Bastard Tetris is a blocky nightmare. It is also the best Tetris clone created in years. The interaction is an experience that is entirely about what Tetris is about, which is decisions based on a limited information set. In the case of Bastard Tetris, what is absolutely known about it is that the game itself is actively trying to create failure conditions, a uniquely challenging game as a result of the fact that games are typically built with fun in mind. Despite such an idea, the reality is that fun is typically best achieved by offering a player a challenge they know they can overcome, yet how to overcome it becomes an increasingly difficult question.
There are a number of ways to work around the tricky algorithm created by Bastard Tetris, but strategy is not so important to the discussion as the sense of fulfillment is when discovering solutions to a complicated problem. Part of the reason Chess is such a successful and renowned game is because of the fact that there are no easy answers, as the playstyle of each player is a focal point of each discussion about Chess. How one plays the game affects the flow of play over time and limits interactions while making other opportunities available.
In a similar sense, due to the limited nature of Tetris’s blocks, a challenge can be represented through algorithmic means to give a single player situation a similar gravity. The game itself knows many variable possibilities, much like a player who competes with another in Chess, yet there is always someone who comes out on top, excepting the stalemate. Tetris is a game of perpetual stalemate, where the solution to each puzzle interlude gives way to a new one, creating a continually evolving landscape of the player’s volitional creation.
Thus, while the rule set remains the same, the landscape is changing via the player’s interactions with it. One of the things that often frustrates players with modern videogames is the seemingly zero-sum game they are always playing with the machine. Any interaction never really matters until a certain point, and at that point, great changes occur. Case examples are too numerous to name, but common ones are character deaths, landscape restructuring, or plot doors. The player is entirely left out of the loop in these interactions, which matter greatly in relation to the experience. Examples where such relations are handled well are relatively few in number, but some great examples, such as those in Demon’s Souls or Battlefield Bad Company 2 show that space dynamism is excellent for emergent gameplay. In the same way, Bastard Tetris creates a situation where gameplay emerges as a challenge to the system.
Recommended: Yes