tetris is a young man's game. gotta think fast, be on your toes, react quickly. at first I thought [b]planaris 2+[/b] would be the same, but turns out it's not. well, not entirely, and there's nothing wrong with that, quite the contrary.
you get a grid and have to place various shapes on it so that they form horizontal or vertical lines and disappear, but in the campaign there's no timer, so you can take as long as you want to figure out your next move, and there's not one, but two upcoming pieces, and you can decide which one appears after placing the one you're holding. there's even a pocket to save a shape for later, or as a last chance when you run out of moves.
you'd think that with all these thrown in, the whole thing is a cakewalk. well, think again. levels come in various shapes and sizes, as do the pieces themselves, of course, so getting enough points to unlock the next level can take several attempts, not to mention reaching mastery, which is more or less double the regular score.
besides level shapes and sizes, there are other tricks up the game's sleeve. most common are [b]locks, appearing every few turns[/b]. you can move their spawn position to a random square by placing a piece on their countdown number, and when they show up, that square obviously gets locked until you clear an adjacent line to make them disappear. or explode a bomb next to them.
yes, [b]there are bombs[/b] too. random power-ups appear when you clear multiple lines at the same time and bombs are one of them, they explode in 3x3 when the line they're in disappears. crosses clear squares in all 4 directions in a full line and keys remove all the locks on the level. if you play your cards right (or just luck into it), there's some pretty fancy chain reactions to observe.
and sometimes there's fog of war, meaning you can't place anything on those tiles until you clear a line next to them. it also means they don't count as part of a line, so if you only have 3 squares available from a 10-square line, placing a 3-square-long shape there will count as a full line until the rest is opened up.
[b]the campaign has 74 levels[/b] laid out on a zoomable world map and you can decide where to go, which level to unlock next. most become available as you beat the score requirement on the one connected to it, which also gets you a star, and with enough stars (there are 84 altogether) some other levels open up, off the regular path, and those have further mechanics not present in the rest of the campaign. not gonna spoil everything here, but they're really fun.
[b]3 other game modes[/b] become available after the campaign's tutorial. [u]classic normal[/u] is a no-timer matching thing, like the campaign, but without goals and with more weird shapes. [u]classic multiplier[/u] rewards you if you're quick by increasing the multiplier, and [u]classic survival[/u] is like normal, but if the timer at the top runs out, it's game over. of course, placing things fast can prolong the run. they're all endless, but you're bound to fail eventually, then you can compare your score with others on the leaderboards.
[b]the ui is slick and elegant[/b], just like in the developer's other game, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1162370/]paper - a game of folding[/url], though there are no separate volume settings here, only music on/off, sound on/off and a master volume slider. audio levels are balanced, but I would've still liked more control. both [b]the sound effects and the music are great[/b] though.
the game supports keyboard, mouse and controller, I played with the mouse and had no issues. move pieces around, rotate them, if necessary, then place them. you might want to switch between the two upcoming pieces or pocket a piece, and that's all you need, because it's still basically tetris.
[b]I liked the presentation[/b] of the game itself as well. areas where you can't place the current shape are colored differently and everything is easily recognizable, like which lines are gonna disappear, etc. I found some color combinations a bit harsh (very red on very green, for example, especially when the end is near), but some are quite pleasant, and you can turn off background colors entirely if you so desire.
naturally, there's a lot of randomness in a game like this, and sure, it can get frustrating, especially when you finish 200 points shy of a 50k level goal or a 100k mastery score, and some of the layouts are very hard to handle, but I found it a lot of fun nonetheless, and thanks to non-linear progression, there are always multiple levels to try.
completing everything, and especially mastering each level will take many-many hours, and if you're into endless modes, the fun might never end. [b]I rarely pay full price for games, but this was worth every cent[/b], even if I won't be able to master all of it, and even just unlocking and completing campaign levels was quite a challenge sometimes. oh, and don't be alarmed if achievements don't pop while you're playing, they trigger when you exit the game.
