Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Review

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved holds a special place in my heart. It was, after all, the very first downloadable title I ever purchased on a console. After playing the demo about 50 times and constantly frustrated from not having my high score saved, I caved in and finally made the purchase. What ensued were hours upon hours of perfecting strategies, memorizing attack patterns, and constantly getting better at split second dodges to safety. It was pure bliss in the most simplest forms. The sequel, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 kept the original formula intact for purists, though it did add some extra modes that changed up the way the game played.

But Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions doesn't actually have much in common with the first two titles, instead, it's more akin to the Wii and DS game, Geometry Wars: Galaxies. Both have an extensive single player campaign outside of its standard Evolved mode, and both also sport drones, upgradable little objects that fly around you and perform various tasks depending on the type you have equipped. So it's safe to say, if you've enjoyed Galaxies, then Dimensions will be right up your alley.

Dimensions takes place across 50 levels of increasing difficulty on various 3D objects. No longer are you just confined to a flat wall. This time you'll be zooming around and dodging enemies on spheres, pills, squares, and even planes that are slightly bent. What this results in is a completely fresh take on the formula that needs you to adapt to the situation.

For example, playing on the square stage requires you to be extra careful when switching sides, since your view isn't alway clear of what's on the other site. Playing on the level that's shaped like a pill rotates as you zoom around it, obstructing your view from the other side, meaning you'll always have to be vigilant as enemies can come swarming without a second's notice. It adds a welcome layer of challenge to an already difficult game, but it never really crosses into the unfair territory. It wasn't until the game's 11th stage that I actually had to restart because I failed to get the required points. There are also Bosses sprinkled throughout the single player campaign, and they will truly test your twitch reactions.

Each level operates on a three star system, with each one attached to a progressively higher score. I found myself repeating earlier levels again just to attain the missed stars previously. This is actually encouraged as it also helps you unlock various super moves for your ship.

Collecting Geoms will enable you to upgrade your drone, which as I previously mentioned can do specific tasks like pick up stray Geoms for you or attack other objects, or you can also upgrade your own ship's special move, such as dropping down mines that explode as enemies fly over them or homing missiles which seek out. While these certainly add to your survival, purists will most likely be put off by this aspect since it essentially skews your overall score. The game doesn't penalize or boost your score depending on what drone or power you take, so you'll never really be able to compare your score to someone else on a single player stage, since you'll never know their loadout.

The best part about Geoms is their risk/reward system. Collecting these little green gems from fallen enemies effectively increases your multiplier each time, meaning your score will keep exponentially rising with every new kill. However, obtaining them means you have to pick them up where the enemies were destroyed, which can be risky. You can choose to ignore them, however your multiplier won't rise and your score will grow in much smaller increments.

For those that would much rather relive the glory days of Retro Evolved, you can head on over to the game's Arcade section that holds all the game modes from the classic Evolved mode to the new modes introduced in Geometry Wars 2. Not all of them are great however. King is probably the lamest of the five, allowing you to only shoot from designated spots that disappear. Aside from Evolved, Pacifism, the mode where you can't shoot and instead have to travel through gates, is a whole lot of fun. And if you're the type that enjoys countdown clocks, Deadline pits you against a horde of enemies on a two minute time limit.

The game also has two online 4v4 multiplayer modes called Stock and Summoner. Stock requires your team to kill an enemy boss faster than the other team. The wrinkle here is that you don't have unlimited ammo, and you have to constantly pick up more while trying to fend off random enemies coming at you. It's challenging and actually pretty fun. Summoner pits two teams against one another in order to score the most points. This is done by being in control of summon towers. As long as your team controls at least one, it will continually spawn enemies for you to kill. It was actually tough finding people online to play these with me, so I'm going to assume the online portion of Dimensions isn't as popular as its local counterpart, but that might change with time.

Visually speaking, the slightly brighter visuals as opposed to the black backgrounds of the original and its sequel are welcome. Shooting each enemy makes them explode into a dazzling firework of neon, which gets progressively more chaotic as you progress through each level. It's not long until your screen is filled with glorious colored particles.

Dimensions is a great return of the franchise. Crammed with content for just about any player, whether they're looking for single player challenges or just want to kick back and spend the night trying to perfect their scores in the game's Evolved mode, it's all there, ready and waiting. Score Attack purists might not love the inclusion of Drones from Galaxies, as they'll undoubtedly skew results, but thankfully the Drones are only tied down to the single player campaign. So what are you waiting for, go shoot at some shapes!