If only all sequels were as improved as Geometry Wars Evolved 2. The game that launched Xbox Live Arcade years ago finally delivers its offspring. While gamers would have been more than happy with just the chance to play co-operatively, the game goes out of its way to deliver the best XBLA game 800 Microsoft Points can buy.
Anyone that has not gotten around to buying the original can save their points and put them toward the sequel. The slick two-stick controls, one steering and the other firing, remain, but quite a bit else has changed for the better. Rather than the two, very similar, modes offered in the original, the sequel offers up six completely different gameplay modes. Sure, the 'evolved' mode is still here for those who loved the challenge of the original, but the new modes are certainly the ones that will eat up most of your time.
Deadline is a three-minute race to the highest score possible, with unlimited lives and three bombs at your disposal. The most challenging is 'pacifism', which only provides you with the new 'gates' as your option to clear the constant swarms of enemies, and only one life to do it with. Waves is not far off in terms of difficulty, as you still get just one life and must take on linear strings of ship-shaped enemies coming from all directions as well as other enemies spawning on-screen. There is also a 'sequence' mode, which provides twenty levels to blast your way through, with several waves of enemies in each. King is the best of them, setting you up with circles of safety where enemies cannot get to you. Your ship can only shoot within the circles, but they begin shrinking almost as soon as you enter them; forcing you to repeatedly take refuge in another one.
As mentioned, there are new enemies to tangle with. The gates are the most obvious, and clever, because they are as helpful as they are deadly. Hitting either orange end of them will cause death, but flying through the white string that connects them causes all enemies within the vicinity to explode. They add a great new wrinkle to the gameplay. The other major change is the revamped multiplier system. It no longer resets with your death, making high scores more attainable. The other major shift is in the way you earn it. You still basically earn it through defeating enemies, but killed enemies now drop 'genomes' which must be picked up to increase your multiplier. It forces you to move around the level, in dangerous areas, far more regularly.
The single area where the game disappoints is in the co-operative arena, though not for reasons you would expect. The play itself is solid, offering even more ways to play the game with for up to four players. The issue is that it is only available on the same console, and still does not deliver the chance to play it with friends over Live. The same console multiplayer does offer all six modes to you, as versus or cooperative. It also provides the chance for team or co-pilot modes, the later of which requires more communication as one player steers as the other shoots. The solid set of multiplayer options only worsens the sting of not getting a Live mode.
In terms of its looks, things are a little more hectic, but maintains the same basic neon graphical flair of the original. The pounding electronic score does get an upgrade, even reacting to your successes and defeats during the sequence levels. The separate leader boards for each of the single-player modes is a fantastic idea that keeps you coming back in an attempt to best your friends nearly as often as just how unabashedly fun the game is. The ability to upgrade your weapon is noticeably missing this time. Rather than earning a wider spray with more effective power every so often, you have the same weapons the entire time. It gives of the game an added level of difficulty.
Geometry Wars Evolved 2 is the new high-water mark for XBLA titles. They could have delivered half what they did and wowed gamers, but there is enough here to keep you playing this $10 bargain longer than most $60 retail titles.
