Review – Tetris Effect: Connected

Tetris is a game that most gamers have had experience with at some stage in their life and one that older gamers grew up with. Monstars Inc., Resonair and Stage Games have now brought the next Tetris game to the next generation of consoles in Tetris Effect: Connected. Let’s find out how this game stacks up against its predecessors.

Tetris, for those that don’t know, is a straight forward concept that sees players stack blocks called Tetriminoes to form full rows of blocks which will then disappear once complete. Completion of rows sees them removed which reduces the height of the stack and stops it from hitting the top of the screen. Hitting the top brings instant failure. Success is had through various means depending on the game mode played. The game modes on offer with Tetris Effected: Connected are many and varied which can be broken down as follows:

Journey Mode 

This is the campaign of Tetris Effect: Connected and sees players take on levels of increasing difficulty to collect set amounts of lines of Tetriminoes. The player can select between 2 levels of difficulty with a third unlocked on completion.

Multiplayer

Bringing three game types to players, multiplayer sees cooperative and competitive play across:

• ‘Connected’ that sees 3 players match up against 1 AI boss. The aim being to collect lines of Tetriminoes to be used in an attack against the AI boss. This game mode sees various forms of the play space including one where all three players spaces are combined.
• ‘Zone Battle’ sees players competing against each other in a battle to be last one standing. This mode sees the collection of lines of Tetriminoes adding incomplete lines to the other players play space and sees the addition of a few of the newer game mechanics.
• ‘Score Attack’ is your standard Tetris based game mode where you battle to get the highest score using the standard Tetris mechanics.

Effect 

Effect mode offers a number of play spaces of a more causal nature. Each see the player undertaking challenges and competing against themselves to beat their best times or scores. They include challenges based on speed, time, difficulty and complexity.

When starting Tetris Effect: Connected the player is advised that this game is best played as a fully immersive experience with headphones and I can see why. The world is super bright, super crazy and super beautiful and brings an awesome soundtrack to match. The audio and visuals set the scene and react to the players every move. From the calmness of the more casual modes right through to the chaos of being a few lines from the top, the audio and visuals will be right there with the player.

Tetris Effect: Connected is a game that offers something for almost everyone and the player can definitely bring the whole family along for the experience. Plus, the controls are extremely straight forward to use, allowing anyone to pick up and play this game.

Xbox Gamer Dad for One More Game

9 – Amazing – as near to a 10 as you are going to get without it being a 10. It’s an amazing experience that just requires that little something else to make it a masterpiece. Your hard earned cash and time would be well spent here.

Tetris Effect: Connected was reviewed on the Xbox Series X. These thoughts are ours and ours alone.

Tetris Effect: Connected is available right now for $59.95 or it can be played via Xbox Game Pass.