Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 is the sequel to the major hit Xbox Live Arcade Game - Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. It contains the same gameplay style you've grown to know and love but adds new modes and ways to think about playing. With the added elements to the game and overall visual overhaul, it turns out to be a game well worth your money.
Since the last Retro Evolved that was one of the first XBLA games to be released, fans have been awed by it's gameplay and visual style. What GW2 does is take the same gameplay and make you think about using it in new and interesting ways, together this adds for harder challenges, more to do and a lot fun. If you don't know, GW2 make you move a ship around the screen with the left analog stick while shooting with the right analog stick. the longer you survive, the harder then enemies become and the quantities grow. If things become to hectic, you are equiped with a set number of bombs that will clear the screen.
The biggest difference between GW2 and it's prequel is the addition of geoms. In the first Retro Evolved you gained score multiplyers by surviving longer and longer, in GW2 you can collect geoms to increase your multiplyer. Geoms appear after you destroy and enemy and with this addition, you are now able to get high score of unimaginable digits compared to the first game.
GW2 has six gameplay modes in it. You can unlock each new mode by playing the previous mode a certain length of time. The first is Deadline, which you start out with from the get go. It's basically the general GW style of play, but you only have three minutes to play it and unlimited lives. This mode is more of an introductory into the GW game and style of game it is.
The next is King which has you unable to fire your weapon unless you are inside small areas. When inside you can shoot as much as you like, but the areas will shrink and go away after a few seconds. This causes you to need to know how long to stay in a shielded area and how long to stay and destroy enemies.
Next is Evolved which is once again the basic GW game. This is manly what Retro Evolved was and you can go on for as long as you survive.
The fourth mode is Pacifism, which is much like the first Retro Evolved's pacifism achievement, in which you cannot shoot. This mode renders your weapons completely useless for the entire game. You must make the enemies follow you through small gates, passing through a gate causes it to explode destroying nearby enemies.
Waves is the next game and focuses on orange enemies that are on a set axis and move back and forth between walls. By adding many of these together in a line it acts as a wave and more and more of these waves are sent at you.
Sequence is the final mode and it's really anything crazy new, it's more of a level system. Each level has you fighting certain enemies and in certain orders. This mode is by far the hardest and requires tremendous skill.
The graphics have been updated since Retro Evolved to make them sharper and much more colorful. Destroying each enemies has them explode shooting sparks of their color out, combining enemies destruction can make a wonderfully beautiful light show. Each mode also has it's own music and modes like King has the music muffled unless your in a safe zone, while Evolved has the original theme but remixed. The music is probably one of the best things about this game as it's high paced and doesn't get repetitive. When you get destroyed by an enemy the music screeches to a halt and then wipes back into play. While using bombs causes the music to sound warped for a minute.
The achievements this time around are also much easier and seems to be at a good pace between all the modes. From things as easy as unlocking all modes, to things more like rub up against all the wall space in pacifism twice. One would probably have liked an achievement in the area of "get ____ points combined in all games" but this game doesn't require that. It does have a similar one that requires you to get at least a million points in all modes, but this game gets quite addictive, and just updating your high score is enough satisfaction in itself.
Another new update to the franchise is multiplayer. In each mode you can play them in co op with up to four people. There's even a mode called copilot where one person will drive the ship, while the other controls the gun. The multiplayer mode is only local and not online. Which at first glance at this game can seem like a let down. The thing is though, online multiplayer would most likely ruin this game due to all the lag that could be brought up. Any bad connection leading to the slightest lag will cause you all to mostly screw up, or die. This game is just too fast paced, split second timing and decision making to let any lag be a factor. To counter this they have made user high scores a huge part of this game. Each mode select screen shows the top high scores of everyone on your friends list. Also, during each mode in the top right hand corner you will see the highest score on your friends list so that you have something to play towards beating.
Overall Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2 is a great game to continue the Geometry Wars franchise. If you enjoyed the first game, you will find this perfect will all the graphical and audio updates along with the new styles of play and gameplay modes. For 800 points ($10 US) it's definitely worth your money and will make any Geometry Wars fan and new comer quite happy.
Positives:
- Beautiful graphics
- Very enjoyable music
- You get your money's worth, and then some
- Loads of different modes to keep you interested
- High scores keep you wanting to come back and play more
- Co op play adds new ways to play each of the new modes in fun and friend-included ways
Negatives:
- N/A
Overall: 10/10
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