Geometry Survivor | PS5

It's shapes versus ships in this shoot'em up survivor spinoff. Featuring a visual design similar to Geometry Wars, and gameplay reminiscent of hero survival games or auto-battlers this neon retro shooter keeps features minimal while offering 20 minute challenges that are each roguelike in nature. 

You'll be piloting one of eight geometric shapes as you dodge ships and bullet hell while your weapons and defenses automatically do their thing. Taking out the enemy while leaving behind nano-particles of the blue and yellow persuasion which, in turn, allows your shape to evolve the more you pick them up. All done while avoiding the loss of heart hits that can end a run prematurely. 

Gameplay in 'Geometry Survivors' is very much like the hero auto-battlers I've covered here before. You are basically given a shape in place of a character this time around with which to carefully navigate an enemy populated arena as your automated attacks, and defenses kick in after each cooldown to destroy the constantly swarming adversaries. The cooldown timer being dependent upon the upgraded status of each weapon, shield, ship, or function. Applicable up to four times with each upgrade type.

As you down enemy ships and shapes they will leave behind nano-particles that are blue and yellow, which when collected en masse, will evolve your shape to the next level. Levels of course are limited meaning that upgrades are also limited to a point. Each level upgrade allows you to choose from three randomized upgrade options that add to your expanding arsenal. As this is going on you'll need to not get hit to avoid exhausting your limited heart supply which acts as your ship/shape stock for each 20 minute run.

Ending a run prematurely, or completing it fully will net you credits, and a tallied set of feats that will go into the game's statistics menu to weigh just how good of a "Geometry Survivors" player you are. Taking in account time played, successful runs, enemies killed ... so forth and so on. The credits, themselves, can be spent on permanent power-up, shape, and difficulty upgrades that will change how the game plays going forward. These upgrades have about five stages of upgradability, and will improve upon features increasingly. 

Aside from the standard elements of gameplay power-ups also play a role in survivability. They come in the form of the occasional heart refill, area clearing mine, and instant upgrade. Utilizing these in tandem with your automated arsenal will be the key to completing a full run. Should you complete a full run or runs you will eventually unlock all of the seven other shapes that you can take out into the gridded arena in Survival mode. 

For those of you curious about bonus features 'Geometry Survivor' does let you toggle on/off visual effects. There's bloom, camera shaking, and other visually distorting filters that can can be tweaked to a players' liking alongside volume and other key adjustments. Making it as psychedelic or as arcadey an experience as one wishes. Mind you though that this does impact sight with a seizure potential, and can complicate a session do to the overwhelming brightness, and highly populated arenas. 

The Verdict ...

If you liked Geometry Wars as a shmup then Geometry Survivor is a no brainer. While it's not technically the same it visually, and mechanically plays out in a somewhat similar fashion. Trading the traditional shmup mechanics for that of the auto-battler genre with roguelike features in tow. In regards to the adopted genre mechanics it's nothing that hasn't been done already in other games, but for what it's worth it is fun if you like those sorts of experiences. The key selling point being immense replay value via the roguelike elements, and the Geometry Wars reskin plus pulse pounding synthwave soundtrack. I personally think it's alright for what it is, and is definitely a new way to experience the auto-battler genre!