Tetris Effect: Connected adds HDR for Steam Deck OLED plus optimizations

$40 seems unreasonably expensive for a Tetris game.

QuoteI've actually never played this one, am I missing out on something here?

Yes, you absolutely are.

The game uses modern Tetris rules (outside of Classic mode), which differ wildly from traditional Tetris.
Initially they seem weird, quirky, maybe even glitchy, but they're very purposefully designed.
The more you get familiar with them, the more fun it gets to pull off weird tricks and score better in this way.
And a skill ceiling is practically non-existent, no matter how long you play you'll see (slow) improvements in your skill.

In the journey mode, they've pretty much turned Tetris in a spiritual experience, unlike any other game I'm aware of.
It's not shameful to start with beginner mode here if needed, this mode is an absolute must-play.

The effect modes all offer fun and unique spins on the Tetris gameplay, offering more variation than you'd expect from Tetris.
Don't be afraid of the online functionality popup here, it's only for sharing your scores, the gameplay all works offline.

Even the multiplayer is fun, the Connected mode is incredible and the competitive modes are fun too.
It generally works well, it uses good peer-to-peer hosting, which still depends on whichever system was appointed as host.

And the game continues to get updated and well supported, you can feel that the studios involved care first and foremost about having their game play well.
Earlier this year a pretty major 2.0 update was released, which implemented a lot of community feedback and expanded the effect modes.
Along with this performance update, they've been one of the first to show official gameplay on Deck too, in Tetris Effect: Connected Hands-On Gameplay Preview | Steam Deck.
It is important to note that Tetris Effect is a very graphically intensive game, though for casual modes it can be made playable on Vega 8 tier iGPUs.

Overall it's one of my all-time favourite and deeply respected games, this while I only picked it up on a whim as I liked playing basic Tetris on my graphical calculator.

Quoting: RedWyvernIt is important to note that Tetris Effect is a very graphically intensive game, though for casual modes it can be made playable on Vega 8 tier iGPUs

How’s the performance on Steam Deck? Can you get stable 60fps at low TDP?

I just tried it out after reading this article. At first I thought the HDR looked kinda crappy because all the menus got really dim, but then I went in-game and activated the zone mechanic and my jaw hit the floor. Definitely worth checking out if you've got an OLED.

I can also recommend Puyo Puyo Tetris, fun couch multiplayer experience 😎

Quoting: Mountain Man$40 seems unreasonably expensive for a Tetris game.

Get it on sale then in a few days.

QuoteLiam Dawe]I've actually never played this one, am I missing out on something here?

It's absolutely amazing. The "campaign" is a lot of fun, the extra modes are varied and challenging and they even have the classic NES score attack with the old ruleset.

Best Tetris game out there. The VR mode is neat too.

Quoting: Jpxe

Quoting: RedWyvernIt is important to note that Tetris Effect is a very graphically intensive game, though for casual modes it can be made playable on Vega 8 tier iGPUs

How’s the performance on Steam Deck? Can you get stable 60fps at low TDP?

I have the setting on high. With 10 watts you get like high 80 fps, with 11 watts 90 fps all the time.

edit: Just tested some more... at least when you use the "celebration" environment with the fireworks and tons of particles it can drop down to about 65 fps even at 15 watts. Never went below that for me, but still at high settings.


Last edited by kuhpunkt on 14 December 2023 at 8:10 pm UTC

My favorite Tetris is Tetris Plus for the PS1, but Tetris Effect is pretty good. I'm glad to see Steam Deck specific optimizations.

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: Jpxe

Quoting: RedWyvernIt is important to note that Tetris Effect is a very graphically intensive game, though for casual modes it can be made playable on Vega 8 tier iGPUs

How’s the performance on Steam Deck? Can you get stable 60fps at low TDP?

I have the setting on high. With 10 watts you get like high 80 fps, with 11 watts 90 fps all the time.

edit: Just tested some more... at least when you use the "celebration" environment with the fireworks and tons of particles it can drop down to about 65 fps even at 15 watts. Never went below that for me, but still at high settings.

That's a significant improvement over what I felt I got back when playing a 1.x version of the game at Medium.
This had stutters similar to the ones visible in the early Deck gameplay video too.

While I use my Deck as a controller while playing (with Steam Link), I usually play Tetris Effect on my PC.
This as it's a the bigger the screen, the better kind of game (though low latency is more important still).
And my PC's headphone output is significantly better now I upgraded to an audio deck for it, despite the amazing adaptive OST this benefit is more apparent in other games.

Quoting: RedWyvernThat's significant

Yes...... "RedWyvern" with a Green Wyvern avatar is a bit sus........

I'm more curious why they had to enable HDR for the SteamDeck anyway.
It's running through Proton, if Windows had HDR why wouldn't Linux (through Proton) not have HDR? Unless they made specific graphic settings for SteamDeck?

Quoting: usrtrvI'm more curious why they had to enable HDR for the SteamDeck anyway.
It's running through Proton, if Windows had HDR why wouldn't Linux (through Proton) not have HDR? Unless they made specific graphic settings for SteamDeck?

It was playable with HDR before, via putting SteamDeck=0 %command% -dx12 in the launch options. Make of that what you will, I don't have a deep enough understanding of what's going on.

Quoting: RedWyvern

QuoteI've actually never played this one, am I missing out on something here?

Yes, you absolutely are.

The game uses modern Tetris rules (outside of Classic mode), which differ wildly from traditional Tetris.
Initially they seem weird, quirky, maybe even glitchy, but they're very purposefully designed.
The more you get familiar with them, the more fun it gets to pull off weird tricks and score better in this way.
And a skill ceiling is practically non-existent, no matter how long you play you'll see (slow) improvements in your skill.

In the journey mode, they've pretty much turned Tetris in a spiritual experience, unlike any other game I'm aware of.
It's not shameful to start with beginner mode here if needed, this mode is an absolute must-play.

The effect modes all offer fun and unique spins on the Tetris gameplay, offering more variation than you'd expect from Tetris.
Don't be afraid of the online functionality popup here, it's only for sharing your scores, the gameplay all works offline.

Even the multiplayer is fun, the Connected mode is incredible and the competitive modes are fun too.
It generally works well, it uses good peer-to-peer hosting, which still depends on whichever system was appointed as host.

And the game continues to get updated and well supported, you can feel that the studios involved care first and foremost about having their game play well.
Earlier this year a pretty major 2.0 update was released, which implemented a lot of community feedback and expanded the effect modes.
Along with this performance update, they've been one of the first to show official gameplay on Deck too, in Tetris Effect: Connected Hands-On Gameplay Preview | Steam Deck.
It is important to note that Tetris Effect is a very graphically intensive game, though for casual modes it can be made playable on Vega 8 tier iGPUs.

Overall it's one of my all-time favourite and deeply respected games, this while I only picked it up on a whim as I liked playing basic Tetris on my graphical calculator.

That all sounds nuts. but a good enough jump from the one I played on the NES (or actually I also played a top-down-ish three-dimensional one on DOS back in the day) to justify playing it today. - I always worry they change things up too much from the essence of a classic game, but I suppose this is the closest I'll get for an updated modern version. Kinda like that Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+.

Quoting: MicHaeL_MonStaR

Quoting: RedWyvern

QuoteI've actually never played this one, am I missing out on something here?

Yes, you absolutely are.

The game uses modern Tetris rules (outside of Classic mode), which differ wildly from traditional Tetris.
Initially they seem weird, quirky, maybe even glitchy, but they're very purposefully designed.
The more you get familiar with them, the more fun it gets to pull off weird tricks and score better in this way.
And a skill ceiling is practically non-existent, no matter how long you play you'll see (slow) improvements in your skill.

In the journey mode, they've pretty much turned Tetris in a spiritual experience, unlike any other game I'm aware of.
It's not shameful to start with beginner mode here if needed, this mode is an absolute must-play.

The effect modes all offer fun and unique spins on the Tetris gameplay, offering more variation than you'd expect from Tetris.
Don't be afraid of the online functionality popup here, it's only for sharing your scores, the gameplay all works offline.

Even the multiplayer is fun, the Connected mode is incredible and the competitive modes are fun too.
It generally works well, it uses good peer-to-peer hosting, which still depends on whichever system was appointed as host.

And the game continues to get updated and well supported, you can feel that the studios involved care first and foremost about having their game play well.
Earlier this year a pretty major 2.0 update was released, which implemented a lot of community feedback and expanded the effect modes.
Along with this performance update, they've been one of the first to show official gameplay on Deck too, in Tetris Effect: Connected Hands-On Gameplay Preview | Steam Deck.
It is important to note that Tetris Effect is a very graphically intensive game, though for casual modes it can be made playable on Vega 8 tier iGPUs.

Overall it's one of my all-time favourite and deeply respected games, this while I only picked it up on a whim as I liked playing basic Tetris on my graphical calculator.

That all sounds nuts. but a good enough jump from the one I played on the NES (or actually I also played a top-down-ish three-dimensional one on DOS back in the day) to justify playing it today. - I always worry they change things up too much from the essence of a classic game, but I suppose this is the closest I'll get for an updated modern version. Kinda like that Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+.

That MS-DOS version would be Welltris, I don't think it was succesful but it's mentioned in most Tetris history documentaries on YouTube.

The main difference is the modern or old Tetris rules, you can try the new rules with M+KB at Tetris.com.
These modern rules are like a completely different game, good fun after adjusting to them if you're open to the superrotation weirdness.
On top of the new rules, Tetris Effect's main addition is the Zone, a scoring mode that also sees use as a Connected mechanic.

Tetris Effect's Classic Mode is basically NES Tetris if you want to stick to the old rules, you can even compete in it online if you like, with CTWC like score battle with identical RNG.
This is with low stakes, just some levelling.