Geometry Wars - Retro Evolved 2

Zuhzuhzombie!! · Post by **Zuhzuhzombie!!** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:30 pm

It's here! It's here!

Played it a bit this morning before I left for work.

Graphics have been refined a bit from the last game. Easier to spot some enemies on the grid.

When you go into the single player game it presents you with six game types, and each game type has a leader board in its menu, kinda forcing you to see how you stack against your friends.

Can't wait to play this some more.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:55 pm

Yup, looks beautiful. I'm going to purchase it tonight and spend some time with it. I still suck at GW, but the different modes look to add a little variety hopefully.

I bought 1942 and plan on buying BC Rearmed next month. Most XBLA action I've been interested in since I bought my 360.

orange · Post by **orange** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 1:59 pm

sure is bloom around here

Zuhzuhzombie!! · Post by **Zuhzuhzombie!!** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 2:15 pm

subcons wrote:Yup, looks beautiful. I'm going to purchase it tonight and spend some time with it. I still suck at GW, but the different modes look to add a little variety hopefully.

I bought 1942 and plan on buying BC Rearmed next month. Most XBLA action I've been interested in since I bought my 360.

Busy month, August.

Too Human, Braid, Galaga, and Castle Crashers.

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 6:33 pm

I've been playing it at work on partnernet for a few weeks. King mode (where you can only shoot while in protected spheres that rapidly disappear) is so addictive. I wasn't a huge fan of the first game, but this is just stuffed with content.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Wed Jul 30, 2008 10:12 pm

Glad to hear that there's something a bit different going on. GW: Galaxies for the Wii is a hard act to follow.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:56 am

OK, this seems pretty nice. More fun than 1942: Joint Strike (or whatever it's called). Different kinds of challenge, unlocking, nice graphics... Something to keep one busy til Galaga Legions.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 12:59 am

orange wrote:sure is bloom around here

Also, @ ganson: GW on Wii will be easy to follow if you now have the option of using a 360 controller. The faux-octagonal chokes on the Wii Classic Controller make me go argh

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 2:57 am

I'm on the fence about this one. I bought the original because the demo was fun (and because it was cheaper than Mutant Storm). As it turns out, the demo accurately reflected what the game was like, and what ALL of it was like. A continuous wave of enemies until you died.

How are the modes other than "Deadline"? Working for score is a great motive, but it would be nice to work for something else besides the next wave.

bcass · Post by **bcass** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:10 am

If you like pure score-attack games, then this is for you. If you prefer 'progress' shmups, you'll hate it. Without the scoring, this game is nothing.

ubersaurus · Post by **ubersaurus** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:29 am

Ed Oscuro wrote:
orange wrote:sure is bloom around here
Also, @ ganson: GW on Wii will be easy to follow if you now have the option of using a 360 controller. The faux-octagonal chokes on the Wii Classic Controller make me go argh

That's why you use the nunchuk and remote system

it took me some getting used to, but I think it's perfect.

trivial · Post by **trivial** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:36 am

ye gods. what would've been perfect is GCN controller support, and a PS2 adapter. wide shots help though.

No_not_like_Quake · Post by **No_not_like_Quake** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 7:59 am

Gave the trial a play. There's something about the pacing that makes this more addictive than the first, which I liked but thought was a bit overrated. Managed to get 1,800,000 and some odd points in the 3 minute timed demo.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 8:24 am

Gone through all the modes now, and by far the one that I spent the most time on was Pacifism mode. For some reason, it seems that either you die almost immediately or you can rack up a huge score. My best so far is somewhere in the 6.5 million range, but I'm sure the gurus can probably add a couple more digits to that. I think I'm also around 1.8 million on deadline mode.

Zuhzuhzombie!! · Post by **Zuhzuhzombie!!** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 1:40 pm

This one seems to be slightly easier than the last.

Dig the new multipliers.

Pacifism is fun.

King is fun.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:16 pm

Damocles wrote:I'm on the fence about this one. I bought the original because the demo was fun (and because it was cheaper than Mutant Storm). As it turns out, the demo accurately reflected what the game was like, and what ALL of it was like. A continuous wave of enemies until you died.

How are the modes other than "Deadline"? Working for score is a great motive, but it would be nice to work for something else besides the next wave.

I fully agree with you about Evolved. I like the game, but was never wild about it like others seemed to be (could have something to do with my sucking at it–I never even broke a million).

This one is way better. Every mode is interesting and different. The only one you probably won't come back to is the last one. Once you've completed it, I don't see much reason to play it any more.The action starts up a lot quicker then in Evolved where you had to play for a good couple of minutes before it got interesting. There's no more weapon upgrading (although, I think there is in multiplayer?) and your multiplier is determined by collecting geoms instead of a strictly survival mechanic where it resets when you die. This is why the game seems "easier" to everyone. You're just not being as harshly punished for dieing like in Evolved. With that in mind, I'm sure the scores on the leaderboards are going to be astronomical in the coming weeks. It's a great game to look at to boot. They've definitely improved on the visuals over Evolved.

I fully recommend buying this even if you only slightly liked Evolved. They really got creative with it all around. It's way more fun and more addictive to play IMO.

Zuhzuhzombie!! · Post by **Zuhzuhzombie!!** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 3:57 pm

It's more easier in the sense that I just don't die as much.

Haven't been able to put my finger on it just yet.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:40 pm

Django! wrote:It's more easier in the sense that I just don't die as much.

Haven't been able to put my finger on it just yet.

I could see that. The enemies do seem a little less aggressive in how they come at you compared to Evolved.

brokenhalo · Post by **brokenhalo** » Thu Jul 31, 2008 11:02 pm

subcons wrote:
Django! wrote:It's more easier in the sense that I just don't die as much.

Haven't been able to put my finger on it just yet.
I could see that. The enemies do seem a little less aggressive in how they come at you compared to Evolved.

exactly. i haven't put too much time into this yet, but the enemies do seem a little less homicidal. my two main gripes with this so far is 1.) the snakes seem to have longer bodies and take more damage before dieing, and 2.) the extra trippy graphics make things harder to see when it does start to get busy.

professor ganson · Post by **professor ganson** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 12:57 am

Wow, the modes are really excellent. I expected to be a bit bored by the same old-- I've been playing Geometry Wars since the Xbox launch. (PGR was the one game I bought at launch.)

EDIT: Or, wait, was the original GW on PGR2? Can't recall atm.

KNTain · Post by **KNTain** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 1:32 am

I always thought the original was pretty middle of the road. This is a significant step up, so far, but while I feel that the game (Evolved mode) starts up faster than the original, I'm not sure how long that'll last.

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:31 am

Is it just me, or do the lighting effects in this game really start to mess with your eyes after a while? I keep thinking that my glasses are dirty while I'm playing, but even when I take my glasses off everything seems to be blurry, even though it's just the lighting effects.

Up to about 7.5 million now on Evolved mode, and about 3.5 million on Deadline.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:40 am

Vexorg wrote:Is it just me, or do the lighting effects in this game really start to mess with your eyes after a while? I keep thinking that my glasses are dirty while I'm playing, but even when I take my glasses off everything seems to be blurry, even though it's just the lighting effects.

I wear glasses as well and haven't had that problem. I do agree with whoever posted above about things becoming a bit hard to comprehend when things get really crazy with these new visuals though.

Zuhzuhzombie!! · Post by **Zuhzuhzombie!!** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 2:50 pm

Sometimes, in Pacifism specifically, I'll feel like my eyes are dried out.

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 4:57 pm

professor ganson wrote:Wow, the modes are really excellent. I expected to be a bit bored by the same old-- I've been playing Geometry Wars since the Xbox launch. (PGR was the one game I bought at launch.)

EDIT: Or, wait, was the original GW on PGR2? Can't recall atm.

Yep, the original was on PGR2. Then on PGR3 they introduced the Evolved version, which was also put up on XBLA. PGR4 has Waves. So this is sort of GW4 in a way, and that's not counting Galaxies on DS and Wii, but that was another dev.

Jockel · Post by **Jockel** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 5:10 pm

But the PGR3 Version was just a demo, IIRC.

kemical · Post by **kemical** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 8:56 pm

wow i was playing this last night.. wasn't expecting much but all the game modes really are great.

the scoring happening on live is ridiculous...!!!!

I especially like how the game seems to coach the player a bit, I dont fully understand it, but the Wax on / Wax off percentage that comes up when trying to do the circular motion, etc.. I suck at this game btw.

I think the pacifism mode is the most addictive of the new modes for me.

the one with the 20 levels will satisfy shmup players, as you can continue to refine your strategy for each level to get better scores..

and the other mode with enemies going in lines has a real manic feel to it.

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:29 pm

kemical wrote:I especially like how the game seems to coach the player a bit, I dont fully understand it, but the Wax on / Wax off percentage that comes up when trying to do the circular motion, etc.. I suck at this game btw.

For the Wax On/Off thing, you just have to rub your ship against the wall all the way around from corner to corner. After you rub a certain amount of it, litle lines with show up where you've already rubbed so you know where you need to go. Once you get the Wax On, it'll take them away as you rub up against them for the Wax Off. I can't get the latter. Pretty tough.

For most of the achievements, it keeps track of how you're doing on them while you're playing at the bottom of the screen once you do a certain percentage of them. Pretty useful if you're working on them.

8 1/2 · Post by **8 1/2** » Fri Aug 01, 2008 11:30 pm

I got Wax Off last night, but it must have taken me 20 tries. Surf I got on my first attempt, but I got really lucky and was just moving at random. Right now I'm totally just playing it for achievements and learning to score better as I go.

Edit: Wait. What the hell is this doing on shmups chat? Have you guys gone soft and allowed dual-stick shooters to be called shmups? Back in the day you could get some shit for talking about Galaga because it didn't scroll up, hence no "shmup".

subcons · Post by **subcons** » Sat Aug 02, 2008 1:05 am

Well, it's not like there's a whole lot going on in the world of shooters.

This is all there is to talk about really.