geoDefense for iPhone/iPod Touch Review

Remeber Geometry Wars for the Xbox Live Arcade? Well, there’s a little cool tower defense game for the iPhone/iPod Touch that looks similar to the said XBLA game, aptly name geoDefense. Note that geoDefense and Geometry Wars were created by different companies. Nonetheless, it’s obvious where the game’s visuals got its inspiration.

Good Points
Like I mentioned before, the graphics look like it’s the tower defense version of Geometry Wars – which is a good thing! It’s simple yet elegant. You get to see all those cool particles when mobs explode, cannons firing like pea shooters, and missiles homing on their targets, and the grid moves because of the shockwaves of explosions.

Sounds are okay and noteworthy. There are only a few sound effects present in the game, mostly shooting and exploding, and the occassional “Warning: Meltdown Imminent!” voice of a computer.

geoDefense

Bad Points
There are only 5 types of towers in the game – the cannon (or pea shooter), laser (able to fire in a straight line spanning the length of the screen), missile tower (missiles home on targets and has a blast radius), shock tower (slows enemies down), and the vortex tower (drains energies from mobs and explosions to make other towers more powerful). It’s quite a few towers really. The game would’ve benefitted more of there were a lot more towers to choose from.

There are 34 levels in total, 10 Easy, 12 Medium, and 12 Hard levels. I have no major complaint regarding the level design, most of them are out of the box and not something you’d expect, except for the last 2 levels in Hard Mode. Those last 2 levels will feature a new mob type, something I’ve never encountered on the last 32 other levels. It’s equipped with the most annoying and frustrating capability that’s guaranteed to drive a player nuts (Sorry I won’t mention what the capability is to avoid spoilers). The power the new mob has, in my honest opinion, was a bit game breaking. Imagine showing a mob type in the last two levels – in 34 levels! There you were going on your merry way, down to the last two levels of the game, then BAM! That no good mob type appears out of nowhere and makes you ask yourself “WTF”. Not funny.

Conclusion
Worth the price of $3.99 (at the time of writing) and can keep you hooked for a while. Graphics and sounds are generally okay, and with the 34 levels included in the game, there’ll plenty of time to waste playing geoDefense.