Tetris Effect: Connected
Image Credit: Enhance Experience
My eyes close and all I see are bricks falling and lines clearing. I’m at peace and feel whole. I slowly drift asleep with only patterns on my mind...
Introduction
Every game played has made some imprint on your personal timeline of gaming. Some are minuscule and some are monumental. They are a part of the drive for the next dopamine hit. Sometimes, we return to these games when they’ve been refined and come away with an even greater appreciation. Tetris Effect: Connected, is one of these games. It takes classic Tetris and morphs this into an emotional journey about your place in the universe.
Image Credit: Enhance Experience
Gameplay
Tetris Effect: Connected is pure at its core. The same Tetris we’ve been playing since Alexei Pajitnov made the game decades ago. You place colorful bricks or tetrominos down to clear rows with the goal to reach for the highest score. To help with this primary directive, you have modern tools at your disposal such as holding, hard dropping and T-spinning. More important to this game is the newest core mechanic: Zone Mode. As you build up combos and clear rows, your Zone meter increases. Once activated, the game slows down, and you are allowed to place multiple blocks to stack combos, while syncing deeper into the game through sound and color distortion.
There are several game modes this game has to offer, but Journey Mode is the main event. Clocking in at just a couple hours (depending on ability), this mode guides you through several levels and scenes across our galaxy. The music and level design are by far the biggest selling point of this mode. This isn’t your average Tetris. This is a Tetris game that only Tetsuya Mizuguchi (of Lumines and Rez fame) could make. His DNA is embedded in this game with change of pace, patterns and music coming in waves through each level. This only adds to the immersive experience that Journey mode brings. It’s rather hard to describe how Tetris Effect makes you feel. The best way to describe this would be a feeling of serenity or “connectedness.” And as you go through each level, each landscape, and each song; this feeling swells. Upon completing Journey Mode for the first time, I was in complete awe.
Outside of Journey Mode, Tetris Effect has more traditional modes such as Classic, and Relax where you attempt to best your score. There are also task oriented modes like Focus, where you spend time trying to max out combos, clears or targets. On the odder side, there are the Adventure modes which emphasize mystery and disruption. When not in Journey Mode, I gravitated towards the former, as they were familiar to me. However, I’m sure some avid players would enjoy the complexity Focus and Adventure modes bring to Tetris.
Image Credit: Enhance Experience
Multiplayer
We can’t speak about Tetris Effect: Connected without getting into the multiplayer modes. These modes weren’t included in the original Tetris Effect released in 2018, much to its deficit. There are classic Score Attack modes similar to the ones in other comprehensive Tetris games such as Puyo Puyo Tetris. These modes offer both the Tetris Effect variation, with Zone Mode, and the traditional battles seen at the Classic Tetris World Championship. Both offer some solid value to the game with local and online co-op supported.
However, just as the single player game is brought up by Journey Mode, multiplayer is leveled up through its Connected mode. This mode is a continuous boss battle mode. It allows for couch/online co-op with up to three players battling different avatars in a complex game of Score Attack. There are multiple phases with an emphasis on cooperation to win. As lines are cleared, a group zone meter fills. Once completely filled, the group enters a group Zone Mode which allows you to clear massive rows together and unleash them on the big bad. It’s a really fun mode, and although there may be skill variance amongst players, it can be enjoyable for all. Even some of our more Tetris naive friends enjoyed working together to knock these bosses back.
Without these cooperative and competitive modes, I felt the original Tetris Effect left out an essential component to be considered the best Tetris game. With their inclusion, in a special format such as Connected, the game has elevated what Tetris can be.
Image Credit: Enhance Experience
Conclusion
I am a brand new contributor to BLG. I am honored to write this review and to have sat down with the group for the podcast review. I have to say when looking at the new scoring system BLG sprung on me during the podcast, I felt hesitant initially to give this the score we gave. But as casual gamers, who all enjoy different aspects of gaming, we all came away with that this wasn’t one to miss. Even if you hate puzzle games and Tetris, it has something to offer everyone. Tetris is one of the best puzzle games of all time. Tetris Effect: Connected is the best iteration. If there were any puzzle game to have as an entry point, it would be this.
With that, we award Tetris Effect: Connected one of BLG’s highest honors, a 10/10. We believe that if you like beautiful game design, entrancing eclectic music, and casual co-op experiences, then we highly recommend this title.
Tetris Effect: Connected is currently only available for Xbox and PC through Xbox Game Pass/Windows Store. Base game Tetris Effect (without multiplayer) is available for the PS4/PS5/PSVR and PC. A free update to include the Connected experience is scheduled to release Summer 2021.
All Busch League Gaming reviewers played these games on Xbox Game Pass, and Hari also played the original on his PS4/PS5.
