Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (Xbox Live Arcade) Review
Posted by Greg Bruno on 03.02.2007
Like Math Blaster...Only Not At All.
Geometry was never my best class in High School. In fact, I’m pretty sure I got a D in it. So when I found this Xbox Live Arcade title on my trusty little 360, I was confused. Who wants to do anything related to math while playing video games? I was wrong. Geometrically wrong. Geometry Wars for Xbox Live Arcade is perhaps the most addicting, intense, and simplistic game on the Arcade.
This is a prime example of how graphics do not matter when it comes to a fantastic game. You are a ship that is not detailed in the slightest. Your ship flies around the screen shooting at enemies. Of course, they couldn’t call it Geometry Wars without some geometric shapes to battle. Your enemies consist of pink and green squares, blue spirals, red circles, purple crosses, and yellow lines. The web design behind your “world” ripples and waves as ships explode and bullets fly. The game looks especially great on a HDTV.
Controlling your ship has never been easier. Geometry Wars seems to have sparked a control set-up that many Xbox Live Arcade titles has used. Your ship is controlled with the left thumb stick, while the right thumb stick controls what direction you’re firing in. Pressing the right or left triggers will set off one of your bombs. Using bombs can get you out of a tight spot but be careful to save some. It only gets harder! This set-up works perfectly for Geometry Wars.
This is the kind of stuff we should have learned in High School! How to avoid and onslaught of murderous shapes!
Progressing through the game brings more challenges. For example, the first few moments of the game are pretty barren of enemies. They will slowly come at you faster and faster as you progress. Soon enough, you’ll find yourself smack dab in the middle of an all out geometric assault. Literally, the entire screen will become covered in angry shapes that want nothing more than to see you die. To make things even more challenging, your gun type changes every 10,000 points. Once you get used to the machine gun type, it’ll switch to the spread mode. This can throw your game off a little bit if you don’t learn how to adjust.
Those who suffer from Epilepsy may want to take a pass on this one.
The sound effects in Geometry Wars are pretty basic. Your ship shoots with a generic sound, ships appear with specific noises, and explosions set off with the familiar bass sound. The background music can go one of two ways, depending on your ability to handle techno “music”. The music is hard hitting and fast, much like the temp of the game. Personally, I can’t stand techno or anything it stands for. So, for those of you with good taste in music, play something off your Xbox 360 hard drive or stream from your computer to use as the background music.
The replay value of Geometry Wars is insane. Since it is so hard to complete all the achievements, you’ll play this over and over again. Some achievements range from the easy (score 100,000 points) to the ridiculous-how-can-anyone-ever-do-that (survive one million points without dying, and yes, I personally have done it.) If you let achievements play a factor in your gaming, you’ll come back to this for sure. If you are into having the top score, you’ll definitely come back to Geometry Wars.
The 411
If you love simple, pick up and play games, Geometry Wars is for you. The simple graphic design and insane game play make this one of the best games Xbox Live Arcade has to offer. It won’t make you love math anymore, but it will fulfill your need to blow trapezoids shapes up.
Graphics
7.5
This game is certainly not about graphics. What it does, it does right. Brilliant colors, excellent web effects, and insane explosions.
Gameplay
9.5
Easy to pick up and play for pretty much anybody. Very simple and exciting to play through.
Sound
6.0
Generic sound effects and mind numbing techno bring this down a bit.
Lasting Appeal
9.5
Those achievements are extremely hard to...well..achieve. If you're a gamerscore gamer, you'll come back and play this over and over. Once you earn them, it's extremely gratifying.
