Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions (Xbox One) Review

Now that that little bit of the series history has been dealt with, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is the first Geometry Wars] title to hit the current generation of hardware - PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It contains everything that players knew and loved about the series, yet instead of the standard, flat-rectangle map, gamers will battle on all manner of different moving shapes of varying sizes, making the old 'keep going forward and shooting backwards' tactic irrelevant. However, the gameplay is still the same, thankfully.

These new map designs that are faced in the single-player adventure mode are a neat change at first, but after spending a few hours, it's unbearably frustrating because of the lack of sight. Constantly being killed by objects that they cannot be seen until actually being killed by a luminous blue square is the order of the day. A few of the 'flatter' maps are great fun, yet ones that have corners where the surface flips are painfully difficult to play on because of this poor viewpoint perspective.

A new addition to the Geometry Wars series is the 'adventure mode' that is basically a simplified single-player career option. It starts on level one and finishes it at 50, with a variety of bosses and enemies to be battled against, as well as playing half a dozen different game types along the way. Every level completed earns sharpshooters between one and three stars, and a certain quantity are needed to unlock the next batch of stages. It's a nice addition as it gives a structured way of experiencing the game instead of just throwing gamers into the deep end like previous entries.

If the adventure mode isn't someone's cup of tea, or they just fancy some old school gameplay instead - the core that this series is loved for - there is the choice to head on over to the 'classic' selection. This part of the game contains several modes, such as pacifism, evolve, and other huge hits with easily accessible leaderboards, getting to know the scores of friends and those on a global basis as well during play. If curious about Geometry Wars 2, there's no need to go back and buy it as this mode is pretty much that entire game, complete within Dimensions.

Dimensions' multiplayer feature is a great returning aspect as the development team has added in the ability to battle against one of the game's many bosses in a competitive environment or compete to earn the highest score. The odd part is that the co-operative mode is only available locally; a fairly disappointing design flaw that will hopefully be changed in the future via downloads. Since other modes are available online, separating this specific one makes very little sense. The game's main selling point is, of course, how easily players can see their friends' scores every time play commences, and that's still available. However, the leaderboards aren't the most reliable, unfortunately.