Introduction
On the Xbox 360, there is a a game on the Xbox Live Arcade called Geometry Wars. The premise of game is fairly simple. Avoid getting hit by the geometric shapes coming at you from all directions. Your ship is equiped with some guns you can use to shoot the shapes and thus avoid getting hit. Grid Wars is a clone of this game for the PC. Since I don't own an Xbox 360, I can't compare Grid Wars to Geometry Wars.
Gameplay
The premise of the game is simple. In fact this game is very reminiscent of Asteroids. You pilot your ship while shooting and avoiding the shapes for as long as possible. There are ten different shapes that have different colors and abilities. For example, the green square guys aren't very fast, but they dodge your fire making them harder to shoot. The small blue circles come at you fast. The red U shape tracks you and has a shield in front of him that blocks your shots. There's even a black hole type enemy that sucks in everything around it until it reaches critical mass, unleashing a large number of fast moving enemies. At first you will be wondering as to why this game is worth your time. I mean, we've all played our share of Asteroids clones, but this is different. All the different types of enemies, and the strategies you need to take them out, coupled with the sheer volume of stuff coming at you from every direction makes the game very hectic very quickly. To last long you will need fast reflexes and sharp eyes to spot that tiny triangle coming at you from the spot you are least prepared for. Believe me, you WILL eventually be overcome by the sheer numbers of enemies you have to face. To fight off the hordes of diamonds, squares, and circles coming at you, you have a few weapons at your disposal. You start off with just your main cannon and some bombs. The cannon fires 3 shots in an arc in front of you. Bombs destroy every enemy on-screen, but doesn't give you any points. In addition, you can get power-ups to help out, like side and rear cannons or bouncy shots that keep on bouncing off the walls until they hit something. The more enemies you kill, the more points you score and increasing the score multiplier (up to 6x).
Sights and Sounds
The graphics in Grid Wars are not very sophisticated, just different shapes for the enemies and your ship. The mix of colors is very cool, and makes up for the un-sophisticated design. Nothing too special here. The sound effects are decent, but they're nothing spectacular. You'll learn that each enemy has it's own sound effect. You'll find yourself relying on this aural data to prioritize what to shoot at first. There is some music but to be honest, you won't even notice it.
Stuff that sucks
As far as bad things, there is the occasional bullshit like an enemy that spawns directly on your ship that you cannot do anything about, and the controls can be weird but the game generally works exactly as you think it would. Aside from the simplistic graphics I have no other complaints about it.
Conclusion
This is quite simply the most addictive game I've played since bejeweled. The sensory overload you recieve only serves to pump the adrenaline and keep you hanging on and dodging those damn purple triangle things that come out of nowhere. This is one of those games that you just have to keep trying to beat your high score. It's a classic in my book.
Score :
edit: OMG SCREENSHOT!
