succeeds. Its campy, 50's sci-fi feeling of the cut-scenes and in-game graphics help set the tone, and immediately lets you know what comes next shouldn't be taken seriously. It creates a world where you can't help but start out smiling, ready to take on cheesy looking aliens and save the clich¿ damsel in distress. <br/><br/><img src="http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/121/1217160/unstoppable-gorg-20120124033207903-000.jpg" /><br/>Rotate them orbits.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Witty writing and intentionally poor delivered dialogue suffice for the first few levels in Unstoppable Gorg. After all, you're just learning the ropes of this bizarre take on tower defense, and with so much new going on it's hard to see through the cracks. Unlike more traditional tower defense games, Unstoppable Gorg's levels aren't grid-based. Instead each level has a planet or ship at the center with circles surrounding it where you can place orbiting satellites. That's not too different than many other games in the genre, but Unstoppable Gorg mixes it up by challenging you to adjust their orbits mid-fight, sliding them around so their turrets are in just the right place to work well with one another. Additional considerations have to be made when shifting around a satellite, though, as rotating a ring moves all the satellites in that orbit. It gets tricky, especially since there's no good option to pause the action and plan out your next move. Sure, you can pause it by bringing up the options menu, but you can't place satellites or make tactical decisions with a giant obstruction on the screen.<br/><br/>In fact, the levels in Unstoppable Gorg aren't just tricky, but downright hard. Eight levels into the total 21 the alien race known as the Gorg really do become unstoppable. Managing your funds, working within your limited placement options and constantly rotating your orbits to adjust to changing enemy pathing often feels like its asking a bit too much from you. Finishing the campaign on Easy before moving onto Medium becomes necessary, as this difficulty allows you to prep for what to expect, and to beat the levels with high enough marks to earn research points. Research points are mercifully carried over into other difficulties, allowing you to upgrade your satellites and have a chance at survival. <br/><br/>Perhaps someone, somewhere involved in the design process of Unstoppable Gorg wanted you to replay the game over and over on successive difficulties, but it never says as much. More importantly, the levels don't vary enough or throw in enough twists to make them interesting for numerous replays. With one or two exceptions in the latter half of the campaign, the only variation that occurs are the enemy types – and even they aren't all that distinct, really just coming down to whether you kill them with "energy" or "physical" damage weapons. Unstoppable Gorg at this point starts to feel less unstoppable and more unforgiving and uninspired. <br/><br/>When the campaign wears out its welcome there's always Challenge levels and an Arcade mode. Challenge mode tasks you with replaying the campaign missions, only it puts restrictions on the types of satellites you can bring, the amount of money you start with, and so on. Arcade mode is just one single level, where you fight successive waves of increasing difficulty to see how long you can last. Both of them are fun enough on their own, but suffer from the lack of leaderboards. What's the point of doing an arduous challenge unless you have the bragging rights? <br/><br/><img src="http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/121/1217160/unstoppable-gorg-20120124033204927-000.jpg" /><br/>The cut-scenes are great.<br/><br/><br/><br/>Unstoppable Gorg shows you the order various enemy types will attack in the menus before a level starts, but during a mission they feel like they kind of just come out of nowhere. The lack of any sort of wave markers during a level makes the game feel different simply for the sake of being different. An untold number of tower defense games like Pixel Junk Monster or Defense Grid have shown that reminding players what type of enemy is coming next, giving them time to adjust their strategies, is not only welcome, but makes for a more balanced and entertaining game. <br/><br/>©2012-01-24, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved