Tetris Effect (2018)

This ended up being a bit of a tricky game to rate for me. Is it an amazing game that everyone here has got to experience? Definitely. Is it going to be my go-to for Tetris though? Well... I think if you want to play Tetris, you don't play this game. You play The Tetris Effect for the sake of experiencing The Tetris Effect.

This is probably the trippiest game I've ever played (and hopefully ever will play, lol). I can't imagine how wild this would be with VR. I'd probably just explode. There is so much happening on the screen, so many lights and sparkles and energy and zen and whooshing through space. And all the while, the music is going along with your progress with the Tetris level--and even with the rotating of your blocks. The wow factor is at full force here. But I gotta say, after a while it does get a bit tiring. It was enough to make me consider giving this a lower star rating, because I don't really want to O.D. every time I want to play a simple game of Tetris.

But playing a simple game of Tetris is decidedly not the point of The Tetris Effect. If solid puzzle gameplay is what you're after, go for Puyo Puyo Tetris or Tetris 99. If you want to be hypnotized into an enlightened state full of crazy ART (raises hands out dramatically), then be sure to pick up The Tetris Effect.

Sometimes I play a video game and I just feel so elated that I'm fortunate enough to be able to play them. I finally got around to playing through Tetris Effect tonight via PSVR and it made me so happy. The way the music and the visuals, along with the gameplay (as simple as it is), come together actually made me shed a tear of joy.

Tetris Effect makes me hopeful. If humans can make something so moving, surely we can do better for ourselves and for each other.

🎵🎵 I'm yours forever There is no end in sight for us Nothing could measure The kind of strength inside our hearts 🎵🎵

I know this is a cheesy sentiment but I had to share my joy.

I've only cursed uncontrollably while playing That Dragon, Cancer—a game that so filled me with pain it spilled out as anger.

Today, I add a second game: I got 88 out of 90 lines on Metamorphosis (the last level) before losing and a flurry of profanity flowed from my mouth, first about the game, then about me, then about the game again. Taking off the PSVR headset, I realized the immersion not only enhanced the victories, but the failures as well.

To get some closure and feel like I made progress, I played through Metamorphosis on Beginner and experienced the ending. I made a few more attempts on Normal before bed tonight, but I'm not sure it'll be good for me to keep trying. I may play in 2D and see if a bit of distance changes the experience.

My profanity aside, this is a truly remarkable game.

Last night, I got 82 out of 90 lines on the final level. I’ve never been so disgusted with myself and then the game and then myself again.

I didn’t throw anything, but I can now understand how dangerous ragequitting will be in the age of VR.

I keep thinking I’ll just quit, but when I sit on the stage select screen and see how far I’ve come—literally, the first stage is way in the distance—I can’t give up. I got 82, right? How much harder will 8 lines be?

I finally hit a stage I thought would end my Tetris career. Hula Soul goes from a tranquil Hawaiian beach in the evening to an incredibly stressful race to just make the tetrominos go at least near the place you wanted them to go.

In the early stages of Tetris Effect, I was frustrated by the controls, but after a bit, I forgot all about them. In Hula Soul, in a rush to move a piece, I would accidentally tap the up button and suddenly the piece would slam into place—never where I wanted it. This happened so many times I ended up changing my grip on the DualShock so my thumb couldn’t reach the up button.

After setting the stage aside for a night, I picked it up in the morning and finished it after a handful of attempts. The win felt more like luck than skill, where the other stages have felt more like skill than luck.

One thing I’d love to see is a an option to restart the level in the menu. The fastest way I can see to do it is repeatedly tap the up button to fail the level, but it just feels wrong to intentionally fail so badly.

I played another session of Tetris Effect in VR and I now understand the hype. In the first two groups of stages, I made it through a couple of stages on the first go, but quickly failed the following level. I was enjoying the experience, but wouldn't have described it as transcendent.

The third group of stages started with a level in the desert that evolved into something other-worldly and thanks to my slightly improved Tetris skills, I was finally able to take a look around and enjoy the scenery. The audio was terrific and the visuals were out-of-this-world. Once I completed it, I felt connected to the game in a way I hadn't before. I ended up barreling through the rest of the stages in the group—each a delightful experience in its own right—and just sat for a while in the results screen as I came back to real life.

I have no experience with hallucinogenics, but if they’d make me feel like Tetris Effect does, I can see why people like them.

The first lesson I had to learn from Tetris Effect was how bad I am at Tetris. I’ve always admired the game, but never actually played it for longer than 10 minutes every few years. So far, I’ve made it through the first three stages and feel like a better gamer for it.

Playing it in VR is pretty intense, though I am reminded of how few pixels there are on the PSVR screens. I was a little worried I’d lose sight of the tetrominos with all the effects, but the effects do a pretty good job of staying in the background, save for a big ol’ triangle in stage 2 that freaked me out.

I’ll be playing this until I can longer beat the stages. I’ve heard the later stages get pretty difficult, so I’ll bow out before I feel the need to ragequit—I’m not sure how well the PSVR headset would take being thrown to the ground.