The co-op, called Connected (a riff on Tetris Effect's life-affirming title song), sees three players team up to try to defeat computer-controlled bosses. That's right, boss fights in Tetris Effect - and it's wondrous.
Here's how it works: you start by playing in your own matrix, clearing lines as normal. Occasionally the boss will send over attacks, called Blitzes, your way, triggering a game-changing effect that annoys the hell out of you. The boss might turn your screen upside down, or send over a super large Tetrimino. That kind of thing. The boss can also choose to go on the defense, too. Here, the boss can remove some of the garbage lines you've sent over.
Meanwhile, as you clear lines all three players fill up their shared Connected meter, and once it's full, all three matrices converge to become one. When you're all connected, you each take turns to place Tetriminos, clearing lines that are pushed to the bottom as they normally are during Zone, then sent over to the boss when the meter expires in a bid to top it out. This is the only way to attack the boss - together in co-op. There's no way to attack the boss as an individual. Also thrown into the Connected mix are Magicminos, magical purple Tetriminos that work to fill gaps, pushing anything in their way to fix the playfield.
At first this is a quite bewildering thing to do. You see an outline of where your Tetrimino will land, and you're sort of competing for position as your co-op friends move about their outlines on the connected screen. But it's not long before all three of you somehow start thinking as one, almost leading each other to place Tetriminos in such a way as to create that Tetris endorphin shot. When all three players are in the zone together, quickly placing blocks one after the other, it is a quite magical thing. I was playing with strangers, and yet we found ourselves in unison. No voice communication. No pings. Just... Tetris.
There are 12 bosses to work through, each based on one of the signs of the zodiac, and each with its own stage, style and, crucially, music. Music of course is one of the best things about Tetris Effect, and I'm told new music has been recorded for Connected. I'm also told the final boss is something special. Dear reader, I cannot tell you how excited I am to play this game with friends and reach this boss. Truly, the next generation has arrived.
And it arrives, as I said, at the perfect moment in time. In the middle of a pandemic, amid lockdowns and crushing isolation, at a time when I have no idea when I'll next see my elderly mother, Tetris Effect's new Connected mode is the multiplayer I need. It is an effortless co-op. It can be played in a quite lovely chill out variant, a breezy co-op Tetris I imagine will have that brilliant virtual pub effect I used to get from mindlessly farming in World of Warcraft - I am doing things in a lovely video game almost in pilot mode, and having a laugh with friends. I appreciate Tetris Effect is not the only video game to offer such a thing, but only Tetris Effect is Tetris Effect. So.
And get this, for 24 hours every weekend, Tetris Effect: Connected gets a versus variant, which lets a fourth player control the boss and fight against the team of three. I, the best Tetris player I know, will certainly give that one a shot.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020 ... -right-nowOut 10th Nov on Xbox's & MS Store, free with Game Pass. Summer 2021 for other platforms.