Geometry Survivor – Review

If you had to name some of the most popular arcade “twin-stick” shooters, there’s little doubt that both Geometry Wars and Vampire Survivors would both get a well deserved mention.

Like a love child from gaming heaven, Geometry Survivor merges the Geometry Wars style with Vampire Survivors gameplay, so let’s take a look at this “new” creation from Brain Seal ltd.

As you’ll see from the screenshots, Geometry Survivor will look very familiar to anyone who played a title from the Geometry Wars franchise which started life as a mini-game on Project Gotham racing back in 2003 and had various standalone games upto Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved in 2016.

While the twin-stick genre seemed to stagnate a little these last 5 years, Vampire Survivors arrived and took the industry by storm the last few years, with automated shooting, and changing to a more rogue-lite structure made the gameplay both easier to pick up and play but far more tactical .

Geometry Survivor uses this same system, keeping the retro graphics of Geometry Wars with simple, geometric shapes and bright contrasting colours, you’ll be avoiding hundreds of enemies which will literally fill the screen and combined with the core gameplay of Vampire Survivors, collecting better weapons while challenging players to survive for 20 minutes.

As you might expect your first few attempts won’t go that great, there’s a variety of weapons available which take some getting used to, and while you’ll have the chance to collect 6, they’ll need levelling up and eventually evolving before they’re really effective enough to rely on to keep your ship going. Just like Vampire Survivors, this is done by collecting small drops to level up, which will give you a choice of three upgrades.

Theres a variety of weapons available and while I wish there was a little more detail available about what these do, you do eventually find a few that you like, with a little luck on your side, you’ll start lasting a little longer and while the screen will quickly fill with enemies, you’ll find your survival skills much better with a few decent weapons on board and enough experience to know how they work and the timing of things like the spherical shield, which might have a slow rate of fire, but will help clear large swathes of enemies when it does eventually fire.

It’s fair to say that Geometry Survivors does feel a little tough at the start compared with Vampire Survivors, you don’t get as many options to recover health, and in my time with the game, I didn’t find that ultimate mix, which allowed me a period of near invincibility after collecting the right selection of weapons.

Even down to the last 30 seconds the game still felt like a threat, and while a single 20 minutes session might sound like alot to maintain near-constant concentration, building up and evolving your weapons does occasionally give you a few seconds before your flying for your life trying to avoid the hundreds of on screen enemies again.

Graphically I’ve always been a fan of the Geometry Wars style presentation, it’s simple and effective without looking low quality, and it’s fair to say my only real complaint about Vampire Survivors was, the plain, simple and low-res graphics, could have been considerably better, without effecting the gameplay or performance..

With Geometry Survivors, it’s a happy mix, everything is smooth and effective and I’m not sure much more could have been done, there’s maybe a few questions marks over colours, and clarity and while anyone colour-blind might suffer a few more issues when the screen gets packed with enemies and you’re trying to weave between threats, but after many hours of gameplay, accidental hits were few and far between, and it was much more likely a result of my own ageing reactions.

The audio continues with an impressive level of production value and presentation and while I don’t feel the music is as memorable as Geometry Wars titles, it’s still perfectly fitting.

While I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay loop made popular with Vampire survivors, and the presentation from the Geometry Wars franchise, the one area that I’ve not been as comfortable with is the longterm engagement and overall longevity.

Geometry wars was at first about chasing ludicrous high-scores and then various modes and levels, while Vampire Survivors was packed with extra characters, secrets to find, ongoing upgrades and multiple levels.

Geometry Survivor does have a handful of persistent unlocks, such as speed, health and an improved loot magnet, as well as additional ships. But sadly, with the same layout, the same 20 minutes challenge and these new additions not making any massive changes other than to difficulty, it feels like a shorter game overall.

So while Geometry Survivors is a fun packed and challenging game that doesn’t quite have the same addictive pull of the Vampire Survivors craze that it borrows so heavily from.

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