Here I am taking on another big XBLA title, this being the sequel to Geometry Wars. If you've never been, Geometry Wars is the kind of game that will hook you with its gameplay and suck you in with its trippy visuals. These same visuals will also draw anyone else who happens to be in the room as they'll wonder what in the hell is going on, if you're even playing a game, and if you are how you're still classified as alive through all the shapes, sparks, and wild colors that are abound.
So how do you play it? It's quite simple, the left stick controls your ship, the right control stick shoots your gun depending in what direction you're pressing it, and the left and right triggers are bombs if you're getting swamped and just need some help so that you don't die and lose a life.
The original was highly addictive and the sequel asks for 800 MS Points but throws down 6 different modes. Let's discuss them briefly.
Deadline throws you into the pit with three minutes and infinite lives and you just perform and keep playing and honing those three minutes to perfection if possible. King has you jumping from safe zone to safe zone, the only areas you can fire from, and these zones only exist for so long so you must traverse space dodging enemies and getting into that next safe zone. Evolved is the game mode that you were given in the first game, you earn lives and bombs at certain score intervals and you go until you can go no longer. Pacifism has you flying around with no weapons at all, but rather explosive gates that you fly through, and you do such until you die. This is probably my favorite especially when throwing on a favorite album of mine, I can sit and play it for hours. Waves has waves of ships flying horizontally or vertically at you, and it continues to build and build so you have to be quick at eliminating the old waves or clearing holes in the waves to dodge around in. Finally there's Sequence which is a sequence of 20 stages, each a predetermined pattern of enemies, and you see how far into the sequence you can get, whether you live through it all or die you see what your final score is.
This game also has 4 player local competitive and co-operative modes, haven't had a chance to try them out yet, but I've heard it's insanely fun and addictive just like the single player stuff.
There are a few new enemies, but one of the bigger nuances is the addition of Geoms, which enemies drop when killed. This is your multiplier and until you've lost all your lives you get to hold onto it, this provides a much different way of playing the game. In the first game you just had to kill and dodge, now you're asked to still do that but also risk yourself a lot more to collect the glorious Geoms which will disappear after a certain amount of time. Basically, you could be amazing at playing it the old way but you'll always be beat by someone who maybe can't survive as long but knows how to collect Geoms successfully. The final layer is the online leaderboards, if you have a bunch of friends who have this game, the leaderboards will keep you coming back for more and more, so that you can snag those almighty bragging rights. Also while you're playing any given mode in the upper right corner is the next persons score who's ahead of you, so you're always glancing at it and trying your best to survive just a little bit longer to beat that persons score. 800 Points was a very fair price for this game that could last you as long as many $60 retail games out there on the market.
Geometry Wars 2 is a satisfying, frenetic, twitchy, and addictive game thanks to its onslaught of enemies, crazy HD vector visuals that will put you into a trance, and 6 modes of fun with plenty of lasting appeal locally and online. Get it for yourself first, then branch out and play with others locally or try and smear your best friends score for kicks.
Final Verdict: Buy
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