Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

The player controls a maneuverable claw-shaped figure, which is officially called "Ship", that can move and fire independently in any direction.The objective of the game is to score points by destroying a variety of enemy shapes which spawn around the playing field, contact with any enemy results in death and the loss of a life. Bombs destroy all enemies on the playing field but award no points.

Crucial to effective play is the score multiplier, which increases as the player collects "geoms", small green objects dropped by enemies upon destruction. The number of points scored by destroying an enemy depends on the multiplier, which can reach into the thousands.

In developing the sequel the team struggled with creating a graphic style that was new but still evocative of the first game. Stephen Cakebread spoke of the challenge in an interview with Joystiq: "One of our big things was when people came to our stations we wanted them to say 'Oh, is that a sequel to Geometry Wars?' rather than 'Is that Geometry Wars?' It took us quite a while to come up with something that really work".

Initially the team experimented with "all manner of weird fractal stuff" but this was discarded as being too confusing. In designing the gameplay Cakebread read fan made strategy guides and designed elements for the sequel that would take players out of their comfort zone. One of these elements was the inclusion of collectable geoms that act as score multipliers. With the introduction of the geoms the team simplified the gun from the first game, specifically its evolving nature, which would cause the players guns to shoot at different speed.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 received "universal acclaim", while Geometry Wars: Touch received "favorable" reviews, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Critics praised the Xbox 360 version's multiple game modes while also collectively bemoaning the lack of online multiplayer. GameDaily said that the sequel "beats its predecessor in every way" and proclaimed it the best title on Xbox Live Arcade. Eurogamer wrote: "The omission of online play aside, Geometry Wars 2 is everything you hoped it would be." IGN called it "a solid sequel".