FEZ | Review

By: Ryan Seiler

Posted: August 5, 2012

Vaporware has been condensing recently, with Duke Nukem Forever hitting the shelves after years of development. Compared to that abomination and its generational gap development time, Fez’s five year nostalgia-taunt seems tame. Since 2007 Fez has routinely made its presence known, soaking up every indie and innovation award it could get its grubby little mitts on. But since 2007, when graphical superiority was all the rage and an NES-inspired puzzle platformer was a step outside the box, a huge portion of indie developers have begun using “8-Bit” aesthetics. So can Fez hold its own among today’s sea of retro puzzle platformers?

Story

One day, in a two dimensional floating village, Gomez, a little white anthropomorphic blob, is bestowed the magical fez, which grants the cute little guy the ability to flip his world into the third dimension, revealing beforehand unseen areas. In doing so he finds the mythical tetrahedron -- a cube – which promptly explodes, sending its pieces to all corners of Gomez’s flat, hovering little world and threatening to tear apart time and space. Being the only person able to navigate the newly discovered third dimension, Gomez must collect every lost piece of the tetrahedron in order to restore balance to the universe.

Story 8/10

Gameplay

Ever hold your hand out, close one eye and “pinch” someone like you’re squishing a berry? Well FEZ assumes that is possible. Each level is based on a cubic structure. The four sides of that “cube” are visible, one at a time, as the cube is “turned”. Once flipped, each area lines up and becomes two dimensional once more. What once was an impassable gap, becomes a leisurely stroll when two structures are aligned. “Lining up” objects and buildings across 90 degree turns proves to be incredibly simple at first and mind-bendingly hard when utilized to its fullest potential. Luckily the puzzles never feel unfair. You are always to blame; usually because you completely overlooked a puzzle’s very existence, leading to many palm-to-forehead related injuries.

The goal in FEZ is to collect 32 cubes; each of which contains eight individual pieces that, for the most part, need to be collected separately.  Obtaining every shard is a daunting task, although some cubes can be found intact. A few pieces are placed right in Gomez’s path and are, of course, easy to grab. Others range from difficult to “there’s no way I’m doing this without a walkthrough” tough. On more than one occasion, I strolled into a room I knew a collectable was hiding in only to confront an empty space. Instances such as this can serve to either encourage or frustrate depending on one’s preference for puzzle solving.  Back in the empty room, I knew something was amiss thanks to an invaluable map, which displays every level via a web structure. Each level shows exactly where rooms connect to each stage, and if any collectables are still to be found. Not how many pieces are in the level, just if you have or have not collected all of them yet.

Gomez controls a bit like a wet sponge. He’s not very fast and sticks to whatever surface he touches. He does a solid job platforming thanks to his slow, less than touchy controls though, so it’s forgivable. But even his animations take their sweet time. Although overwhelmingly cute, seeing little Gomez plop down to the ground or shimmy up a wall wears on you when backtracking and impatiently moving through already completed areas. On that note, yes, you will backtrack, but only if you have yet to complete the area in question. So don’t just run around aimlessly collecting here and there if you hate experiencing the same area more than once.

Being a platformer, you wouldn’t be wrong for expecting some sort of enemies. But there are precisely zero throughout the entire game. In no way does it harm the experience, as it in fact adds to the void, empty feeling the game exudes. Gomez is alone on his journey. Just watch out for the falls, and literal voids ripping open throughout the game.

Remember having to take notes when playing a video game? Having to remember a certain phrase, symbol, or language? FEZ sure does! Thankfully for some, it isn’t required to beat the game. There are 32 negative cubes scattered across Gomez’s world, all cryptically hidden behind difficult puzzles, careful platforming and Stanley Kubrick levels of detail. Every negative cube adds to your main cube count so you may not even need all original 32 to beat Polytron’s little mind bender. If, however, you wish to get the game+ ending, which requires all 64 cubes and every treasure, you will be in for a long ride filled, most likely, with plenty of internet guidance.  Here’s a hint; there are symbols hidden throughout the levels. In one, a quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Good luck!

Gameplay 9/10

Presentation

Pixels were once all we had in our little 2D video games, and it worked just fine. Then 3d came along, tackled 2D to the ground, stomped on it, and went on its merry way. Reading between the lines of FEZ, you can glean that the developers have the same mindset. What with a happy 2D world being destroyed once 3D was unleashed. Nowadays 2D and pixels have had a second coming. Playable minimalist art if you will. And FEZ is playable minimalist art. Each environment is unique, heavily detailed and full of color. You’ll play through seaside nautical levels, horror graveyard levels, and even a few GameBoy levels where every color other than that puke green has been muted. The locales feel devoid of life and full of lonlieness while looking so rich and alive; it’s a haunting atmosphere, yet so joyous.

The soundtrack is beautiful. Created by Disasterpiece the chiptune album fits FEZ better than some orchestras fit the stage. Ambience isn’t something you often get from an “8-Bit” soundtrack. Usually they shoot for an arcadey action theme meant to keep the player on edge. Yet FEZ makes you feel alone, delighted, scared, mystified and everything in between. And it does so through visuals and audio alone. 

Presentation 10/10

Overall

FEZ loves video games. It loves them so much it added to an already overflowing genre and set the bar higher while doing so. With ingenious level design, stunning visuals and one of the most perfectly suited soundtracks ever, FEZ should be placed among Limbo and Braid as one of the landmark indie games of our time, and one that serves as a love letter to a bygone era.

FEZ 9/10

Game Info

Platform: XboxLive Arcade
ESRB: E
PEGI: 3

Publisher: Microsoft Studios, Trapdoor

Developer: Polytron
Release Date: April 13,2012