Fez is Amazing (if you let it be)
At first glance, Phil Fish’s indie platformer Fez appears to be a game with a single gimmick: being able to rotate a 3D world and traverse it as if it were a 2D platformer a la Crush or Super Paper Mario. While this is a unique concept that prevents the game from drowning in the sea of other indie platformers, it not the reason you should be playing Fez.
Gameplay
The first half of the game starts you off collecting floating cubes to unlock doors to new areas which lead to more cubes, which allow you to unlock yet more themed areas (think stars in Mario 64). These challenges consist of some classic platforming paired with the game’s world-rotation mechanic. This stuff is fine and good, but, again, Fez isn’t really worth recommending just for the platforming. The platforming makes the game okay, but it really only gets challenging once you’ve beaten the game once and have started New Game+.
For every cube you collected in the first play-through, there is an anti-cube with a devious puzzle surrounding it, making you go through some complex mental acrobatics to solve them. As you get deeper and deeper into the game and its more advanced puzzles, the once-challenging platforming just fades into the background. The puzzles themselves are hard to describe without giving everything away. The advanced challenges layer on top of one another, so beating one complex puzzle can be a prerequisite for understanding a relatively simple one later. Solutions range from rotating the screen in a certain pattern to deciphering entire tomes of scrambled lore. As the complexity ramps up, players shouldn’t be afraid to get out a notebook to work things out on paper or ask for hints on message boards (like this one) to surpass the limitations of his or her own mind.
Presentation
Words can’t do this part justice, so go watch the trailer and maybe listen to the soundtrack, linked at the bottom of this post. If you can though, I recommend not listening to the whole thing until you’ve found all the areas in the game, as discovering the music for each world really makes the environments memorable.
The art style of Fez conjures up memories of classic games while still fitting in with modern games with its graphical complexity. From the obvious NES and GameBoy-inspired visual filters to the easy-to-miss Legend of Zelda poster in the player’s room, it is plain to see the influence by classic 8-bit gaming. As mentioned earlier, the game nearly forces the player to bust out notebooks of graph paper, which players of the original Metroid may remember doing while exploring Zebes on the NES.
As the player travels, chiptunes created by the artist Disasterpiece make the world feel lonely, yet lived in. The soundtrack by itself is great for working to, as it doesn’t get in the way of the thought process and never distracts the listener from what he’s already doing. This works great in such an involved game as Fez.
Conclusion
Fez is window into the mind of its madman creator, Phil Fish, who has dedicated his young adult life to creating this love letter to video games. If you’re willing to let it absorb you, this game will keep you up at night with its mind-bending puzzles. Given the meager $10 price point, you can’t go wrong trying this out with this contender for list of must-play games of 2012.
Gameplay: ★★★★☆
Presentation: ★★★★★
Overall Value: ★★★★★
Other stuff
Here’s how I recommend a new player approach this game:
- Explore. If you think you’re stuck, just move on. Go to rooms that aren’t colored gold on your map and search for more doors.
- If you really and honestly get stuck, don’t hesitate to get a notebook out and take notes on the confusing things you find. Eventually, things should click. Taking notes will be necessary because clues in one room will relate to puzzles across the entire map.
- If patterns don’t start coming together, go to a message board (like this one maybe) and ask for hints. Be wary of spoilers though (don’t use guides like on GameFAQs), as being able to solve the whole game on your own will make you feel like a genius.
- Some puzzles are genuinely unsolvable. Once you know you only have a few things left and you’ve really racked your brain with them, don’t worry about spoilers and go ahead and look for the answers.
Links:
Soundtrack: http://disasterpeace.com/album/fez
