Back when Tetris Effect launched on PS4, it was with full support for the original PSVR. At the time, we thought it was glorious, but realistically, the hardware's limitations meant the picture was never super clear. The spectacle of this flashy take on the familiar falling block puzzle game wasn't lost on us, though, and it remains a truly excellent game, no matter how or where you play it. That being said, the new PS5 version — with full support for PSVR2 — has made us fall in love with it all over again.
The experience is largely identical to the earlier PSVR iteration, but the difference in picture quality is stark. PSVR2's improved resolution and HDR support mean the game looks much, much sharper. It's always been a gorgeous game, but the virtual reality effects — particles swirling around you, jewels hanging down from either side, dolphins leaping out of the water, suddenly teleporting to the moon — are heightened by the new headset. It's wonderful.
Slightly less successful is the implementation of the PSVR2 Sense Controllers. Upon first play, they didn't seem to work at all; strangely, they had no buttons assigned in the Controls settings. A weird bug, but easily solved by restoring the defaults. Playing Tetris Effect with them is fine, but the sticks are fairly sensitive, and we frequently found ourselves hard-dropping tetriminoes by mistake. The DualSense is the way to go here — all hail the D-pad. At the very least, the haptic feedback in both controllers works nicely.
A nifty new feature utilises PSVR2's eye-tracking; close your eyes for about a second, and when you open them again, you'll enter the game's Zone state. You can still just press a button to enable it, but it's pretty cool you can use a simple gesture like this for gameplay purposes.
Aside from that, this is the same great spin on Tetris we all know and love. Fantastic music is paired with vibrant, sumptuous visuals, and together they take this nearly 40-year-old game to a new level, whether you play it in PSVR2 or on your telly.
Comments 17
I'm gonna have to agree with the Sense controller issues. I prefer playing Tetris with a D-PAD, but by far that is my ONLY issue and an adjustment i'm willing to make for this great game.
Surely you can use duel sense rather than VR2 sense controllers? That way can use the much needed d pad.
Absolutely amazing game.
@AdamantiumPriest Yes, the DualSense works fine. Quintumply also mentions in the review that it's the best way to play.
Love Tetris Effect. One of my favorite games last generation. I haven't tried using it with the sense controllers. Tetris without a dpad just sounds awful.
Good note on the sense controllers.
Just doesnt work at all for this game honestly.
love the idea of closing my eyes to 'get in the zone'
proper on brand for this game!
I'm having a real problem with review scores now. Drums Rock takes a hit because the demons are overly designed, yet Tetris ... A game where you can't even use the controllers on the 600 dollar piece of hardware you just bought gets a 9/10.
No game that warrants mandatory use of the dual sense should get a 9/10.
Finally it's 2023 and we are still paying 40 dollars for Tetris? You can get 2 fun VR games for that price...
@LeeHarveyOzgod Have you played the game? It's not just Tetris.
@LeeHarveyOzgod The DualSense controller works perfectly fine with PSVR2 and Tetris.
There are many game styles that will be brilliant in VR , that will simply not work with the VR controllers and be better with a standard pad.
If were playing GT7 in VR2 and didnt have a wheel I'd be gyro steering with the pad.
I do love this game and would love to try it on Vr2 - damn my motion sickness issue...
@SoulChimera I overlooked this. Thanks!
@CRASH64 No worries. Have fun playing it with the DualSense. Much more enjoyable! Haha.
It's also £32.99, despite having the PS4 version. They're having a laugh there
@LeeHarveyOzgod you make a good point. However, push are rating the game. And the game slowly works its way into your life. Try it once, it's okay, try it thrice, it clicks. By the 200th hour you are in space in master mode level 10 in full control of the world. Then you get 3 damn z shapes in a row. Damn you z shapes.
I do plan on purchasing it, I just for the life of me can't spend 40 dollars on Tetris in 2023.
@SoulChimera the point is that you have a brand new piece of hardware you just spent a lot of money on and it doesn't work properly with the game. We aren't talking about a free psvr2 update here or a small upcharge.
I have no doubts that the game is good, but to be rated above pretty much every other game released on vr2 when you can't use the vr2 controllers is a little head scratching to me.
@LeeHarveyOzgod The point is the VR2 controllers work, but DualSense just works better. I hadn't even got round to trying the DualSense with Tetris Effect- but I certainly will.
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