The undisputed king of twin stick shooters is back for another round. I have great memories of playing the original Geometry Wars on my Xbox 360. What I love about it is how simple it is to play and how much fun it can be compete against the high scores of friends. I was very excited to learn the series has come back for a third round, this time on both current gen and last gen systems.
The third Geometry Wars game from Lucid Games, a studio containing much of the staff who created the first two games, brings back all of the things that make Geometry Wars a classic and introduces some new game modes and a brand new look.
If you’ve never played Geometry Wars, the concept is rather simple. You play as a curved object that look like a ship. You steer it across the screen with the left analog stick and fire your weapons by pointing in the direction you want to shoot in with the right analog stick. Defeat the other colorful shapes on screen, pick up the dark green objects they drop which boost your multiplier, and aim to get the high score. That’s pretty much it. Very simple to pick up and learn, but very hard to master.
Those who have played past games will immediately notice the brand new look to the game. Geometry Wars 3 is only played on backgrounds with various shapes and dimensions. You could be playing on a flat square, a curved square, a cube, or plenty of other interesting shapes. The new dimensional maps are a blast to play on. They will make you change your strategies for playing and they make the game feel more interesting. It’s much more fun moving your ship around a cube versus a boring flat surface. The color scheme continues to be vibrant as a chain of enemies exploding looks like a fireworks show every time.
The game comes with a whole bunch of modes. The classic modes are my absolute favorite, allowing you to play for the high score in various ways. You can try to rack up as many points as you can in under two minutes, or see how well you do with only one life. There are plenty of classic options that offer replayability.
The big mode that Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions to banking on is its brand new adventure mode. This mode has players completing levels under various constraints and earning stars to get to the next level. It contains everything from timed score missions, getting a certain score with one life, and boss battles.
The biggest problem I have with adventure mode is that it’s extremely difficult. This mode will most likely only be enjoyed by the most hardcore Geometry Wars players. New players and casual players will not feel welcome here. Even during the first few levels, it took me 10-15 tries to get the bare minimum score for each level. After getting one out of three stars for the first four levels, it infuriated me to find out that I needed five stars to get to level five. If the difficulty were toned down, this mode could be a lot of fun.
The game also has local co-op and online multiplayer. While I attempted to play the online multiplayer, there was nobody else logged into the servers on PlayStation 3, which is the system I reviewed the game on. I don’t really understand the need for online multiplayer in Geometry Wars or who that would appeal to, but it’s nice to know it’s there.
While Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is a solid game, it’s very hard to recommend it now that the game has plenty of competition. Other twin stick shooters such as Resogun, Halo: Spartan Assault, and many more will most likely outshine it. This is far from being the best twin stick shooter available. Geometry Wars may have started this subgenre, but it can no longer hold up to the competition.
The Good:
[checklist]- The classic Geometry Wars gameplay is as fun as ever
- Includes plenty of variety in Classic Mode
- The brand new dimensional backgrounds are awesome to play on and shake things up every time
The Bad:
[badlist]- Adventure Mode is a cool concept, but is extremely difficult
- The game may fail to stand out amongst its competition
[button color=”orange” link=””]Play with Caution[/button]Play with Caution: A game given the “Play with Caution” rating is one that may have several severe problems. While the game may be very fun and worth checking out, it is far from perfect and might not be right for you. These games can be enjoyable, but have some issues holding them back.
This game was reviewed using a retail copy of the game provided to us by the game’s public relations team. The game was reviewed on a PlayStation 3 console.
