What's up everyone?
Alex here!
The Tetris Effect demo was available for a limited time prior to its release, and I wanted
to give you my impressions of it after playing for more than 10 hours!
This video will feature everything that was available in it, and I want to talk about
what separates this game from every single Tetris game released in the past.
Tetris Effect is brought to you by Enhance Inc, led by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who's known
for Space Channel 5, Rez, Lumines, and Child of Eden.
Mizuguchi is well known for fusing music, visuals, and gameplay in a manner unlike anything
else out there.
Simply put, every single input press you do - or don't - affects the visuals and the
soundscape of his games, and Tetris Effect showcases that aplenty.
If you're new to Tetris - and there's actually a ton of people new to the game,
mind you - it's all about rotating and aligning different puzzle pieces together to form a
line that spans the entire width of the board.
Once this happens, the line disappears, and you're able to build anew.
Filling the board with pieces that reach the top of the board means it's Game Over!
A mechanic that has increased in prevalence in more modern Tetris games is Hold.
Hold allows you to store the current puzzle piece in play for use later on.
In Tetris Effect, pressing the L1 or R1 button achieves this effect.
Pressing the buttons again will swap the current puzzle piece in play with the one currently
on Hold.
Tetris Effect introduces a new mechanic that mixes up the aforementioned rules.
As you clear more lines, you will slowly build up a meter located near the bottom left of
the board.
Once filled up, pressing the L2 or R2 buttons lets you enter the Zone, which stops the puzzle
pieces from falling altogether.
This allows you to set puzzle pieces at your own leisure, and moves any newly completed
lines to the bottom of the board, which will all clear once you leave the Zone.
This new mechanic is advantageous to both new and veteran players.
New players will be able to get a brief reprieve to clear the board while in this mode, while
veterans can create some incredible line clears, like the Decahexatrix, which is only possible
while in the Zone.
Tetris Effect is also VR enabled.
While the VR footage being shown doesn't look like much is happening, there's actually
a lot of depth to the gameplay field when played in VR.
The game board slowly lowers and rises depending on how high you've stacked the puzzle pieces
onscreen, and your eyes will just slowly adjust to the change in orientation seamlessly.
There were moments when I was playing in an area with several jellyfish swimming around
and, as my tower of puzzle pieces began to climb the height of the board, I slowly felt
as thought I was "losing my breath" as it were as I frantically, but unsuccessfully,
tried to make lines despite my puzzle pieces spelling my doom.
This might sound hoity toity, admittedly, but I can assure you that my reaction to what
I was experiencing was genuine, metaphor and all.
The demo allowed us to play with two modes: Effect Modes and Journey.
Effect Modes can be seen as a sort of challenge mode, each tackling a very specific aspect
of Tetris: Classic, Relax, Focus, and Adventurous.
In the demo, only one Classic and Adventurous mode was available.
Marathon, the only Classic mode available, is the purest form of Tetris, which disables
the new Zone ability that Tetris Effect introduces.
This mode asks you to clear 150 lines, increasing the drop rate incrementally over time.
Mystery, the only Adventurous mode available, shares a similar goal with Marathon.
This time however, crazy events and mechanics will alter your play, from obtaining a huge
Tetris block to plop down, to even being forced to play the board literally upside down!
This mode is definitely not for the faint of heart!
The other available mode, and is considered to be the main mode of Tetris Effect, is Journey.
The mode will literally send you on a journey through several sequences of different sight
and soundscapes.
The demo only contained one sequence traversing three areas, but I can tell you that each
area felt very different, not just from a visual and audio standpoint, but also how
the actual feel of playing Tetris felt.
The developers mentioned in a recent interview that the way Journey is structured is by design,
and they added that players shouldn't think of Journey as simply just a constant increase
in difficulty.
Rather, much like taking journeys in real life, there will be ebbs and flows, and high
points and low points, and the developers hope to imbue these feelings and emotions
to players as they play Journey.
And that's really what Tetris Effect is all about: it's an attempt by its developers
to capture a specific feeling of playing Tetris - one that many long time players have felt
- and to try and express these through the use of visual language, sound, and vibration,
to a wider audience.
As of this video's release, the game's preorder will cost you $35.99 and the full
game will retail for $39.99 upon release.
To many, $39.99 is going to sound like a ton given that Tetris is a game that can be played
in a variety of different flavors.
But as someone who last played Tetris for a lengthy period of time on his original Gameboy,
I am curious to see what the other sights and soundscapes are in Journey.
Also, I'd like to see if the Relax and Focus Effect modes will truly help me Relax and
Focus, in addition to whatever Adventurous gameplay modes there are.
But for now, color my interest piqued!
I certainly don't mind playing more of it, even if it is "yet another version of Tetris,"
so please look forward to a full review of the game, coming soon!
But for now, I do want to hear what you think of this latest game by Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
Are you a long time fan of his games?
Do you think you'll be giving this version of Tetris a spin in the future?
Post your replies on the comments below!
Also, if you enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing to the channel - and clicking
that Bell icon - to be notified of my latest videos!
Lastly, follow me on Twitter @mybacklogbattle, for the latest news and upcoming videos - or,
if you just want to chat about video games!
Thanks for watching!
And have a wonderful gaming week!
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét