Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions had a lot to live up to. The last game in the series, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, dethroned Smash TV as the standard bearer of the twin-stick shooter genre. And the first game in the franchise, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, was considered by many to be the Xbox 360’s killer app for the first year. But Lucid Games proved to be more than up to the task with an excellent new entry in the series. After the closure of Bizarre Creations (the creator of Retro Evolved and Retro Evolved 2), Lucid became the new home for multiple members of the Geometry Wars development team. So we probably shouldn’t have been worried at all.
Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 (Version Played), Xbox One
Publisher: Sierra Games
Developer: Lucid Games
Genre: Technicolor Twin-Stick Shooter… IN 3D!
Release Date: November 25, 2014
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions looks a bit different, but it will be instantly familiar to anyone who has played the previous two games in the series. Instead of a flat grid, the majority of the game boards in Dimensions are built around three-dimensional objects like spheres, cubes, and cylinders. This means that your ship can now completely circumvent the playing field instead of being restrained by a series of guard rails (though there are a number of flat levels as well). This change opens up the playing field and feels less like a radical departure for the franchise and more like a natural evolution. At first, it’s a little disorienting to go right up to the edge of the game board and then magically circle around to the other side, but I got into the Geometry Wars groove soon enough.
The second major change to Dimensions is the addition of an Adventure Mode that features 50 levels with their own unique win conditions (as well as a few boss battles). Most of these levels are based on familiar gameplay modes from Retro Evolved 2, including Deadline (score as many points as possible within the time limit), Evolved (score as many points as possible with only one life), King (shooting is only allowed in special safe zones), and Pacifism (shooting is disabled and enemies must be killed with exploding gates). Several new battle modes round out the Adventure Mode, including Claustrophobia (walls close in on the grid until you’re crushed), Sniper (bullets are limited), Titan (bigger enemies must be broken down into smaller enemies to proceed), Rainbow (rollers repaint the grid and you must stop them), and Checkpoint (enemies appear in waves that must be dispatched to extend the time limit), riff on the same ideas while being unique in their own way.
Finally, Lucid adds a third wrinkle to Dimensions with the inclusion of Drones, Supers, and Super States. Each of these powerups adds an augmentation to your ship and changes the game in a big way. A Drone companion may collect distant Geoms or add a second gun to your ship, while a Super is a single-use item that builds on the screen-clearing Smart Bomb with a unique attack, like a spinning turret or a series of homing missiles. Super States are temporary powerups that add a little more pop to your guns (and which I had initially forgotten were part of Retro Evolved as well). Like with the game’s 3D grids, I was initially uncomfortable with all these additions to the simplicity the Geometry Wars series is known for. But as I added hour after hour to my game clock, I had a hard time letting them go when I dipped back into Classic Mode, which resurrects most of Retro Evolved 2’s gameplay modes without all the extras Lucid added to Dimensions.
As something of a connoisseur of twin-stick shooters, I’ve always loved it when developers kept things simple. But the new pieces added to Dimensions feel like more than just tick marks on a feature list. As I said before, they are a natural evolution for the franchise. Now I can’t imagine playing without Drones or Supers. I heartily enjoyed the boss battles in all their controller-flinging glory. And the three-dimensional look, instead of being the distraction I worried it would be, seems like the perfect extension of the new direction that Dimensions has taken the series.
Rather than cluttering up the simplistic joy of Retro Evolved 2, Lucid’s additions have opened up new ways to have fun with a Geometry Wars game. These changes only enhance the heavily stylized technicolor chaos the franchise is known for. And I know that in the weeks and months to come I’ll be trying different combinations of Drones and Supers to earn every three-star rating in the game and battle my way up the Leaderboards.
Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is more than worthy of carrying the Geometry Wars name, and it stands as one of 2014’s best. Fans of the franchise (and twin-stick shooters in general) will ignore it at their own peril. If you haven’t already, I recommend downloading it on your platform of choice right now. This goes double for PlayStation owners, who have never had a chance to experience a Geometry Wars game until now.
What are you waiting for? Go!
Review Disclosure: A review copy of Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions was provided by Sierra Games for the purposes of this review.
