Geometry Wars 3
Lucid’s throwing shapes at the return of this XBLA icon
360, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox One
What’s next for Geometry Wars? The team at Lucid certainly has the pedigree to move the series on, being packed with refugees from the dissolution of Bizarre Creations, which worked on Geometry Wars as it evolved from an Easter egg in Project Gotham Racing 2 to Xbox Live Arcade figurehead and finally a boxed game for DS and Wii. The XBLA release was so successful that for a spell in the mid2000s, a colossal number of downloadable games were twin-stick shooters. Few, however, matched the elegance of Geometry Wars. In its sequels, it gained new modes, multiplayer and a campaign, so what’s next? What’s left, even?
“Three-dimensional grids,” says creative director Craig Howard. “You’re no longer playing on a 2D board; you play all the way around the grid, and also the grids change, morph and grow throughout the whole thing.”
Dimensions’ battlefields are floating 3D objects – spheres, cylinders, a giant peanut – onto which enemies spawn. To signal their arrival on a 3D field, Dimensions ‘beams’ them onto the grid in shafts of light. Some grids will roll independently of player movement, throwing walls and large obstacles in your path, while others change shape mid-battle, opening up new spaces and forming new bottlenecks as the fight intensifies. “It adds a whole new level of complexity,” Howard says. “Line of sight, knowing where you spawn, making sure you keep an eye on where you are on the grid all matters. The campaign has 50 individual challenges – each will [take place on] a different shape, some are a different game mode, some have unique score challenges based on it, and every level has its own leaderboard. If your