Geometry Wars 2 Review
The original Geometry Wars is often touted as “the best Xbox 360 launch title”…since most of the full-fledged, disc-&-box launch titles were generally lame. I was a latecomer to the 360 party, so I missed out on that little gem until somewhat recently. Though I really enjoy them, I’m not too great at retro shoot-em-ups. Having played a good few hours of it last night, I can say that Geometry Wars 2 delivers on its promise of Retro Evolved SQUARED. The new modes, multiplayer and enemy types make for a more well-rounded experience. A nice coat of shiny polish has been applied to the graphics, controls, music, everything. But, most important of all, I’m the only one of my Friends who owns it so far, so I’m on the top of my Friends Leaderboard! But for how long?!? Read on for detailed impressions…
I’ll start off by pointing out the one negative thing I can say about GW2. Everything has this cool glow effect around it, kinda like Tron. While neat looking and generally classy, it makes it hard to read the text in the instruction screen before each game. Maybe it’s just me, but it made my eyes hurt. I kept blinking because I was subconsciously convinced that either there was something in my eyes or that my glasses were foggy or dirty or something. Once you’re actually playing the game, though, it doesn’t seem quite as annoying and becomes cool again.
I haven’t played either the DS or Wii versions of Geometry Wars, so I don’t know what’s carried over from those games to this one, but here’s what’s new:
- 5 New Modes – there’s the classic Geometry Wars 1 style, and 5 other variations on the shoot-and-run theme which range from “Neat!” to “WOW! THAT’S AWESOME!!”
- 4-Player Local Multiplayer – haven’t had a chance to try this yet, but it looks like there’s Co-Op and Vs versions of each mode. Just as nature intended.
- Geoms – little gems you collect from dead enemies to increase your score multiplier
- New Enemy Types – At least I think they’re new. When the red C||-shaped things stared to appear in GW1, that was usually my cue to fail miserably.
- New Music – Um…more techno than ever before.
You start with only one mode available: Deadline. This one you can try out in the demo. You have 3 minutes to shoot as many evil shapes as you can. You can die as many times as you want, but the time spent waiting to respawn is time wasted not scoring points. You get 3 bombs which clear the screen when things get too crazy, but enemies killed by a bomb don’t give you points. They do, however, drop Geoms. At first, I was disappointed that such a retro-inspired game series has finally fallen prey to the modern game cliché of “collect the gems”. Then I realized how collecting them requires you to change your playing patterns and adds a new facet to the game. But really, I realized I liked those little Geoms when my score multiplier started jumping up into the 300-400 range and I was suddenly getting healthy and respectable scores like 1,000,000 and 2,400,000. After being unable to top my 174,000 high score in GW1, those big numbers were a nice ego boost.
After about 6 or 7 plays through Deadline, “Evolved” was unlocked. Evolved is basically the GeoWars you’ve learned to love over the past year or two, just with fancy new graphics, tighter controls, new enemies and Geoms. The Geoms made it possible for me to leave my mediocre GW1 score in the dust. The controls are at once smoother and more responsive. When I realize I’m about to run into an enemy and I try to head back the opposite way, I succeed more often than I used to. As for the enemies, the old favorites are back and more 3D-ified. Among the new shapes are orange arrowhead-shaped ones that travel back and forth along a straight path. Fast. And sometimes in rows. There’s some pink ones that are almost stationary, seeming to rank under the pinwheels on the hierarchy. Most notable are the Gates. Imagine a thin white line connecting 2 small orange cones. That’s a Gate, and if you fly through one, it explodes, taking out any pursuing shapes in the immediate vicinity. However, those orange cones at the ends are deadly.
The next mode, King, is by far my favorite. You get only one life and no bombs. The main crux of this mode is the Safe Zones. Around the playing field, you’ll find a few blue circles. These are safe areas that you can use to hide from enemies. HOWEVER! You can only shoot from within a Zone. Your guns do not work outside them. ALSO! Once inside a Zone, it turns green and then begins to shrink. Your only choice is to blast a clear path to the next Zone though the enemies that crowd around your shrinking Zone like they’re trying to fertilize an egg. When your little haven turns red and disappears, you have to race around, defenseless, until you slip into another blue zone. Something about this mode really strikes a chord with me. It somehow reminds me of the imaginary games I used to play as a little kid, like jumping from the coffee table to the couch because the floor was lava, or having to hold my breath until I reached the other couch because that way the carpet alligators couldn’t find me and eat me. You know what I mean. Shut up, I was 5.
The Pacifism mode is based on an Achievement from the first game, one I consistently failed at, uh, achieving. The original Achievement charged you with staying alive for 60 seconds without firing a shot. Seemingly simple, but I’ve never made it past 30 seconds. In this new mode, however, you’re not quite as helpless. Your weapon is disabled, yes, and you still get chased by an ever increasing horde of blue shapes. The saving grace, however, comes in the form of Gates. If your pursuers are close enough to you when you travel through a Gate, they’re done for. As the number of enemies increases, so does the number of Gates. This is nice, but the Gates tend to spin a bit. Half the time, this means that an orange Gate end is swinging your way and you’re probably gonna be stuck between that and the swarm at your back.
Waves is a mode that initially consists solely of those orange arrowhead-shaped guys, appearing in rows and messing up your day. You have a second or two before they start moving, so if you spray enough of them with bullets, you at least have made a hole in their line so you can pass through. But when more waves start coming in even faster, both vertical and horizontal, that’s when it gets tough. Then they start sending in regular enemies on top of the arrowhead formations. That’s when I die, and this is another mode where you only have One Life To Live.
The final mode is Sequence. It presents you with 16 or 20 “rooms” each with a set pattern of enemies. If you kill every enemy in the pattern within the time limit, you move on. If you die, you move on with a bad mark on that level. Not sure what happens if you run out of time, but I assume it’s game over. Also, you seem to have a finite number of lives because I only got about halfway through. Still, I unlocked every mode, which got me an Achievement, so I went to bed satisfied.
I’m looking forward trying out the multiplayer modes and to besting my personal high scores. I’m not looking forward to when Pernell and his friends get the game and knock me back down to my usual place on the Friends Leaderboard. Anyway, I can easily see myself playing this game for years to come, so it’s definitely worth the 800 Billy Bucks ($10). Thank goodness there haven’t been many songs I like on the weekly Rock Band releases, because the next few weeks on XBLA look like they’re gonna bust my very minimal gaming budget. I can probably put some of them off until later, but BIONIC COMMANDO?!? Wild Nazis BADDS couldn’t drag me away.
