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Geometry Wars 2 Review

I was never really that good at the original Geometry Wars.  I couldn't really get over 2 million points (queue laughter), but it still drew me in from time to time as a great time-waster.  The simplicity of it all made it a really easy game to pick up and play for a few minutes, or a few hours.  Plus, it was dirt cheap too (only 400 points), so why not get it anyway?

Now we've got the sequel, and damn... they did a good job!  So what's new you may ask?  Plenty.

First off, you've got six new modes to try, with a new spin on the classic mode.  Deadline has you destroying as much as you can in 3 minutes (with infinite lives, but don't think its that easy!).  King nerfs your weapon so you can only fire while in protective shields.  Evolved mode is the same from "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved," but with the new tweaks in place (more on that later).  Pacifism disables your weapon entirely, and you must rely on "gates" to destroy your enemies.  Waves (one of my favorites) sends off (you guessed it) waves of enemies from one side of the screen to the other.  Finally, Sequence pits you against a series of specific events (memorization is key here).

They've tweaked the gameplay a bit as well.  Now when you die, you no longer reset your multiplier (which makes it easier to score big).  You gain multiplier points by collecting "Geoms" which drop off destroyed enemies (ala the Galaxies iteration).  There are also new enemies in the mix, but the ones you already know of function exactly the same (those snakes are still bastards...).  They also added multiplayer as well, 2-4 local co-op (local only?  Boo-urns) for any mode.  Leaderboards are back as well, and this time can be viewed while choosing a mode (friends only).

I can't really find many faults with the game.  The lack of online co-op is disappointing, but I'm sure it would be really laggy with all the action going on.  Those damn orange snakes are still annoying as hell, but tolerable.  I wish there was some kind of practice mode (infinite lives, no scores), but I can deal. Honestly, unless you didn't like the original Geometry Wars, there isn't much to dislike here.

Aesthetically speaking, the game looks and sounds great.  The enemies look a lot more distinctive now, and the colors are very vibrant.  The music is great too, it's paced as the action gets more and more intense, especially in Deadline mode.  Each mode has a brand new tune to get stuck in your head.

For what this game was intended to do, I think it executed that perfectly.  It's a worthy sequel that will have fans playing again and again for many more hours to come.  It's got me hooked already!

(Note: I do not like to give out scores, so I gave it a 10 just because it wouldn't let me choose no score)

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