![]() ![]() Supported by a thudding but understated soundtrack, I hadn’t noticed at first that I was actually co-ordinating my movements to the timing of the beat, but that’s exactly what I was doing. You wouldn’t think that simple shapes inside a small arena could be visually arresting, but Geometry Wars’ neon glow and sheer speed is quick to induce such a trance that ‘bullet ballet’ has never been a more appropriate term. The only consequence of being hit by an opponent and losing a “life” is that it takes a few seconds to respawn, but of course that’s enough time to take you out of the running to post a respectable score to the online leaderboards.Įven as it batters and bruises you, Geometry Wars 3 reminds you why you love it thanks to its incredible presentation. There’s a couple of variations on the classic Geometry Wars game, with the default mode giving you the three minutes that I mentioned at the start to get as many points as possible. Thankfully there are other play modes for people that do get stuck on the single player game in order to hone their skills. On your side it is possible to exchange some of the glowing green crystal-things you pick up in levels for powerups that make the experience slightly easier, but even the most dedicated person grinding away will never make the game easy for themselves. And then there are the boss battles that seem determined to redefine what a bullet hell looks like. Some are pure shootouts on flat planes, but others take place on spheres and cubes and feature much more interesting enemy patterns. To enhance the challenge further there is solid variety in both the level design and the way that you’ll need to tackle the levels. I sincerely doubt that casual players would look at this game and think it looks interesting in the first place, thanks to its abstract aesthetic, but if they did, I also doubt they’d have a hope in getting through all of the game’s many levels. The developer of this one, Lucid Games, clearly decided to up the ante and challenge even veterans, and the result is something brutal. ![]() Even previous Geometry Wars games, such as the one on the Wii or the iPad release, are games I’ve generally done well with. The first boss battle – about five levels in – took me over a dozen tries to get past.Īnd it’s not like I lack for skill in arcade games. Were this a mobile game they’d be a few dozen levels in before anything lower than a three star score was even possible, but in Geometry Wars 3 I was lucky to earn more than one star after the first level. In the “story” mode – which doesn’t really offer a story, but rather a sequence of levels – each of the 50 levels awards players with one to three stars based on how they perform and the score they accumulate. Geometry Wars 3 is the first game under this new Sierra banner, and while it still an arcade dual stick shooter, and doesn’t do all that much differently to previous games in the series, it does experiment with something most modern game developers would never dare touching: genuine, brutal challenge. For anyone that enjoys creativity in their games, it’s hard not to be excited by that. As with Ubisoft and Child of Light and Valiant Hearts, should this new venture take off we’re going to see a steady stream of highly innovative or experimental games that are backed by something most indies don’t have – actual money. Relaunching the Sierra brand to house projects that aren’t designed as multimillion dollar blockbusters or licensed tie-ins, Activision has an exciting concept on its hands indeed. I am so glad that Activision has decided to get on board with the ‘let’s support small, clever projects’ trend among the big publishers. Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is harsh and demanding, but I do believe it’s also the finest modern arcade game you’ll ever play. My palms sweaty, my thumbs slipping off the Dualshock 4’s thumbsticks, I see my little avatar explode over and over and over again while I play this game. It takes just three minutes to turn me from a perfectly competent and confident player of games, able to hold his own in the most competitive of gaming environments, and turn me into a quivering wreck.
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