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I have to admit, I am a major Geometry Wars fanboy, so let's get that clear right from the start. The original XBLA title was THE game that sold me on a 360 and is the one title that I have sunk more time into than any other. To me, it was about as close as you could get to the perfect game in terms of fun factor and re-playability. I still play it to this day, or at least I did until Geometry Wars 2 came out.
Let me start of by apologizing for the fact that this was originally scheduled to be a video review of the game; unfortunately Windows is having some major issues with my recently purchased video capture device and won't allow me to save videos more than 10 mb in size. Hopefully I can get that resolved when I move the device over to my Mac Mini this weekend and I can finally get some video content flowing out...
Geometry Wars is a little bit different this time around; first off, while Bizarre Creations did the leg work once again, Activision has stepped up to the plate with the publishing rights of the title. Just my personal opinion here, but I think that is the reason that we are seeing the 800 point price tag rather than the 400 that the original title sold at. So, what exactly does 800 points get you?
 The last time around you only had one game (really) to play, and that was basic Geometry Wars in either the Classic of Evolved modes. This time, Bizarre Creations is giving players six different modes that each focus on varying gameplay strategies.
When you first load up the game, or try the demo version for that matter, you will only have one mode available: Deadline. Deadline is simple, straight forward Geometry Wars with a three minute time limit; players have 90 seconds to rack up as high of a score as they can. You have unlimited lives and are only inhibited by the amount of time remaining on the clock. The only thing that you lose when your ship gets destroyed is precious time.
Playing through Deadline a few times will unlock the next mode, King... which is very similar to the Halo classic King of the Hill. This is one of the first modes where they really started to mix things up. In King, there are "hill" areas, or zones, that spawn on the screen in random places. While you are outside of this zone, you cannot shoot, so you have to enter into them in order to gain weapon access. At the same time, your enemies cannot enter the hill, so they provide a safe haven as well. The issue at hand is that as soon as you cross the border of one of these zones, they start deteriorating and after a few seconds they start shrinking and ultimately disappear, leaving you vulnerable to attacking enemies and taking your ability to shoot away from you. At this point you have to make a mad dash to the next available hill to continue taking out enemies... then you rinse and repeat... and all of this is done with only one life. You die and the game is over. Period.
Play through King enough and you will unlock Evolved. Evolved is the Geometry Wars that we all know and love. You start off with three lives and a couple of bombs and it is up to you to make your fate by earning extra lives and bombs. The only real change to this mode, and the entire game in general is the alteration to the score multiplying system, but we will get to that a little bit later...
 After spending time in Evolved you will earn access to another new mode, entitled Pacifism. Pacifism is arguably on of the most challenging modes in the new Geometry Wars. In this mode, the player loses all of their weapons and must resort to utilizing their environment to fend off the enemies. There is a new enemy in this version of the game which is represented by a white line that is spreads between two small squares. Touch either of the squares and you are dead, break through the white line and you destroy the enemy as well as create a small explosion the can destroy other enemies within close proximity. This is the only form of offense that you will have access to in this mode so it really becomes a game of "catch me if you can", where you will constantly be on the run and luring the mounting armies of geometric shapes to chase you near these gates so that you can destroy them. As with the King mode, one life and you are done...
After Pacifism, players will unlock Waves... which was featured in Microsoft's Project Gotham Racing 4. As with the other new modes, you will only have one life and face an ever mounting army of shapes. The mode starts off slow, with a single group of enemies forming on one side of the screen and passing to the other... when they reach the other side, another group will form and make a pass in another random direction, and then another, and another, and another. These groups may consist of just 5-10 enemies or they may take up the entire length or width of the screen. After a while, there will also be a few lone enemies spawning and running around randomly to create havoc. You have to do you best to constantly reduce the enemy hordes and keep a safe area for you ship to stay on the screen.
 Last, but not least, players will get access to Sequence. Sequence is sort of the grand finale of Geometry Wars 2. Players are giving 3 lives and a gauntlet of 20 stages; lose all of your lives and the game is over. Within each stage, players will have 30 seconds to complete the stage be eliminating all of the enemies that spawn in a predetermined pattern. If the time runs out, the stage is failed and you move onto the next stage. Die, stage failed and you move onto the next stage while becoming one step closer to a game over. The only way to pass the stage(s) is to destroy everything within the alloted time. This is the mode that I am currently battling through and have yet to complete.
Aside from the addition of the mentioned modes, Bizarre Creations has also made sight tweaks to both the graphics and sound of the game. The soundtrack is very reminiscent to the original techno style of the first game, but also sees some variation throughout the varying gameplay modes which will keep the music from getting as monotonous as the original title did. Graphically, you will notice that things are a little brighter this time around and the explosion and warp effects on the background have been enhanced. Even for a game that graphically consists of basic geometric shapes, this game sure looks pretty...
The gameplay of Geometry Wars 2 remains pretty much classic Geometry Wars. It is a dual stick shooter and you also have access screen clearing bombs when times get tough. The major change gameplay wise is that the old score multiplayer system has been ditched in favor of the geome system that was adopted in Geometry Wars Galaxies for the Nintendo Wii. When you destroy and enemy now, they will drop these small yellow fragments that will disappear after a few seconds; for every fragment that you collect, you multiplayer will increase by a factor of one.
multiplayer. You don't lose your amassed multiplayer when you die, at least in the modes where you have multiple lives, and it is completely possibly to get a multiplier in the thousands. Gone are the days when one million points seemed like an elusive score... it looks as though the new target is going to be near a billion. The scoring starts racking up quickly and it tallies fast... before you know is you will be in the tens of millions by the time that things just start to get hairy...
 This time around player also have some multiplayer options within the game. There are both competitive and cooperative modes for up to four players. Unfortunately, the coop is for local play only. There have been some slight revamping to the leaderboards too which provides a nice new addition to the game. First off, there are leaderboards available for each and every mode of play in the game. On top of that, the high score listed in the corner of your current gameplay section will list the closest score ahead of you on your friends list... giving you sort of a target to work towards. Once you surpass that score, it will change to the next highest scores of your friends. Once you have the highest score amongst your friends on a given leaderboard, you will be chasing your own personal benchmarks, or at least you will until one of your friends beats your score.
This is where the fun of Geometry Wars is to be had in my opinion. While some people may scoff at the simplistic gameplay and the lack on true online play, old school gamers will appreciate the classic gameplay style of fighting over the top score(s). I can vouch that this is the thing that has kept me into the game for so long; just ask Chris Paladino over at the Gamerscore Blogs how long him and I ran a major rivalry for the original Geometry Wars leaderboards. In the end though, we both know who came out on top... even though I cannot get close to anything that is being posted on the worldwide leaderboards, CPal has been unable to even come close to my 1.6 million in the original game. That is okay Chris, keep trying...
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 is a solid addition to the XBLA library. The development crew did a smart thing in not trying to fix the things that weren't broken with the original title and simply added some nice new tweaks that enhance the fun and re playability. If I had any complaints to voice concerning the game, they would definitely have to do with the achievements. I think that the achievements in this version are far too easy considering the standards set by the original. There are still a few achievements eluding me to this day in the original Retro Evolved... meanwhile in a matter of my first hour of playing 2 I accumulated all but three of the achievements, and two of them are going to be checked off any day now. It is just a matter of personal opinion, but I would have liked to have seen tougher achievements for this game to push the player harder, especially for those who don't necessarily get into the leaderboard competitions. Aside from that one little complaint, I would argue that this is easily one of the best $10 that you can spend on the arcade and a game that I will be playing non stop for the rest of my 360's lifespan...do yourself a favor and buy this game.
Duff's Verdict: BUY THIS GAME
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