POSTED 27/11/14


GEOMETRY WARS 3: DIMENSIONS

Sierra/Activision

Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive...

Like any good arcade shmup, that’s the aim of this newest take on Geometry Wars, which originally sprung to life as an in-game minigame.

Over several releases it’s blossomed, but this jaunt into threesome sees the biggest advance yet. Forget all that namby-pamby, olden days 2D shit, this sucker’s sticky-taped a third dimension onto proceedings. Oh yeah!

In a similar vein to the fabby Nano Assault Neo-X, levels appear that (ladies and gentlemen) are floating in space. You have a blasty-equipped shape, and you proceed to trundle about bigger, floaty 3D shapes, blasty-blasting all manner of other shapes that harbour one intent and one intent only – to blasty-blast you first.

Visually, it’s akin to vectortastic arcade classics like Tempest meets Tron via the squishy bits of Jeff Minter’s wonderful brain (but with less – actually no - steamy quadruped action). It’s manically colourful – almost too manically colourful at times, as so many things are trying to blasty-blast you that you can quite simply be overwhelmed, both onscreen and mentally.

An adventure mode is the main attraction, complete with purchasable power-ups and occasional boss outbreaks. However, fans of flatter Geometry Wars excursions will find bonus games to dig. There’s also local co-op and online blasty-blasting.

It’s tough. Really tough. This game’s toughness could make Clint Eastwood weep. Yet, much like Clint in his spaghetti western days, GW3 straddles a horse (hey, there IS a quadruped!)... No it doesn’t. It straddles the line between just-one-more-go and rage quit with a sneaky and admirable dexterity. That each level highlights friends’ scores to beat – or theirs that you’ve trampled into space dust - just adds to the replay appeal.

But fuck it’s hard.

ARGH, ARGH, ARGH, ARGH, STAYIN’ ALIVE, STAYIN’ A... Damn!

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