geometry wars 3: dimensions

Deadly red blocks sprout up like mushrooms, forcing you to re-evaluate your bearings.

Publisher SIErrA / DevelOPer LuCID GAmES / fOrMAt XBOX 360, XBOX OnE (rEvIEWED)/ releAse DAte OuT nOW

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AleX DAle live ChocoboOfDoom @SporadicDaler

the knOWleDGe WhAt is it? Twin-stick arena shooter that sees you under siege from an army of fluorescent shapes. WhAt’s it like? Entrancing – once you’re in the zone you’ll find yourself pulling off moves you thought were beyond your reflexes. WhO’s it fOr? Fans of shooters, duh. Also: fans of rubbing your eyes until shapes appear.

Stretched a little too far, but just about keeps its shape

As the tagline hints, Geometry Wars 3 can’t decide whether it’s 2D or not 2D. In the end, it manages to be both. Adventure mode is the main attraction – a succession of 50 very distinct score-attack challenges, each built around the established rules of the Geometry Wars universe.

And that means you, in a fixed arena, being bombarded by wave after wave of spiteful geometric shapes, each with their own instantly recognisable attack patterns. It also means Geoms – small green pieces of detritus dropped by fallen enemies, which add to your score multiplier when hoovered up.

It’s a simple set of rules that gel together to create opportunities for strategies more thoughtful than simply ‘shoot everything you see’ – as a basic example, you’ll want to lead the wandering blue diamonds on a merry dance for as long as possible so that they all clump together into a big group, enabling you to take them out at once and collect the Geoms before they disappear. It’s this simplicity, married with hidden depth, that makes the formula so ripe for experimentation.

And so, simple time attacks give way to more unorthodox challenges – missions where ammo is limited, say, or where the walls close in. But other stages take the experimentation further, popping the action out into various wrap-around 3D planes.

The 3D stages see Dimensions at its most inconsistent. When the level design is on form, they can be as thrilling as any of their 2D counterparts. But things go a bit wrong whenever a level with flat sides appears – it’s impossible to see what’s ahead on the next side until it’s almost too late, creating a sense of injustice that wasn’t a factor in the original titles.

Yet power through Dimensions’ low points and it’ll never be long before you encounter a stage that sees the classic formula on point – and you’ll be left gasping as you weave and thread your way through seemingly insurmountable odds.

After the original concept was expanded upon so expertly in Geometry Wars 2, this threequel finds itself trying to do too much. But yet, it finds itself doing just enough to give it that ‘one last go at 3am’ factor. OXM

The OXM verdict

PrOS/CONS

✔ Pulsating, frantic

arcade action

✔ Constantly

delights with its variety and invention

✔ Geom mechanic

is perfectly formed

✖ Clumsy power-up

system dilutes the game’s purity

✖ Restart function

could be friendlier

✖ Some of the 3D

levels obscure your vision The beST biT DiD yOu kNOW?

?Lucid Games

is one of numerous companies formed from the ashes of series creator Bizarre Creations. Overall

Feature bloat strips this of its purity, and in parts it’s unwieldy and unsatisfying. But find a challenge that sparks your imagination, and you’ll become surgically attached to the controller.