Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2
Obsession, by Bizarre Creations
I'd like to think the much-adored Geometry Wars franchise came about after head developer Steven Cakebread took a trip down memory lane and decided to fuse Robotron 2084 with a Tomy Lights Alive. The resulting franchise-to-be was ace, with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved proving to be quite probably the best launch title for the Xbox 360. The little idea-that-could has hypnotised us all into a psychedelic colour trance. There was no way we wouldn't see a sequel and, after Geometry Wars games for the Wii and DS, Bizzare are back on the 360 with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2.
Which, to be honest, immediately smacks you with a touch of pretension. Popping the '2' in superscript is Bizzare claiming to multiply their own greatness by itself. Granted, it's not exactly John Romero saying he's going to make us his bitches or the dialog in Braid, but it is the product of a developer confident of their own success.
Mind you, it's easy to excuse the game for basking in its own greatness when the end product is this good. Bizzare have again struck gold with their retro-esque series, providing the world with not only more Geometry Wars but better Geometry Wars. And here's why: the solid foundations of crisp graphics and simple gameplay have been respected and the game has been expanded without bogging itself down in unnecessary paraphernalia. They've resisted the seemingly inevitable developer urge of needlessly adding bulk to a sequel and for this they deserve some sort of prize. It also features some of the most fun and rewarding Achievements the 360 has to offer, but the real icing on the cake is the very simple interface addition of plonking your friends' high scores to the top right of the screen. A minor change that is alone enough to keep you playing for a very, very long time.
It would be easy to confuse the whole thing as a title with depth, instinctively wanting the thing you've just spent two hours playing to be somehow deep and meaningful. It's not deep. Really. It's so simple it's almost rudimentary, and its this simplicity that makes the game so easy to pick up and play for an hour. After you know how the modes work and how each type of enemy ship is going to react you're set for life.
As you boot up a fresh copy you're restricted to Deadline, and this remarkably non-intrusive tutorial-like phase of the game serves you up new content in a chain: the next is unlocked after you've played enough of the former. Within about twenty minutes you've revealed everything, dipped into each mode, and fully understand the rules of the game.
This is the point you'll starting thinking about ridding yourself of daily complications like relationships, work and food.
Mostly, the game works like this: move with the left stick, shoot with the right, screen-clearing bombs launch with the triggers. In Deadline you're given three minutes and infinite lives to rack up as many points as you can. King has you manoeuvring into temporary, circular safe-zones where you're allowed to fire out and enemies can't penetrate in. Evolved is the same three lives (unless you earn another by racking up enough score) and you're out policy that made the first game so adored. Pacifism has you flying around with no weapons and trying to herd an infinite and hungry army of slightly-faster-than-you blue creatures through explosive gates before they get you. Waves, however, delights in throwing an ever-increasing amount of orange ships at you in (unsurprisingly) waves from all directions, and you do your best to blow them up quickly. Last but not least, Sequence is the game's swansong, a series of 20 levels with enemies that attack in set patterns. This adaptive and diverse array of gameplay styles should ensure that everyone will find at least one mode they hold especially dear, with my personal favourites being Deadline and Pacifism.
The most prominent addition for fans of the previous games is the multiplier. It has been changed considerably. No longer does it reset when you die, and it's no longer restricted to a mere 'x10'. You increase it by picking up geoms (little green blobs left by destroyed enemies) and can easily get it to 'x1000' on some of the more frantic modes. This means that your score in Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is considerably higher than it would be in former games. Getting a million is now a disaster instead of a triumph.
There's no way to actually win any of the modes, though, and as you skim around an ever-increasingly claustrophobic square arena you're essentially delaying the inevitable. One of the colourful enemy shapes is going to destroy your little claw-like ship, but the game encourages you to take down as many of the buggers as you possibly can. Indeed, this is where you start to thrive on the high scores, constantly battling yourself and your friends list - scores above you are always displayed in the top-right of the screen - for that often-elusive number one position. It's a game that preaches survival of the fittest. I've received texts, phone calls and e-maila from friends about their position on the Geometry Wars 2 leaderboard: it's hard not to inform somebody straight away when you've just smashed one of their cherished numbers. It's a competitive, addictive and enthralling experience, possibly the first great example of a solo multiplayer game.
To wax lyrical, Geometry Wars 2 is like being covered in florescent glitter and hit in the face with a brick constructed of alight sparklers, followed by falling to your knees and begging for seconds. You might as well superglue the 360 controller to your hands because it's so dangerously addictive you'll never be able to put it down. It's become a routine of mine to play a few rounds of Deadline whenever I switch on the 360, regardless of what my original intentions for powering up the console actually were.
Part of me feels like I need to find some kind of flaw with the game, but after weeks of playing my only problem with it is that my high score in Deadline won't go above five million no matter how hard I try. It's starting to make me feel woefully inferior and slightly less masculine every time I look at the online leaderboards. Ultimately I find it impossible to knock Geometry Wars 2 because it's simply one of the most compulsive and endearing ways to spend six pounds eighty in the whole of existence. It'll sit happily on your 360's hard drive, gleefully buzzing away because it knows you'll be back.
And you will.
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