Tetris Effect: PS4 Review

Tetris Effect: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4/ PSVR

The return of Tetris in Tetris: Effect feels like a loving tribute to the game which sucked so many of our lives over three decades ago.

It's essentially Tetris, without the annoying soundtrack of the past, and feels very much like a recognition of the simplicity of the first original game.

But in many ways, this is a Tetris that's bathed in an Ibiza Chill-out album, set to a pulsing strand of imagery, and then locked into a floatation tank with you via the route of Sound Shapes gameplay which incorporated music and rhythm.

Pulling in some of the vibe of Pac-Man Championship Arcade and Pac-Man 256 in terms of look, the game's built on clearing lines of the classic drop-a-block gameplay, before allowing you to move onto the next level.

Set over a cosmos of worlds, each level sees you graded for your efforts.

But each level is also blessed with a whole series of moving effects around the central game too which sits in the middle of your screen. It's a more engaging effect in the VR environment, but doesn't lose any of the benefit when it's on a normal screen. In truth, as the relaxed soundtrack plays out, the images are absorbing, reflecting the nature of what you're doing.

Some levels see horses move quicker the faster you drop the blocks; others see birds flying, dolphins jumping out of waters, and worshippers getting more and more frenzied the quicker you clear. Very occasionally, it's distracting, and paying not enough attention to the actual Tetriminos could cost; but when the windmills turn as you rotate blocks or blobs pulse with each line, it's beautiful to behold.

It's a sensory onslaught in many ways - albeit a welcome one as the swirling patterns, growing creatures form around the sides of the game, pulsing, whirling and living breathing digital dots which grow as the levels go on, and as your gameplay improves.

It's never a sensory overload - and Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi's made sure the game appears to embrace the past as well as the future, with its focus on the simple gameplay and fiendish ease of the original. It's sucked more of my life again, and I wouldn't change a thing.

New touches include a series of random levels where various effects strike your chance of clearing, and an inclusion of something called The Zone, which effectively stops the clock, giving you a chance to score points and clear lines in a limited time. This is triggered by the more chains of cleared levels you get and it's a canny way to clear the building blocks to help when the clock restarts.

Online levels, classic levels, the chance to play random parts again - there's much replay in this, and there's also much that will give itself joyously to disposable pleasures.

All in all, Tetris Effect is a trippy update of the past, a clever nod to the future, and a game that never loses sight of what made the original Tetris such a fiendish knotty game to put down.