REVIEW – Geometry Wars 3 reminds me of a forgotten console’s game that seemed to have split the players and their opinions. Sure, there might not be that many similarities between the two, but in REZ, you still have colors and things evolving into actual scenery in front of you. Both games are a shooter, but there’s not much to say between the two, to be honest…

So let’s quickly divide the two titles while we are at it: Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s game (SEGA Rally Championship, Space Channel 5…) is a rail-shooter with well done musical elements. However, Geometry Wars 3 is a multidirectional shooter, which mixes  the caleidoscopic sights with one, almost crossing the line of disturbance in terms of colorfulness, which still makes it a distinguishable title in itself.

The ugly and the bad

GW3 is not bad, in fact, this might be one of the best titles on the PS4 after those AAA multi-million cost titles (yeah, it goes further than the genial Resogun!), but you can’t just ignore its mistakes.

I think the biggest problem is in the difficulty itself. Simply put, it’s riddled with „spikes”: there are parts which might seem a bit easy at first, but even the slightest mistake or lack of attention can crush the player with its imaginery hammer.

This can happen in adventure mode a few times: even learning players can hit that wall during the game, but to keep trying is the key to the success: it’s not easy, but not that difficult to make you throw your DualShock 4 to the wall. So do not give up, ever.

The other thing that seems to be so often regularly is the addition of an online mode to an otherwise very good single player campaign (yes, I’m talking about you, Spec Ops: The Line!) – in Geometry Wars 3, I don’t really know why they added it. Sure, there’s the online leaderboard, but to be honest, I wouldn’t really climb that ladder, because it’s likely to not even reach the first step, let alone the top.

The good

But if you don’t go play online, you won’t be disappointed in Geometry Wars 3. Lucid Games has really perfected the essence of the secret original hiding withint Project Gotham Racing 2: it has the genes of the heritage of the original games and the modern style at the same time, not making anyone disappointed.

You can choose from two main game modes, adventure and classic – the latter has five options to choose from, if you’re familiar with the previous episodes, you will certainly recognize them at first sight. Deadline needs you to score as many points as humanly possible within the alloted time, Pacifism requires you to fly through explosive gates to defeat the enemies while you get no guns and just one life, King has an area with guns and nothing outside than that, while you still have a single life to play with, Waves puts you to the test of scoring the highest score with again, one life… and then there’s Evolved Classic, which is basically the remastered version of the original game. All of them can provide entertainment for a few hours, if you are willing to challenge yourself.

Adventure mode gives certain requirements to complete the levels, but this time around, on top of the five aforementioned modes, you get another five added to the pile. My favourite out of the bunch was the Rainbow mode, which is a creative take on the game: destroy the enemies before they end up coloring the entire level, then take on the bosses. There’s certainly things to choose from – be creative!

Several approaches

Creativity is a requirement to succeed: sometimes you have to take another approach to defeat a certain boss – for that, you will also need good weapons. Thankfully the drones (upgradable is the keyword here!) can help – sometimes it’s not a wise idea to do a frontal assault…

Geometry Wars 3 clearly runs on 60 frames per second and a 1080p resolution – remember, PS3 only had 720/30, and there is a clear difference between the two. There’s not much that you can feel in let’s say, a football game, but in this game, where you need precision and attention, those extra few milliseconds can save lives many times. The good – and distinct! – graphics are coupled together with an enjoyable audio. The sci-fi sights are brilliantly teamed up with the background music, I have nothing against it, in fact, I’d have created a similar soundtrack to it.

Basically, GW3 has taken the throne of Resogun – the PS4 launch title is now second-in-command behind Lucid Games’ product. For space shooter fans with some patience, this game is a must-buy, for others, it’s worth taking a try.

-V-

Editor: Lucid Games

Developer: VU Games

Genres: side scroller, action

Publication: 2014 November