The Epic Games Store is getting Tetris Effect exclusive to its PC marketplace for a time with support listed for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Tetris Effect topped some best of 2018 game lists with its console debut on PlayStation 4 and PSVR headsets. We rated it 8/10 and Jamie Feltham praised the combination of music and visuals which “lull you it into a soothing sense of security, encasing you in a bubble of graphical splendor before ripping you out of it and into something much more demanding.”
Tetris Effect for PC is pitched by publisher Enhance as the “ultimate” version of the game with no artificial limits on resolution (“4K or more”), or frame rate. The PC version also adds new graphical options “including adjustable particle volume and size, texture filtering, and more.” It releases July 23 via the Epic Games Store with a 20 percent discount and downloadable content (a soundtrack sampler and wallpapers) included during the pre-order period and first two weeks of availability.
Enhance lists VR support as including “standard gamepads, Vive Controllers, and Oculus Remote and Touch controllers.” So while the game should be playable with the simple media controller from the original 2016 consumer Rift, there’s also no mention of support for much newer headsets or controllers. Valve’s Index VR headset, for example, can run visual modes at 120 or 144 frames per second with best in class comfort that could make multi-hour play sessions more appealing. That is, if Tetris Effect works with the system. It is possible more VR headsets, like Microsoft’s Windows-based HMDs, could work through OpenXR compatibility modes. There’s no indication that’s the case, though, so we’ll have to wait for hands-on reports.
Masoch described the ability to experience synesthesia in the project listing: “As for me, I can see and feel music. Emotions in music have color, sounds have colors and forms, those forms have textures, and in the end it’s as if the music I listen to generates “phantom limbs” in my head that I can live inside of while I listen. But it’s more than that, because lyrics have meaning, and I can use their meaning to shape these forms into something that I can take away from. I often interact with these things in some way as well; I can almost touch them with my hands. This is why I’d actually prefer to say that I live in music, rather than just see it. And now I want to let you experience this too.”