Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 - Review

Added August 4th, 2008 by Artie Augustyn

Three years ago the Xbox360 launched in the Fall 2005, accompanied by very few launch titles. Many weren’t very good and did not remain in anyone’s minds, or hearts, with the exception of one Xbox Live Arcade game: Geometry Wars. Now after several years have gone by, the fellows at Bizarre Creations have blessed the world by releasing another Geometry Wars game for Xbox Live Arcade. If you were a fan of the original game, this sequel will only expand your love for the growing franchise.

If you’ve never played the first Geometry Wars, you won’t be missing any of the fun that GW2 provides. With the original game, there was only one game mode. You were a white ship in a large rectangular square, enemies would appear in the corners of the screen, and you’d shoot by holding the right stick in their direction. GW2 doesn’t make any drastic changes to the gameplay. But rather just adds plenty new modes for you to fool around with.

There are six modes in total, with five of them being original concepts. Deadline works like a normal game of Geometry Wars, but you don’t have to worry about dying since you have an infinite amount of lives. Instead you have to worry about the ticking timer at the top of the screen, when the timer hits 0, your session is over. King mode spawns several large circles on the map, the player can only shoot within the circle, and the circle starts to shrink the second you fly inside of it. New circles appear over time, but so do enemies. Evolved mode is simply the first’s games main mode re-released. Pacifism tests the player’s dodging ability. The only way to kill enemies is to glide through gates that are placed on the grid, passing through one causing a small explosion. The player can not shoot in Pacifism. After that we have Waves mode, which spawns a new enemy type that takes up a section of the screen, and glides back and forth until you destroy it. More of these “waves” continue to spawn as time goes on. And finally Sequence mode tests the player’s ability to get through twenty different types of maps, only allowing thirty seconds per section.

All of these modes are different enough to supply some variety to what type of game you want to play, and they’re all really fun. Each mode has its own individual friend’s leaderboard, so competition is still a main part of the game’s structure. In addition to online scoreboard competition, there’s a new multiplayer aspect to GW2. In multiplayer you can play any game mode with up to three other players. You can choose to do it cooperatively and combine your scores for an added effort, or go against each other to see who can achieve the highest score, or last the longest, depending on the game type. Unfortunately there’s no online multiplayer, so you’re restricted to people you actually know.  Because of the quick second timing needed in Geometry Wars, the lack of online seems understandable.

Visually the game looks better than the previous game, due to some graphical flourishes, but there’s nothing jaw dropping here. The game retains its “retro evolved” look, simplistic objects with beautiful effects. Ships this time around seem to have a Z axis, allowing them to flip and spin, but this doesn’t really affect gameplay. The music continues to be stellar background music for such a psychedelic game. There’s truthfully nothing wrong with this package. If you have any interest in dual stick shooters, Geometry Wars 2 is definitely the cream of the crop.