Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

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Developer(s)Bizarre Creations
Publisher(s)Activision
Designer(s)Stephen Cakebread
Platform(s)Xbox 360 (XBLA)
ReleaseJuly 30, 2008
Genre(s)Multi-directional shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, Local multiplayer, Co-op

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved² (alternate title: Geometry Wars Evolved²) is a multidirectional shooter video game created by Bizarre Creations, released on Xbox Live Arcade on July 30, 2008 as a sequel to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. This downloadable game, 40.36MB in size, can be purchased from the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft Points.[1]

The soundtrack was composed by Chris Chudley from Audioantics who created the music for all of the Geometry Wars series.

Gameplay

Sequence mode.

The player controls a small, highly maneuverable ship that can move and fire independently in any direction. The objective of the game is to score points by destroying a variety of shapes and surviving by not touching them. If this happens, the player's ship is destroyed and a life is lost. Depending on the game mode, lives and bombs can be collected upon achieving a certain number of points. Bombs clear the game space of enemy shapes instantly, although no points are awarded for their destruction.

Crucial to effective play is the score multiplier, which increases as the player collects "geoms" — small diamond-shaped green objects dropped by enemies upon destruction. The number of points scored by destroying an enemy depends on the multiplier, which can reach into the thousands.

There are six different game modes available:

  • Deadline: The player is challenged to score as many points as possible with three minutes and infinite lives. During the course of the three-minute countdown, it is possible for a player to earn additional bombs.
  • King: The player has only one life and no bombs. Circular safety zones appear randomly in the playing field. Enemies and geoms cannot enter these zones, and the player can only fire while inside one. The zone shrinks and disappears a short time after it is entered, causing a new one to appear elsewhere in the playing field. Thus, the player is forced to keep moving from zone to zone to survive.
  • Evolved: Similar in style to Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, the player is challenged to score as many points as possible with no time limit. The player starts with 4 lives and 3 bombs, and earns extra lives and bombs at set point intervals. (100,000; 1,000,000; 10,000,000)
  • Pacifism: The player has only one life and cannot shoot. The player must fly through gates to destroy nearby enemies while avoiding the dangerous edges of the gates. Bonus points are earned by flying through gates in rapid succession. This mode was inspired by an achievement in the first game called "Pacifist" where the objective was to survive for 60 seconds without firing.
  • Waves: The player has one life and must avoid and destroy inline waves of rockets that fly horizontally and vertically from the edges of the game space. This mode was first introduced as a minigame inside Project Gotham Racing 4.
  • Sequence: This mode consists of twenty levels, each with a consistent, predetermined pattern of enemies. The player has thirty seconds to destroy all of the enemies in each level. If the player loses a life, they are taken directly to the next level, but the game ends if the player loses all their lives. Additional lives and bombs are earned at set point intervals.

Retro Evolved 2 also provides local cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes for two to four players simultaneously, and an exclusive "Co-Pilot" mode in which two players control the same ship, with one moving and the other firing. Additionally, the game provides support for worldwide leaderboards in each game mode and, by default, displays the player's ranking against his/her friends during play.

Development history

On April 3, 2008 a rating for Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 appeared on the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification website.[2] The first day of E3 2008, on July 14, 2008 at the Microsoft Press Conference, Microsoft debuted the trailer for Geometry Wars 2.[3]

Reception

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 received high marks from critics, who praised its multiple game modes while also collectively bemoaning the lack of online multiplayer. GameDaily raved in its perfect 10/10 review that the sequel "beats its predecessor in every way" and proclaimed it the best title on Xbox Live Arcade.[15] Eurogamer praised, "The omission of online play aside, Geometry Wars 2 is everything you hoped it would be" in its 9 of 10 review.[7] IGN, in its 8.3 of 10 review, called it "a solid sequel."[9] Videogamer raved in its 9 for 10 review, "If you love Geometry Wars you'll love this. If you've never played Geometry Wars before then now is a perfect time to do so."[16] GameSpot enthusiastically stated in its 9.0 of 10 review that the game "takes adrenaline-soaked, addictive shooters to a level of unprecedented awesomeness."[8]

CVG in its 8.5 of 10 review raved, "There aren't many games that make your heart race like Geometry Wars does", but cautioned "the feeling that it's all been toned down leaves a sour taste in our mouths."[6] 1Up.com's Nick Suttner, despite his A- review score, said, "All of the new modes are great, but none feel quite as balanced or as fresh as Retro Evolved."[4]

IGN editor Cam Shea ranked it fourth on his top 10 list of Xbox Live Arcade games. He praised the quality of the returning game modes from Geometry Wars, also praising the newly added ones.[17]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Xbox Live Marketplace - Geometry Wars Evolved". Microsoft. Retrieved 3 May 2012.
  2. ^ "OFLC Update - GEOMETRY WARS RETRO EVOLVED 2". xblah.net. Retrieved 2008-04-03.
  3. ^ "E3 2008: Microsoft Press Conference Debut Trailer". gametrailers.com. MTV. Retrieved 2008-07-14.
  4. ^ a b Nick Suttner (2008-07-30). "1Up.com Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review". 1Up.com. Ziff-Davis. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference cupdate was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Gavin Ogden (2008-07-30). "CVG Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review". Computer and Video Games. Future. Retrieved 2008-08-16.
  7. ^ a b Dan Whitehead (2008-07-30). "Eurogamer Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review". Eurogamer. Eurogamer Network. Retrieved 2008-08-16.
  8. ^ a b Tom McShea (2008-07-31). "GameSpot Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review". GameSpot. CNet.
  9. ^ a b Hilary Goldstein (2008-07-30). "IGN Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2". IGN.
  10. ^ Andrew Hayward (2008-07-31). "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review". Official Xbox Magazine Online. Future. Retrieved 2008-08-15.
  11. ^ Tom Price (2008-07-31). "Team Xbox Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review". TeamXbox.
  12. ^ "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2". zConnection. 2008-08-12. Retrieved 2008-09-26.
  13. ^ "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2". Metacritic. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
  14. ^ "Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2". GameRankings. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
  15. ^ Chris Buffa (2008-07-31). "GameDaily Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review". AOL.
  16. ^ Tom Orry (2008-07-30). "Videogamer Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 review".
  17. ^ "IGN's Top 10 Xbox Live Arcade Games". IGN. 2009-05-07. Retrieved 2009-08-07.

External links

Template:XBLA Summer of Arcade

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