Best Downloadable Game: Geometry Wars2
When it comes to downloadable games, whether they be community or Xbox Live Arcade, there are truly many different types or genres you can place all the games into. Heck, some games even fit into two or more genres. Geometry Wars2, however, is a beautiful concept as far as a simple arcade game goes. It's truly more than just driving around your "space-ship" and shooting alleged "things" for trivial things such as "points" well I guess not because thats really all you do in the game, but the way it's set up makes the game accessible to all audiences.
Why? You may ask, is this game accessible to all audiences? Well, number one: Pretty colors, yes this game my friend is all about the pretty colors.
The idea for Geometry Wars is a very simple one, fly around, shoot stuff and not die. See? the idea right there is very simplistic, but as I have come to recognize virtually every great game is very simple at its core, it just has excellent ideas built on top of it. Just like one of those great ideas, pretty colors, it's a good way to make the game stand out as unique among any other game you can find lurking around the marketplace.
But why are the pretty colors a main part of the game? Because mix vibrant colors with pulsating techno and hordes of enemies (in this case, shapes. Yes geometry shapes) and viola you have a game that now, assuming it's under caring development, can appeal to the casual gamer (with aesthetics) and the uber hardcore gamer (with balanced, not too impossible gameplay, but gets increasingly ball bustingly hard over time)
Also, the game may seem random, with enemies spawning here and there, with no obvious correlation, but rest assured you will be challenged according to your overall skill level as the game scales its difficulty off of how well you're doing. The system will take things into consideration such as: How long you have been alive and how many points you have accrued overall. And enemies are spawned in a fashion that makes them genuinely difficult to kill, but ultimately possible to clear.
But if things become too rough, you can always count on using one of your bombs
Yeah, show them shapes who the alpha shape is!
But if things by chance become too seemingly impossible you can use a bomb, you are not going to want to use one of these very often although, as they are limited. You can acquire bombs by scoring a certain amount of points without being killed, but this varies depending upon which game type you are playing.
Yes! dear reader, there are multiple game modes to choose from the main menu and they are as follows:
Deadline: A game mode that may be more accessible for beginner level players, in this mode you are on a time limit of three minutes, within that time basically all you have to do is get the highest score possible. What's good about this game mode for the experienced player: This game mode ultimately helps the player refine their skills to their fullest potential as the main goal of this game mode for a serious player is to never die within the three minutes of gameplay to achieve maximum intensity for maximum points. What's good about this game mode for the casual player: You receive an infinite amount of lives for the three minute duration making the game less frustrating and easier to learn for newbies or just more convenient if you don't have a lot of time to spend playing.
King: A geometry wars take on king of the hill, but instead of trying to simply defend a single hill, you must take multiple hills found across the game board, usually you can find a minimum of 3 hills (hills being circular zones) but what's the catch? The zones aren't there just to look pretty, this game mode is designed with them in mind, so what that means for the player is that you cannot shoot while outside of a zone. In return, enemies cannot enter into a zone, so why not camp a zone? Well as you will soon find out, as soon as you enter a zone it will begin to change colors and eventually shrink leaving you exposed to the maniacal shapes of the cruel outside world. So in order to get score you will have to fly to each zone and clear a path to the next. What's good about this game mode for the experienced player: This game mode will definitely help train you in your ability to evade enemies and find openings to escape. What's good about this game mode for the casual player: More than anything you will be likely to have a good time as the tension builds of having the zone dwindle into nothingness, and the fun of trying to evade the shapes.
The shapes will amass around your zone and wait to take you out!
Evolved: This mode is the heart of the game, it is where all the serious players are going to go to gain bragging rights. It's a very traditionally built game mode, basically you just survive for as long as possible versus the never ending horde of shapes until you run out of lives, and then it's game over. What's good about this game mode for the experienced player: your score in this game is going to reflect your overall skill in the game, you can think of the other game modes as "training modes" to teach you crucial skills you will need to survive for as long as possible in evolved. What's good about this game mode for the casual player: You can build your high-score and tell your friends you're better than them!
Pacifism: This mode, will essentially hone your ability for patience and working well under pressure, which is undoubtedly a huge skill in this game. What the goal is in this mode is to survive versus a whole bunch of "blues" which are the slow moving fodder of the game, easy to out-run. Without the ability to shoot, and pass through "gates" which are essentially a double-edged sword of sorts in the game, they reflect bullets and act as a miniature bomb when passed through, but can blow up your ship if you are careless and run into the sides of the gate. So to gain points you lead the blues close to the gates, once they are close run through the gate and you will blow up a fair portion of enemies, thus scoring you points. What's good about this game mode for the experienced player: This game mode, like all the others helps you to hone a valuable skill, which is being able to keep your enemies where you want them (behind you) and be able to get rid of them at will. What's good about this game mode for the casual player: You will only have to deal with one type of enemy shape, being the blue which is slow moving and avoidable, so it's good practice for the beginner or even for children who want to have some fun.
Just lead the blues through one of the gates and you attain massive score
Waves: In waves, you begin with one life, and one life only, there's absolutely no way to get more lives, so this game mode can be a little bit more tough to master than say king or pacifism. The object of this game type is to survive against infinite "waves" of the rocket ship shapes. These shapes do nothing but drive straight until they reach the end of the map, and then they turn around and fly back in a straight line. So that makes the first few waves easy as it only sends about half a wall of ships at you, one wave at a time. but after about a minute you will be dealing with waves flying in every direction covering the entire map, so the important thing to do in this game mode is to create an opening just in order to survive. What's good about this game mode for the experienced player:This game mode is one of the hardest, as in most frustrating, but it's really satisfying to beat your old high-score, this will teach you to be more alert about offscreen enemies and force you to learn tactics that involve staying still instead of constantly moving. What's good about this game mode for the casual player: Again, the casual player probably won't last very long in this game mode, but its just one of those modes that builds a lot of tension and is a blast to play versus friends.
Sequence: Sequence is a very challenging game mode very much akin to arcade games of old, the object of the game here is to clear stages in a sequence, each map will be on a time limit although so knowing what you're doing is key. The stages will spawn exactly the same every time you play, so there is enormous weight in finding out the strategy for each map in order to maximize your score. What's good about this game mode for the experienced player: This game type is built to be very challenging, you will have a tough time until you figure out exactly how to clear each stage, but this mode will help you learn to get out of almost any situation in evolved. What's good about this game mode for the casual player: Well, being a casual gamer and taking on sequence mode you're going to want to just make it as far as possible, it's not impossible by any means and if you can clear it you will be that much better at the game.
sequence shows you how far you still have to go…
That's a list of all the game modes and general strong points for the serious gamer and the casual gamer. So as you can see, this game can be played by anyone young or old and they can have a blast with it, it tailors itself to your skill and playing style while delivering an awesome visual and musical experience, so geometry wars 2 definitely takes the cake when it comes to just overall fun for anyone playing, leaving nobody out of the game.
In addition to having all these game modes and being super friendly to the casual and hardcore alike, there is a multiplayer mode that is super fun, focusing more on the casual side of the game you can play locally with a friend having two ships on screen blowing stuff up with the added fun of power-ups and the like. I can think of no other game downloadable for the Xbox 360 that can appeal to casual and hardcore gamers in such an old arcade gameplay style, yet executed with beautiful aesthetics. It's not too cutesy, but there's also not blood splattering everywhere laced with despair.
So, in conclusion, geometry wars 2 for the Xbox live arcade is an awesome game that mixes superb vibrant visuals with sharp pulsing techno mixed with balanced yet hectic gameplay that scales itself to the users ability, for an arcade experience that no Xbox Live user should miss out on. Geometry Wars 2 will definitely not disappoint you and is guaranteed to bring you hours of gameplay and bloodshot eyes in the morning, hands down, best downloadable game for Xbox 360.
Beautiful!