Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

"One Little Ship. One Gigantic Heart."

Geometry Wars first debuted in Project Gotham Racing 2 as a hidden unlockable. Due to the fact that I never owned PGR2, I was never blessed with the opportunity to play this game. But luckily for people like us, who were misfortunate to not have the opportunity play it before, we now have an opportunity to play this fully intensive shooter. With the Xbox Live arcade service, there are plenty of outdated and repetitive games, but there is truly one that stands out from the rest. Geometry Wars is a shooter that lies on a 2-dimensional grid and pits you with an infinite amount of enemies. Geometry Wars comes with two playable modes, which consists of evolved and the original. While essentially, the two plays the same, evolved certainly has more eye popping visuals and certainly feels more polished. In this game, you will be controlling a little ship, but it is packing with power. Facing an armada of enemy ships may seem like a hopeless cause, but the realization of this daunting task, ultimately makes Geometry Wars a unique experience. Despite the fact that enemies will never stop coming, and eventually you will become overwhelmed, this lost cause continues to suck you back in.

The early moments of the game
Me – Hmm...This seems easy enough.
A few minutes later
Me – OMG, they're everywhere…

In the opening moments of the game, everything seems quiet and calming, but don't let that feeling of imperviousness sink in for too long because soon, you'll be receiving a rude awakening. This game is hard, really hard, but the fast pace, tightly enclosed space, and hoards of enemies keep pulling you back. The tactics of the opposing force does a good job at making things interesting. For example, green squares are terrific at dodging your weapons fire. The purple squares break into smaller pieces and make it hard to see. Once you feel that you have just started developing a rhythm, the amount of enemies on screen become problematic. There will be so many enemies at times, areas that normally wouldn't be a place to squirm through would become accessible. In part because there is so little room to navigate, any little space can be a spark for survival.

The best part about Geometry Wars is the game's challenge. Of course there will be times, where quitting seems like the only plausible solution, but as time flies, it quickly becomes reality that this game is just like a fly on the wall that you must kill. The challenge is insane, and there certainly isn't an end in sight, but like the pesky fly, you keep coming back over and over again, till you beat your previous score. Being a relative weakling at this game, I still have trouble reaching the 100,000 mark at times. It feels inconceivable to me, how anyone can be hitting the millions. The amount of skill and reflex is probably beyond my cognition. The game mainly relies on reflexes, as the time to think quickly diminishes due to the amount of enemies on screen. You see something and you react to it. If you think about it and freeze, it could be a fatal mistake that will cause you to miss your objective.

Geometry War in essence is a quick play, stop, and come back sort of game. Unless you're some pro at this game, which I am not, then this game is probably best played in short intervals. After several attempts, I would usually move on and play something else. Not saying that this game isn't worth playing, but the brutal and unforgiving challenge makes it a bit frustrating at times. Not to mention that this game only has 2 modes and 1 of them is just a strip down version of the other. Despite that, the game still has plenty to offer, but one would hope that a few different modes would have been added on to increase the variation. Take Hexic HD for example, the core gameplay is nowhere near as dynamic as Geometry Wars, but it has several modes that offer a nice variation.

Fireworks…

Geometry War is filled with lush and colorful animation. With weapons sending ripples across the grid, one can see the force of the weapon. With all that is going on in such a small grid, the amount of flashy and eye popping fireworks is quite pleasant on the eyes. The enemies also come in many colors and offer a colorful and appealing visual. While not necessarily a graphical powerhouse, the sharp animation and colorful explosions going off all over the place, is certainly a nice change of pace from graphics you see elsewhere. Throw that in with a fabulous fast beat musical soundtrack and this game is certainly appealing to even the most casual of gamers.

Geometry Wars premise is simple, but it is packing with depth. For a game where you just shoot anything you see, it was also able to incorporate techniques to enhance the game. Emphasizing quick reflexes, Geometry Wars isn't necessarily about planning out your strategies, bur more on reading and reacting. Being an Xbox Live arcade game, the game is certainly worth the cheap price. Also take into consideration how some of the arcade games exceed this game in Microsoft points, yet those games lack the same quality as this one. With that sort of deal and you know you have a winner on your hands. Geometry Wars certainly could have used more modes and more variation, but as it stands now, the game is a solid addition to any Xbox360 owner. So hop online and download Geometry Wars.

Pros
The game is filled with plenty of addictive fast pace action that is gleaming with old school flavor. Requires plenty of skill and reflexes. By even today's standards, the game is still better than a lot of titles. A fast pace musical soundtrack is matched by plenty of gorgeous visuals.

Cons
The challenge is certainly welcome, but due to it, the game feels more like a play, stop, and play again type game. There aren't that many game modes, which doesn't give the game a nice variation

Final Score: 7

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/06