This Roguelike Take On Geometry Wars Is The Best Game I've Played...

November has been an absolutely huge month for games, between AAA staples like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, ongoing successes like Arc Raiders and Dispatch (both technically released in October, but have each dominated the conversation this month) and indie triumphs like Demonschool. But the game that has hooked me in more than any other this month isn't likely to come up in conversation.

Sektori is a twin-stick developed by former Housemarque developer Kimmo Lahtinen, most easily described as a roguelike take on Geometry Wars. Yes, it's another game that borrows that three-card upgrade system from Vampire Survivors and slaps it into a familiar experience, but not only does this work extremely well, it's also only a fraction of what makes Sektori great.

I wrote a little about Sektori a while back, but at that point I'd only played the demo. I took an early copy on holiday with me a couple of weeks back, planning to check it out among a bunch of other games. Instead, I just played Sektori. For 40 hours. And I've still yet to actually beat it.

As I mentioned, Sektori's basic formula is similar to Geometry Wars 3. You control a "ship" shaped like an arrow in a shapeshifting arena prowled by rogue polygons that behave in different ways. There are hollow pink cubes that roll randomly around, blue pluses that always home in on your position, and nasty yellow razor blades that only approach when you're not looking at them. You can shoot these shapes with a blaster, or "strike" them with your ship, sending out a little shockwave that will destroy other, nearby shapes.

The visual presentation of this is peerless. While it seems simple at first, Sektori quickly escalates into a firework display of colour, accompanied by a mesmerising rave-like soundtrack. Even the menu music beats like the heart of a cocaine-addicted elephant, getting you bobbing your head like a parakeet before you've even started playing.

Sektori couples this with a merciless level of challenge that means the game demands your complete and utter attention. Your starting shield can only take three hits before you're exposed to instant death, which isn't a lot when the number of enemies on screen increases at an exponential rate. On top of that, the arena itself is against you. If you're caught out of bounds when it morphs into a new form, it's an instant game over.

It took quite a while before I could survive longer than a minute in Sektori's polygonal threshing machine. But I began to make hea

Source: PC Gamer