Geometry Wars: Galaxies

"A Return to Classic Gaming"

Geometry Wars is a throwback to the classic days of gaming, when you had 3 lives, 2D graphics, and unending waves of enemies that will bear down upon you. This is not a game with Plot or Drama; it is about skating on the razor's edge, laughing maniacally as you blow things up in pursuit of the almighty High Score. As such, this should appeal to the classic arcade gamer, and probably not so much to those of us used to hit points, loads of special moves, story-lines, and more forgiving gameplay. The short review is: get it if you're an old-school gamer, avoid it if the above doesn't sound appealing, and rent it if you're unsure. The longer review is below.

As an aside, this is also my first review and a rather rough one at that, so please bear with my mad ramblings. Also, this review does not include a review of the second game that comes with the system, the 5 dollar version that was originally on the Xbox 360. Other than the review of the controls and the introduction of two-player play, one should find the second game identical to the x-box version.

Gameplay: 9/10

You control a ship through a variety of levels with the rather simple premise of blowing things up until you die to obtain a satisfactory high score. As your skill improves, you will be able to unlock more levels (I believe there's around 60 in all). If you haven't played any of the iterations of Geometry Wars, the name is a reference to the simple shapes that the ship and enemies take of circles, squares, diamonds, and the like. The levels are well designed and add quite a bit of variety-some levels will be little more than a rectangle board for you to dominate, while others will include dimensional portholes that warp you across the board, galactic whirlpools, shifting portions of the board that amount to a maze, and stages that set up mines for you to explode large amounts of enemies. The individual level usually starts out slow and leads you in, but this is by no means universal-despite being more than half-way through the game and reasonably high up on the leader boards, there was one level I died 3 times in within the first 10-seconds!

The scoring of the game is fairly simple. Any enemy will give you a small amount of points, and most will drop a short yellow Geom when they die. Geoms serve as a score multiplier-each one you pick up adds to the multiplier by one until you have a maximum multiplier of 150. As such, when your multiplier is high even the most insignificant of enemies is fairly valuable. When you die, the multiplier drops back down to one and the process begins all over again, albeit at a point where the stage's difficulty will have progressed a bit. In addition to scoring, Geoms also serve as the main currency of the game- with them you can unlock more levels and buy variations of helper drones. The addition of Geoms to the Geometry Wars cannon is a big improvement; the time grind is substantially less as it's reasonably doable for you to recover from a lost life without feeling like you've wasted a substantial portion of your time.

There is little to combat the enemies with, save your trusty main gun, your drone, and your special bombs. Your gun will alter in firing pattern slightly with time and points and your bombs will clear the screen for you at appropriate times, to be replenished slowly (along with lives) as your score goes up. Your drone is an indestructible ally whose behavior is selected from a variety that the player can purchase. This behavior ranges from shooting in the same direction as the player to a rear-firing drone, picking up spare Geoms, firing slow but powerful shots at harder targets to serving as a decoy ship for the enemies to focus on. The drones start out rather weak, but level up reasonably quick, and become useful after an hour or two of relying on them. While some are more versatile than others, no one dominates every level, and the wise player will level up many of them, not just the most expensive ones. With these options you can play the game with your own particular play style and there is plenty of room for the more tactically minded player to strut their stuff.

In addition to the single player campaign, there is a Co-op mode as well, allowing 3 options: versus mode and co-op mode in ‘classic' (2nd iteration) Geometry Wars, and a co-op galaxy mode for the main game. These are nice features, but not integral to the game unless you've got similarly minded friends-I demonstrated this to several of my own and ended up played a rousing game of Shoot the Enemies Off of Them while they moved around to stay alive. This is limited to physically present friends; there is no online co-op or versus play.

As a final note, there is an online leader board measuring both individual level scores and overall scores, and for those of you who care deeply about such things I would point one thing out: some levels will give you more points then others. Some levels will give you FAR, FAR more points then others. This is not a criticism, just an observation. Having said that, I did not think I would care, but have found the addition to be surprisingly fun, providing an objective viewpoint on how good your skills are in the game beyond the medal process.

Controls: 6/10 (But see below)

This lower score doesn't reflect as much on the wiimote (which does a very good job of things) as it does on the lack of reasonable dual-stick action. To play, you will need a wii remote with nunchuck or a classic controller. The wii remote works fabulously, far more than I thought it would. The pointer of the remote forms a targeting reticule on the screen, while the thumbstick on the nunchuck works for ship movement. Chances are, you will be holding down A for the entirety of the game-I have found very few reasons not to turbo-fire, save specialized levels. The controls for the pointer work very well, but are a bit odd at times-you can aim the pointer at the exact same spot on the screen and depending on where you move the ship, can end up changing the direction of where your ship ends up shooting if the camera viewpoint moves. I haven't found that to affect gameplay-unless your aiming style is vastly different then mine, one has to actively set up the situation to make this happen. Personally, I find that keeping the targetter a semi-short distance away from the ship works best: you avoid the odd effects of the situation described above and don't have to move your hand overmuch to compensate for new foes. However, there is no getting around the fact that aiming will be at least a slightly lengthier process under the point at the screen system than the dual-thumbsticks. This, however, seems to be a complaint few share. You likely won't even notice it in game play and the majority on the message boards seem to be quite comfortable with the wii remote controls.

I own no classic controller, but it is my understanding that it only fires in 8-directions. If true, I find this saddening, as there is no support for the gamecube controller at this time.
The relatively low-score here is for the simple reason that the user is forced to make a choice between a point-aim system with lengthier aim-adjustment times and a dual-thumbstick controller that has only limited directional firing. While I enjoy the wii remote HIGHLY, far more than I thought I would, I find the lack of a real 360-degree dual-stick option frustrating, as I believe the game is 'purest' in this style of play. If there is a single area to patch, it would be here-I can conceive of no reason that the gamecube controller is not included as an option.

Graphics: 7/10 (3/10 for people who consider value graphics paramount in a game)

I'm giving only cursory attention to both the Graphics and Audio sections for the simple reason that I don't care much about them in most games (most of my favorite games still boot up in DOS-sweet sweet X-Com, can you do no wrong?). The graphics are clear and after 13-15 hours of play, I have yet to see any frame-rate problems. The wii version is not as bright and beautiful as the Xbox360 when it comes to the background effects, large explosions and other secondary effects but for the main gameplay the visual is solid and maintains an incredibly consistent theme. The one exception to this is the guiding laser pointer for the wii remote: I find myself losing track of the pointer about once every half hour. It's the only real complaint I have on the visual end, and all things considered it's relatively minor. As long as one plays this in relatively short bursts, this shouldn't be much of an issue. I haven't found anyone to be complaining about this, but if for some reason you're struggling with it, I suggest saving a bomb for the moments you're trying to recover your control of the remote (again, I stress this is a solution for a problem that RARELY occurs, not a constant one).

Audio: 8/10

With the caveats above in Graphics intact, the Audio is worthwhile. The background music is nothing spectacular but gets the job done and sets the feel for the general level of abstraction and simplicity the game offers. The background music for the game is just simply melodious and muted. I have not found it distracting at all and that's more than I can say for many games. The game offers various sound cues when the circumstances change; depending on the enemy you'll be treated to one of a variety of short and concise notification sounds. I've grown accustomed to the sword-sheath sound of an extra bomb, and probably find that the most helpful of them all-more than once I've needed to use the new bomb almost as soon as I received it. The attentive player will find quite a bit of information about what goes on in the gameplay through these sound cues, and will go farther for it.

Replay Value 7/10: If you're not a perfectionist, replay value will be minimal at best. After unlocking the levels and medals, there may not be much for you to do. Having said that, there's a good variety of levels and enemies, and it's a fun game to pick up for a quick round of action. In addition, if you're the type to get worked up over high scores and competitive play, there will be a lot more value for you. This game definitely skews towards the more hardcore gamer, rather than casual.

Overall: Geometry Wars may represent the best game out there today for the classic arcade age. While the limitations of such a gaming approach have become more noticeable in comparison to such games as Mario Galaxy or Twilight Princess, it is a good, novel addition for any comprehensive gaming library and is an excellent purchase for the more dedicated gamer.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/07

Game Release: Geometry Wars: Galaxies (US, 11/20/07)