Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions
Geometry Wars 2’s key improvement over its predecessor wasn’t the re-tweaked score multiplier or even the five new game modes, though both were certainly pivotal to its success. No, the cherry on that particular cake was the inclusion of online leaderboards and, more specifically, that galling affront of emblazoning your friends’ higher score across your own TV screen. It may just have been a luminescent name and number, but for all the indignation and need for revenge it instilled in you, it may as well have been a GIF of said friend making sexual motions at a picture of your mother.
In that regard, Geometry Wars 2 hit a glass roof of classic arcade gaming. Beyond bettering yourself or wiping the floor with a friend, there’s no better inclination to pick up a joypad in the name of score-chasing. So where can Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions possibly go from there? The answer isn’t particularly elegant but it is, eventually, effective. In short, Dimensions marries its old school roots of the simple chase, to more modern gaming elements of progression and refinement.
First of all though, the biggest visual revision is, as the name suggests, the added dimension. The road from 2D to 3D has long been smoothed over thanks to ever-increasing technical heft, but it’s not without its potholes. Thankfully this is something that Geometry Wars 3 has traversed with aplomb. Fully-realised levels shaped like pharmaceutical pills and peanut shells are the norm, opening up whole new ways of play. Wall-hugging tactics are now out the window, replaced with a majestic freedom of movement that is at first dizzying but eventually laden with possibility.
Once accustomed to the new dimension, it’s pretty much business as usual for core gameplay. GW3 remains a twin-stick shooter, the waves of enemies behave as you’ve come to expect, bar the odd new geometric face, whilst multipliers and special weapons are still key to high scoring. What’s new, beyond the added sense of depth, is how these levels are presented. GW3 is effectively a fifty level campaign, with each locked off until you beat the level preceding it. It also operates on a three-star system, prevalent in many smartphone games these days, meaning that progress can be further halted if you simply try to ‘one-star’ your way through proceedings.
It’s a simple enough premise and one that has served countless hundreds of games before but as something new to the Geometry Wars universe, it takes a little bit of acclimatisation. When Dara O’Briain appeared on Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe he bemoaned the locked-off content of the Rock Band games, forcing players to master the dirge of Blink 182 before bestowing them with the Beastie Boys. After the open-ended second game, GW3 can feel a little like this, especially since the quality of levels does seem to increase with their pegging.
However, it doesn’t take long before that innate desire to better yourself kicks in. You may be replaying levels because you have to rather than because you want to but the addiction factor remains as high as with previous instalments, perhaps more so given you’ll want to see what’s next. Score comparison with friends remains so there’s still that added impetus to have ‘one more go’ outwith the calculated trappings of the game itself.
New power ups are a more muddied affair. The system for acquiring short term super-shots is a neat improvement, requiring a bit of skill and choice. There’s also a range of attributes you can affix to your wee triangular ship, such as drones for extra firepower and magnets for easier collection of the geom multipliers left by fallen enemies. This does seem to take away an element of skill, and when eyeing a friend/enemy’s score, you may be wondering as much about their set up as their pure artistry.
Yet it proves itself as another valuable asset for the main campaign, making you mix and match weapons and abilities depending on the level and your own abilities. However, simply replaying a level enough times will eventually reward you with enough income to upgrade already-unlocked weapons, making your return to a previous level a slightly easier one. Purists may gripe around these edges but in the end we’ll all end up on a level playing field eventually.
With its various new ideas, Geometry Wars 3 may have slightly dislodged the simple but perfect system layers that worked so well with the previous games. Some players may not be too keen on the over-arching campaign whilst the added power ups slightly encroach on the purity of the score chase. But to be damned by Geometry Wars is high praise indeed and when you’re under the grip of Dimensions, when you’re chasing that elusive score ‘one more time’ and when you hit that zone of almost transcendental playing, it can feel beyond reproach.