I remember when I first saw Geometry Wars. It was about half a year after it came out but I was spellbound. Unlike the rock band The Killers, it seems that developer Bizarre has taken something from the 80's (in this case the Robotron style, twin stick shooter) and reworked it into something actually stylish and fun. The music in the first Geometry Wars was also better than anything off of "Hot Fuss" or "Sam's Town".
When a new Geometry Wars was announced, I wondered how they polish up a game known for it's simplicity. Any big changes would change it into something altogether different. Not enough and it would not be worth it. Though at 10$ most fans of the original have probably already purchased a copy of it to try out.
Graphically, not much has changed, yet the game seems more alive with color and, for lack of better word: GLOWIER. A common criticism often lobbed at the original game was, that with all of the onscreen activity going on, it was hard to follow the action. The player would lose track of where their tiny spaceship was and this would spell CERTAIN DOOOOOOM. The thing is, this didn't really happen. I am near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other. Things tend to lose focus for me and I get lost in busy images but not once did I have problems with Geometry Wars and the same holds for this game despite that fact defying all visual logic. Playing the game can often, to the casual observer, seem like watching a videotape of a fireworks display as held in the world of Tron if that movie was made in Flatland.
That is precisely why the game was brilliant. It worked. That says something about the careful visual balance attained, just on the edge of insanity, but playable by most everyone. It takes simple gameplay and puts it on the verge of being nearly TOO futuristic. Walking that fine line is what makes the series such a joy to play.
To those who do now know what Geometry Wars is and who do not know what "Robotron Style Shooter" means, here is a brief explanation (which is really all that is necessary): The player controls a small avatar on-screen, in Geometry Wars it is a triangle/spaceship and in Robotron it was a little humanoid figure. With the left joystick they control the movement of the character. With the right joystick, they control the direction the character shoots. There is no fire button involved. Simply push the joystick in the direction you wish to fire and PEW PEW PEW!!! Lasers. Enemies emerge on the field of battle and try to kill you. That's about it. In Robotron there were killer robots. In this game IT IS GLOWING GEOMETRIC SHAPES. The brilliance of Geometry Wars is that each shape comes in a distinctive color and acts according to a separate but identifiable AI (artificial intelligence) routine. Blue diamonds slowly follow around your ship where as pink diamonds are quicker and quirkier in their path to kill you. Green blobs chase you about but when you turn to fire on them they bob and weave and try to run from you. They are like the cowardly managers in the old pro wrestling shows that would act cowardly then hit you in the back with a folding chair. There are glowing snakes that seem to meander vaguely in your direction. Tiny orange arrows that merely dart to and fro across the field of battle. At any given moment there could be anywhere up to a hundred or so shapes at one time. When the green ones clump together it is like doing battle with a glowing pool of water. The effect is mesmerizing and gorgeous. All the while you interact with all of these creatures in terms that seem very simple but in the simple world seem like all you ever need. It feels smart and realistic in the terms of the game. Rather than a game that shoots to emulate reality and then falls prey to the uncanny valley, you get ultimate flexible simplicity. The world is simple and beautiful and nearly poetic in it's neon hyperactivity. The game feels more alive than most games could ever hope to, all in a package that is as simple as Pac Man ever was.
But that is merely a description of Geometry Wars. The cosmetic differences are probably only apparent to people who spent hours playing the original and if that was all there was it would not be worth the purchase (though I still would have purchased it.) Added to the sequel is a small gaggle of different enemy types and more significantly, a slew of new game modes.
The addition of new game modes and the brilliance of the "in-menu leaderboard" add to the addictive quality of the game, much like the timer/score mechanic did in the recent update of Pac Man on XBLA. What this means is that on the screen where you select which game type you wish to play, there is a leaderboard for each type showing the highest scores among your friends who own the game. This leads to that "oh no he/she didn't!" feeling where you want to jump in and one up one another. It's a simple and brilliant little detail that adds alot to what makes the game so great.
There are 6 game modes:
Deadline - You have 3 minutes to score as many points as possible. You have unlimited lives, but every time you die, the enemies all go away for a few seconds. This is a big deal when you're trying to destroy as many as you can in a limited time.
King - A clever play on King of the Hill game types, your ship can only shoot from inside glowing circles which eventually shrink and go away. The enemy cannot enter the circles making the game a mad dash from circle to circle. The whole thing looks like germs swirling around neon petri dishes.
Evolved - The classic "last as long as you can, score as high as possible" game from the original Geometry Wars Evolved game.
Pacifism - Easily my favorite of the group. You cannot shoot and must fly through small gates to destroy nearby enemies. No description can convey how fun this game type is. It is a game of pure skill. Since you cannot shoot, you use only one joystick. That is it.
Waves - The hardest of the group (to me) but seemingly the easiest. Waves of little enemy ships that basically fly back and forth until you kill them appear. That's it. Good luck.
Sequence - My second favorite of the games, you have to fight through a series of times battles that ramp up in difficulty. Nearly a space adventure (told by little geometric shapes)!
The games play so fast, sometimes lasting as little as a half a second if you're REALLY awful, that you can easily get caught up in a neverending cycle, constantly reaching for that friend's high score. If you get sick of one game, you just pick another, they are all different enough. The game is a brilliant balance of all things: modern, retro, simple, hectic, easy controls, horribly challenging gameplay. And it's around 10 bucks. WTF people, hop to it.
Grade: A
Small Sidenote: Today I heard the song "When I Grow Up" by Garbage (from the album Version 2.0, which is a pretty good old pop album) and one of the first sentences finds singer Shirley Manson comparing something to a "giant juggernaut". By definition of the word, are there small juggernauts? Was it perhaps a standout juggernaut in a field of "everyday Joe-Shmo" juggernauts? Let us think on this until next we meet.
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