Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

• GenreShooter
• Release Date07/30/2008
• PublisherActivision
• DeveloperBizarre Creations
• ESRBE - Everyone

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was the Xbox 360's greatest launch game, a simple and addictive shooter that did something we never thought possible: it made us care about scoring points. Instead of reaching levels and watching cut scenes, we desperately wanted to beat our friends' high scores, something we hadn't bothered with since the '80s. Its superb sequel, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, bests the original in every respect, retaining its addictiveness while incorporating six excellent games for just 800 Microsoft points ($10). Welcome to your new obsession.

Survive this and you become a Geometry Wars master of the gods.

Like previous Geometry Wars games, Retro Evolved 2 drops you (as a tiny spaceship) onto a grid and challenges you to blast enemies for points. Your adversaries come in all shapes and sizes, from green pieces that float away when you fire in their direction to hordes of snakes that twist their way around the playfield. Not only must you make short work of your foes, but you must also raise your score multiplier by collecting tiny green dots called geoms (a switch from the prequel, which raises your multiplier the more enemies you kill) that are left behind by destroyed enemies and can push your multiplier to 100, 550 and beyond. In addition, you must shoot and skillfully dodge hundreds of bad guys, which is easier said than done when it's 4:00am and you can barely keep your eyes open.
Whereas the original featured one new mode, Retro Evolved 2 has six well-designed games that could have stood alone had Activision chose to sell them separately, and each puts a new spin on the formula. Deadline forces you to score as many points as possible in three minutes. King, easily one of the best of the six, places circular zones on the playfield. Enemies cannot enter and you can only shoot while inside them. After a few seconds, however, your zone disappears, forcing you to clear a path and run like hell.
Evolved is similar to the previous Geometry Wars game, but with new enemies. Pacifism, another favorite, strips you of your weapons and forces you to destroy enemies by running through gates littered about the grid, which destroy nearby shapes but will also kill you if you touch their yellow tips. Waves, first available in Project Gotham Racing 4, has orange shapes that move in groups, horizontally and vertically, so you must keep an eye on patterns and avoid being run into. Finally, Sequence presents you with 20 different levels and gives you 30 seconds to clear each of them. Die, and you automatically move onto the next one, as long as you have lives remaining.
If you need a break from the single player madness, there's an offline multiplayer mode for up to four. You compete against each other across the six aforementioned games or work co-operatively (you can also split into teams) to achieve the highest score. It's a fun concept, but online play would have made it superior. On top of that, the camera tends to pull back too far, making it difficult seeing who's who.
Geometry Wars won't win awards for graphics and audio, but we appreciate the sharp visuals, snazzy explosions and other effects. We love how each game displays six people from our friends' lists and their current high scores for that game, as well as the leader at the top right corner of the screen during play; it's always good knowing the target the beat. As for the soundtrack, it's a cool mix of thumping techno beats, and we dig how, during King, the music is muffled outside of the zone and crystal-clear inside of one. That's a sweet touch.
As we were fans of the last game, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 needed to be exceptional to pull us away, and we're ecstatic that Bizarre Creations exceeded our expectations. Sure, it doesn't have online multiplayer, but its assortment of games and leaderboards are exactly what we wanted. It's hard to imagine even five of this year's games being this much fun.