- [Dan] You may have played many versions of Tetris before,
but you've probably never played one quite like
Tetris Effect.
The latest iteration of the falling block puzzler
comes from Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Echance Experience,
and combines music, sound, vibration, and visuals
into something that becomes almost transcendent.
(electronic music)
The main campaign of Tetris Effect is Journey.
An engrossing series of connected boards,
each with their own diverse art style, music,
and rule set, each board is unique,
and I was constantly surprised by what was offered.
One might see you starting under underwater,
as a beautiful particle-effect whale swims around you,
while another had me inadvertently creating a jazz jam,
with the sound effects created by rotating, moving,
and dropping pieces.
(musical notes)
Don't be fooled by the relaxing facade though.
Tetris Effect can be punishingly difficult.
Some stages are traditional, in that they start off slow,
and ramp up after you clear a set number of lines,
while others start blistering fast,
then slow all the way down to let you regain your composure,
only to suddenly speed up again without warning.
This constant fluctuation in speed and difficulty
at times feels at odds
with the often meditative presentation
of Tetris Effect's stages.
Sure, you can rotate a piece several times
after it lands, and the hold queue has returned,
but often it felt cheap to suddenly see
a board speed up five or six levels,
ruining my carefully laid plans.
If you do find yourself in a pickle,
you can activate Tetris Effect's trippy new
time-suspending Zone mechanic.
Zone may not be as revolutionary as something like
the ability to swamp out a tetromino
for one in your hold queue, but I enjoyed it
for the strategic possibilities of stacking a board
as high as I could, and then quickly working to clear it
as the timer ran down.
It's a shame then that Zone isn't available
outside of Journey because it's missed in Tetris Effect's
many other modes.
Even so, these are great fun.
There's my all time favorite, Marathon,
in which you need to clear 150 lines
as the speed increases,
along with more puzzle-specific challenges
that might require you to completely clear a board
using four blocks or react to modifiers
like an inverted board or giant, oversized tetrominoes.
These lend themselves to shorter jump-in-and-play sessions
compared to the absorbing nature of Journey mode.
No matter which mode you're playing,
particle and sound effects erupt around you
as you rotate blocks and clear lines.
If you've played the awe-inspiring Rez Infinite
and it's Area X stage, Tetris Effect's presentation
will be immediately familiar.
Unfortunately, this is where Tetris Effect's style
can sometimes get in the way of its gameplay.
The particle effects when you clear a line
are sometimes so distracting,
they caused me to fumble a difficult block placement
or lose track of my place.
This becomes particularly problematic
toward the end of Journey mode,
when the speed of falling blocks is so fast
that a missed placement will doom the average player.
Tetris Effect tries to offset this
with a forgiving continue system
and the ability to tweak the amount of particles
and distance of the camera from the Tetris board,
but after two hours of attempting the same 13-speed board
continuously, I longed for a way to turn off
all the fancy effects just so I could concentrate.
That said, these issues are almost nonexistent in VR.
PS VR really is the way to play Tetris Effect.
It's incredibly immersive, and the exploding particles
are simply a spectacular accent to the action.
I played through Journey mode
and several of the effect modes both in VR and non-VR,
and found the headset to be superior.
When playing out of VR, I regularly had to zoom the camera
all the way in to minimize distractions,
which made me miss a lot of the visual flourishes.
Tetris Effect has been designed for VR, and it shows.
♪ Perfect love is all around us ♪
- [Dan] Who would think that a new version
of a simple game like Tetris
could deliver such a thoroughly absorbing experience?
The merging of time-tested gameplay
with the synesthesia-inducing sound and visual design
of Tetsuya Mizuguchi creates something
you've likely never experienced.
While its diverse and beautiful presentation
can sometimes literally get in the way of the gameplay,
Tetris Effect is proof that even after 30 plus years,
Tetris can still feel fresh.
For more Tetris Effect, check out our video
showcasing Dark Blocks mode gameplay
and Mystery mode gameplay.
And for more block-rocking reviews, stick with IGN.