I was a huge fan of Geometry Wars from the day I first discovered it hidden in Project Gotham Racing 2 on the original Xbox. When the Xbox 360 came out I had a lot of fun earning the pacifism achievement in Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, where you have to play the first 60 seconds of the game without firing a shot. That achievement was fleshed into a full game mode, Pacifism, in Geometry Wars 2. “Squid” is the next step in evolution of that idea and, since it offers a lot more variety, is perhaps the best implementation yet.
In “Squid”, you are controlling a fast and agile cargo ship that can’t fire back when attacked by raiders. To survive you have to out-race and out-manoeuvre your enemy. Your best friend is your enemy’s homing missile, which will follow you everywhere without regard to whether you line up and enemy ship in the middle or not. Some of your opponents fire shots that bounce off the walls of the arena, and deft control of your ship can work that to your advantage. Some enemies are like you and have no weapons, wanting nothing more than to hit you at ramming speed. Others lay mines making the playfield more difficult to navigate.
A nod to Geometry Wars, the game is soaked in neon and techno, and that’s really not such a bad thing. It’s an unmissable 80 Microsoft Point purchase for people who loved Pacifism mode, or who have yet to try it and are curious about it.
Writings of Mass Deduction 