Tetris Effect

Please just keep porting games to the PC. I’d really like to just reach a point where consoles aren’t a thing and we’re all playing on various levels of PC. That’s pretty much already here, by the way, but regardless: it’s Tetris Effect! Once locked only to Sony’s PlayStation 4, it’s been freed from its console chains and is now bringing its psychedelic take on Alexey Pajitnov’s eternally popular puzzler. The good news is – it’s still amazing, maybe even more son, so dive right in.

Tetris Effect, if you haven’t read my colleague Chris’ review when it was still console-bound, is basically the lovechild of Tetris and Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Rez. It’s so good that I don’t even mind referring to something as a “lovechild,” though I did feel a little sympathetic embarrassment for those who do so unironically. It’s Tetris, but very, very pretty…and still very, very addictive. Not that many games have an entire syndrome named after them, after all. Check out some videos, then turn them off and buy the game. Trust me here.

The biggest change in terms of gameplay is the Zone, the ability to freeze time and set up ridiculous multi-Tetris combos, but for the most part it’s the classic block-dropping you know and love with a coat of the shiniest possible paint on top. The primary experience is the Journey mode, which consists of a series of “skins” a la Lumines and is probably the best psychedelic puzzle adventure you’ll ever play, but there’s other choices like the Purify and All Clear modes to change things up as well.

What’s new in the PC version? Well…not a lot! As is usually the case with PC ports, this will run better than the console version on even mid-level hardware, so there’s that. The fantastic sights and sounds are even more absolutely fantastic no matter what you’re playing on, though gamers with beefier rigs – and the right VR equipment – can take advantage of 4K-enhanced visuals and virtual-reality.

There’s even a few additional options for the Tetris hardcore as well, like greater options for custom play if you enjoy a particular skin. Note that we’re talking about the Epic Games Store version here, so if you’re one of those folks with enough extra headspace to give a crap about which monolithic, uncaring corporation is getting your money, you’ll want to keep that in mind.

Tetris Effect was pretty great on console and it’s pretty great here. In fact, it’s even better if you’ve got the right hardware to really make those visuals sing and dance like they should. Who could have thought that Tetris could still be so bleeding-edge? Tetris remains something of a universal experience, perhaps the purest universal experience we’ll ever have in the sometimes divisive world of videogames, and that alone justifies yet another version of the game to exist. Chances are you already love it – you just don’t know it yet.