Have you ever stopped mid game and thought, “do you know what (insert whatever you’re playing here) needs more of? TETRIS!” No? Me either. But the fine folks at ABX Games Studio thought it would be awesome to mix up the platforming genre with some good ol’ block placement with TETRA’s Escape.

What’s a Tetra you ask? No clue, but I am assuming it’s one of those little cube fellows that you make meander back and forth across the screen (editor’s note: likely short for tetromino). What are they escaping? Again, I don’t have the slightest idea. There isn’t much of a story, but I don’t think this game would’ve gained much by including one. You’ll start the game off with an extremely simplistic level, requiring you to make the little square guy collect a star and walk through a portal. Yes, it’s that simple – the first few levels of this game are the participation trophy of gaming. After a few more levels, the ability to transform your Tetras will come into play – this allows certain colored cubes to transform (or sacrifice themselves if you will), and change shape (always modeling the Tetris style shapes) allowing one of the remaining Tetras to climb over its corpse and reach the goal. Each level is fairly basic and follows the same formula of collecting the stars and the additional trophy that appears upon acquiring all of the stars, then booking it for the exit.

So, if you’re wondering why I mentioned block corpses, it’s because when you transform one of them and sacrifice them to whatever quad sided God they are worshiping, they are planted there until the end of time. Unless you screw up and box yourself in, whichever comes first. Many games that run on this formula have a nifty feature that let you restart the level quick and easy, with the press of a single button. Sadly, someone missed the memo that this was a thing, as it requires you to go into the menu, restart the level, and sit through (an often overwhelmingly long) load screen. I know this is a first world complaint. Death by any other means (usually failing with gravity) will result in a rather quick respawn at the start of your level.

Much like when playing Tetris, the levels are broken up into grids that your Tetras can move along, one space at a time. Outside of the ability to change their shape, their tool box is rather lacking, with a single jump that can be used. While the cubed beings have mastered the art of jumping one block forward vertically, they cannot jump in place straight into the air, which means you’ll have to use the other blocks to create stairs toward your goal.

TETRA’s Escape gets a bit more challenging during the second world once it hits its stride, although the puzzles are far from difficult and never reach the levels of frustration brought on by the recent Road to Ballhalla. Around the point that I was about to chalk the title up to being a simple puzzler aimed at the elementary school crowd, out of nowhere, the game decided it was going to require me to think out all of my moves prior to laying down the first piece, often requiring me to start the level over a few times due to boxing myself in.

Despite my morbid jokes making this much more gory or horrifying than it truly is, TETRA’s Escape is a fun adventure that is fit for the entire family, providing they have the metal fortitude to complete the many challenges thrown your way. This would have been even more prevalent had the devs opted to include a co-op mode, which could have worked in the vein of Overcooked requiring everyone to work in tandem to complete their goal. Without this option, we took turns passing the controller back and forth, working as a team to complete the small challenges.

The game performs well in almost every aspect with the exception of the load times. The initial load time rivals that of Skyrim in terms of taking far too long to get going, with mid game loads taking almost as long. It’s quite random, and in comparison to other indie games of this size and scope, it’s borderline unacceptable. While it’s nothing to write home about, the overall presentation works as it should, with its basic, brightly colored visuals, accessible controls, and token polyphonic music.

TETRA’s Escape is hard game to score. It’s a fun, simplistic game that is perfect for gamers on the go, featuring short, bite sized challenges that could easily be completed during some down time; as a console game, it feels a bit lacking unless you’re looking for something to play with younger children. I would only recommend the game if you fall into one of these groups, as the challenge presented will likely bore you within minutes.

6 out of 10

Pros

• Unique Premise
• Short Levels That Are Great for Mobile Gaming
• Underwhelming Difficulty

Cons

• Difficulty Spikes for Younger Players
• Ridiculously Long Load Times

TETRA’s Escape was developed by ABX Games Studio and published by Ratalaika Games. It launched on PC, NS, PS4, Vita and X1 in early August, 2018 for $4.99. The game was provided to us for review on X1. If you’d like to see more of TETRA’s Escape, check out the Publisher’s Page.

 

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