Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is quite the visual stunner. It can be described simply, but that doesn’t do it justice. Simple graphics combined with some nice color choices and light effects just make the game pleasing to watch. Everything glows, pulses, shines, or moves in some way. Even the grid background bends as you and other objects pass over it. Simple concepts build and stack on top of each other, making the chaos that ensues when hundreds of these enemies gather on screen all the better.

Yes, this is a game about shooting geometric objects. Most objects are made up of square or triangular surfaces. Some enemies resemble pinwheels, some resemble orbs. Nothing has a face, or a design more than just simple shape, to put it simply. And it doesn’t need it. The simplicity of Geometry Wars is it just works.

A techno-like dance soundtrack accompanies the game, which goes perfectly with the style. It’s nice enough on its own, but the pulsing beat of the music goes perfectly with the escalating action of the game.

At it’s simplest, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is a shooter. You control one ship against a field of what looks like hundreds at times. Shoot an enemy ship, it turns into little green gems called Geoms. The Geoms are your score multiplier, and if you want to get anywhere, you want to rack that multiplier up as high as you can. If you want to get really far, you’ll need to learn the attack patterns of various enemies, such as the pink things that explode into more annoying pink things, blue lemmings, and those little green punks that run from your guns. You can take those names, by the way. They’re yours.

The most notable change for this 3rd game in its series is the battlefield. As suggested in the title, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions introduces 3 dimensions to the once flat, 2D battlefield. You’ll trek around spherical fields, fields that curve into pill shapes, fields that bend ever so slightly, and other crazy tricks of depth and shape as you attempt to play what is already a frantic game.

It’s actually a lot more fun than it sounds, and I found I preferred the rather crazy 3D levels to their 2D counterparts. Even your guns fire over the "horizon," with the projectiles curving around, hitting unseen targets. Something about that extra bit of mental processing makes the levels more interesting and fun to play for me. Not easy, mind you, but fun.

Geometry Wars consists of a Classic Mode and an Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode allows you to power up various Drones and Supers to help you in the next fight. Adventure also has several unique gameplay modes such as boss battles, which involve giant ships that have very specific patterns and vulnerabilities. Adventure has a long, arduous path to the end, but get there and you’ll have a legendary achievement to share with your friends. Classic Mode lets you pick up one of several challenges right away, and compete for a high score on the Leaderboards (though Adventure has Leaderboards of its own too).

Both modes have several different levels with different gameplay modes including Deadline, King, Evolved, Pacifism, and Waves. Deadline is exactly what it sounds like; Score as many points as possible before time runs out. Evolved is about the same thing, but your limit is 3 lives instead of time. Since Geoms are the multiplier here, the only way to win at Deadline is to scramble for Geoms like mad. Evolved allows you to think slightly differently, valuing your life and perhaps drawing out the fight for longer. King is a rather odd mode where you can only fire your guns from certain zones. Perhaps the strangest mode, but one of my favorites, is Pacifism. In this mode, you have no guns. You’ll instead lead the enemies through gates that explode behind you. Massive groups of enemies can accumulate, leading to a screen so packed full of them that there’s little room for your own ship. Then boom, boom, boom, you’ll suddenly see a path through the gates that allows you to clear a line through them. It’s pretty darn satisfying when you pull off lengthy combos as if you're just casually sailing along.

Unfortunately, Geometry Wars servers were not up during the time this review was written, but with the previous game’s attention to multiplayer fun, I can only see this adding to the game in every way. Local co-op still adds to the fun by allowing 4 players to join in a cooperative campaign. Adding more ships to the fight seems like an easy win, but it does take some coordination to really progress when you've got mulitiple players on the screen. For one, the camera backs off, so everything looks a bit smaller. That means there is some adjusting to do if you're used to the single player modes. Another thing that may make things difficult is having both ships go after the same enemies, which is inefficient at the very least. Either way, this mode could only be slightly improved by showing a count of score and Geom collection at the end of each level instead of just the score each player contributed. After all, if one player gathered more Geoms and upped the multiplier, but shot down fewer enemies, that player still significantly contributed to the overall score. Again, that's only a slight flaw, when the real fun of local multiplayer is having several people in the same room screaming "I'm not gonna make it!" at the same time.

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is a difficult game. You could say that and be done. But there’s a bit more to it than that. It’s one of those games that starts off pretty accessible. The action ramps up as you progress, letting you get a feel for the action. It gives the game an addictive quality. It feels like if you just did something a bit differently next time, you could make it a little further. In the Adventure Mode, you can upgrade your weapons as well, giving you a reason to keep playing to earn more currency for new weapons.

You’re constantly searching for patterns to break through, safe spots, strategies and other little skills that progressively make you better. But with all the strategy in the world, reflexes and practice are still your biggest allies here. If you’re not good at shooters, you’ll only get so far in Geometry Wars 3.

Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is a twin-stick shooter. That means one stick will control movement and one will fire. Your drone will automatically fire along with you. Your Super will be triggered by another button when you need it. It’s another example of simplicity for Geometry Wars 3; You won’t need nearly all the buttons on your controller for it.

I don’t have much that I’d change about the way Geometry Wars plays. The controls are tuned and responsive. If I could ask for anything, it would be a bit more feedback on what multiplier you are currently on, your score, or how many Supers you have left. It’s nearly impossible to look away from the screen when the action gets intense, so you’re often wondering if you made it before the level ends. There are tiny numbers that flash up when you hit certain multiplier milestones, but again, pretty hard to keep track of. Still, that’s a very small detail that in no way prevents you from playing the game to its fullest.

Geometry Wars continues the tradition of gorgeous graphics and addictive gameplay. If you’ve ever liked a space shooter even just a little tiny bit, Geometry Wars 3 is your modern-day answer. Seriously, this has got to be one of the best bargains on the Xbox One Store, so just go for it.