Geometry Survivor Review – Auto-Shooter ‘Homage’

Since the runaway success of Vampire Survivors, there have been several titles that have tried to imitate it. Most of these have ‘flourished’ on PlayStation specifically because Vampire Survivors isn’t available on here yet.

That being said, Geometry Survivor, however, isn’t a poor replica. If you compare it to the many rip-offs in the vast sea of gaming, it’s quite good.

Oh Yeah, That Looks Familiar.

A first look at this game may have you thinking that this comes from the same guys who made Geometry Wars, and I can’t blame you. It was that fun little twin-stick shooter that looked EXACTLY like this, and I mean exactly.

But no, this comes from other guys. It’s just a shameless ‘homage’, I guess. Enough about that though. Assuming you’re one of the people who has no idea what Vampire Survivors is, what do you do?

You are a ship. You can buy 9 other ships, but you’re just the basic one for now. You are dropped into a level (and by “a level”, I mean THE level) with a starting weapon and a 20 minute timer. Just survive.

In an auto-shooter, all you have to do is move. Some of the weapons are dependent on what direction you are facing, but mostly you just have to get out of the way of things. Your weapons gradually shoot the enemies which are coming at you, most of which drop xp. When you get enough xp for the next level then you’ll be given a choice. You can pick 1 of 3 options every time you level up. This is either buying a new weapon or upgrading an old one.

Once you’ve fully upgraded a weapon, upon your next level up, you may be asked to evolve it. These evolutions usually double the damage or half the cooldown, but they’re never worth passing up. Not even sure if you can.

Enemies will also drop golden credits. These credits are used to buy other ships as well as upgrades for your passive abilities. “+5% damage every level” and things like that.

Finally, enemies can occasionally drop bombs. When you fly into these, they destroy every enemy within a certain area, so you might want to hang on some of the earlier ones. Don’t worry, they aren’t going anywhere.

The Defining Differences

Once you’ve evolved your weapons, certain green items will occasionally drop. These allow you to further upgrade these evolved versions of the weapons. This is something like the limit break system in Vampire Survivors, but instead of iterative level ups, these upgrades are pretty impactful.

In most auto-shooters, enemies are only different in terms of their looks and their health pools, but more or less every enemy just walks straight towards you. This is different here. Instead, every type of enemy has a different method by which they approach you. Some b-line straight for your ship, other spiral around your ship, and some move across the screen to try to obstruct your means of escape. This is a welcome change.

Most auto-shooters have infinitely expansive levels. There are no borders or corners to trap yourself against. Not the case here. Almost every run I lost was down to my poor positioning against a wall or in a corner. For a game which is trying to heighten that tense feeling that auto-shooters can but don’t often provide, this is another welcome change.

Of the 9 unlockable ships, only one is a straight upgrade and the rest arguably make the game harder. Presumably for challenge runs. This is similar to some auto-shooters, as not every unlocked character is a net upgrade, but these ones seem particularly geared towards challenge runs.

Unlike other auto-shooters, this game only has one stage: Space. It also only has about 12 weapons. Also, the weapon evolutions aren’t dependent on having two synergistic weapons which you combine, so there isn’t much to discover or experiment with outside of what just seems to work well together.

Wait, That’s It?

Geometry Survivor is a very short game. In fact, it only took me 90 minutes to get the Platinum trophy. And that’s because only have to beat the game once, under any conditions, to get the platinum. This annoyed me because it makes this game appear as though it’s one of those “5 minute easy platinum” games; which I suppose it is. I had more faith in this aspect than I should have had, but how else are you going to ensure people buy your game. Just business I guess.

It may have only taken me 90 minutes, but I am pretty accustomed with these games, and it may take you longer, and you may want to jump in immediately after you beat it to try another build. I didn’t quite get that urge, but that’s not a knock on the game. I’ve just seen this upgrade tree before.

However, that should in now way detract from how fun and engaging the moment to moment gameplay is here. This is a very good game, and it only costs $5. It may cost the same as Vampire Survivors, but seeing as how that isn’t on Playstation yet, this is the best facsimile you’re gonna get.

It looks so clean that I didn’t immediately think it was an ‘homage’, the music is as hypnotic and as comfortingly repetitive as it should be in these kinds of games, and for what you’re paying, you get a decent amount of content.

I’d recommend it… assuming you don’t own Vampire Survivors.