Tetris Effect Connected - Review
If there is ever a game series, that I am more than happy to play, it is Tetris, there is just something amazing about the series and be it a quick game or a 20 minute one, I always have fun. Tetris Effect was a game that I so wanted to play, but honestly couldn’t justify the price, but a new console demands new games and with Connected being there day one, I figured it was time to jump in and see what this very glowy Tetris was all about.
Tetris Effect, the game is a way to help people get into a zen like state, whilst still keeping their brains going, so the shiny backgrounds and music, blending with the core Tetris gameplay. Tetris effect, the state of mind, is where people start to see shapes in real life and how people can make use of them. Going in as a Tetris fan, I knew that I was going to enjoy the game and as it was developed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the man who also created Lumines, a series I adored, I figured it was going to be an easy win for me, but I was wrong. This is not some fake out, where I say that it was better than I expected, but no in this case the opposite was true, the game is boring and somehow made me not want to play it.
The game is split into two modes, the single player journey and multiplayer and each offers very different gameplay moments and some are great, others not so much, but let’s start with the solo. Journey is a very unique way of playing Tetris, rather than just being given a single run and told to get the best score, no, in this one you are given a series of levels to clear, without pause between them. Each level has its own theme and they change in the level as well, or I should say evolve, so there is always a constant feeling of movement happening in them. As you progress through the path that is laid out before you, the game starts to pick up the pace, literally, as levels might start out slow, but after you clear a third of the required lines, the speed will increase. Sometimes these increases are minor, going from a level 1 speed to level 3, sometimes they jump up a lot to level 8 or even level 10. These changes in speed can easily catch you off guard if you are not paying attention And when you consider the amount of visual extravagance to the side of the playing field it happens quite a bit.
Taking a look at the multiplayer there is a unique perspective to it, as well as a slew of generic multiplayer modes and while each offers something a bit different it's the unique mode that you're going to find fun in. Are they taking inspiration from the name or inspiring the name, either way Connected is a mode that lets you and two others a battle against an AI controlled competitor, the catch is that your field of battle will merge with the others requiring you to take special care on how you drop your blocks down. It was quite common to find blocks dropped and clear lines that I was working on using to build up to a Tetris, but that proved that in Connected, communication is key. The other modes are your generic duelling mode, battle modes, things like that and while they were entertaining the best battle mode for Tetris, is Tetris 99 and I just couldn’t enjoy these smaller scale modes. Overall the multiplayer is not bad, but I'm looking forward to having less restrictions on who can visit me so I can actually try some local Tetris multiplayer in the game.
I've said before that I didn't really like this game and let me explain why, a lot of people will claim that I don't understand what this is about, that the effect of the visuals and the music, as well as the Tetris gameplay aim to provide something different. That may very well be true, however the problem that I had with the game is that it was a too confusing at times and awkward to play. Either one of those issues on their own would be enough to turn me away from it but combined left me annoyed that I had to keep playing, let me explain why. When I say that the game is confusing I don't mean that the rules are complicated, it is Tetris and those rules haven't changed since the original game. No what I mean now is that with all the visual noise happening to the sides of your playing field it is very easy to get distracted by pixelated camels walking in the background or fireworks exploding all around. Being able to enjoy a round of Tetris should be a calming experience and for some of the patterns and effects that go on it can provide that, but far too many of them are more about the flash than substance. It's honestly easy to see when every single level, will elevate it's amount of visual wow and the music goes along with it, as you start to clear more and more lines and when you combine that with the journey mode and the game speeding up it's very, very easy to start making mistakes and again it's because it's too much.
The other side of the coin being that it's difficult to play again isn't because it's added in 17 new moves or options, it's just I didn't find the controls worked the way they should have. Moving blocks around was done with the D-pad, pretty straightforward, rotating was done with the face buttons and it all comes together in a pretty normal way. The problem was every time I attempted to perform a T-spin or tried to slide a block into a small gap at the last second, the game didn't understand what I was trying to do. Trying to get a block that's landed but not locked in place, off to the side is pretty easy if you spin it, the problem is that the amount of time here between it landing and locking is very short and more often than not if I was a fraction of a second late rotating the block, it would lock in place and then I would have a piece where I didn't want it. I also found that trying to move blocks one or two spaces over wouldn't always work because it would either not register or snap over further and while that could be the Xbox controller, even using a different Xbox controller I got the same thing, it just as a whole didn't come together for me.
Now as the game is created by the same man who brought us Lumines, I knew going in that the visuals would be a major factor and as I said the background, it's just far too confusing but it's not the only visual oddity with the game. One of the big things that they would like doing is showing off their backgrounds, allowing you to see all the impressive animations and effects going on and while it would have all come together for me as like on a pause screen or something, here it was made even more challenging by the fact that the main Tetris board, by default, takes up a fraction of the screen space. In the settings there's an option to allow you to zoom the camera in so you can make it a size you can actually play on, this is not an option that they tell you is there you have to go looking for it so anyone with eyesight problems or a small screen is going to struggle playing this game until you go and find that setting. It's not all doom and gloom news though, much like Lumines, the Tetris blocks change patterns and gain effects and while most of this is tied into the theme of the level it still works.
Partnered with the blocks changing is the audio side, in different themes when you rotate a block you'll hear a chime, rotate it the other way, maybe a different chime. Drop the block down, push it all the way to the side, all your actions translate to music and given that there is a lot of information visually being able to focus on the audio helps a lot. The game soundtrack is incredible I mean at the start they suggest to you it's best played with headphones and after playing it I can honestly see why. I didn’t recall hearing any of those now iconic Tetris themes but with how much music is in there there's a fair chance there in there, just remastered and I didn't recognise them.
Tetris Effect Connected is an odd game, it has the pedigree of being released in VR and I would imagine playing it immersed in those experiences might provide something that's transcendental, the problem is on Xbox there is no VR and I feel the game hasn't adjusted for that. With backgrounds that are too busy, a default game space that is too small and controls that feel off nothing came together for me here and it's honestly rare that that happens in a game these days because there is usually something that I can get behind, but just not with this game.
The Score
6.0
Review code provided by Xbox
The Pros
+The soundtrack, assisted by your actions is pretty spectacular
+Connected is a wonderful multiplayer mode, as long as you are willing to communicate
The Cons
-Way to much happens around your playing space, making it easy to get mixed up
-The default playing space is tiny and as the game doesn’t tell you, that it can be zoomed it, it might turn people away
