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On its surface, Fez is a title of simple ambition. It's a simplified platformer with no penalty of death and no enemies, which is rounded out by solving a series of puzzles. If you go into the game with that mindset alone, then chances are your experience in Fez will be exactly that.
It is quite possible to "beat" the game without having ever really scratched the surface of all that the game has to offer. It is when you begin to peel back the layers that you really start to see that yeah, you most certainly got your money's worth with your purchase of Fez.
It's that moment when you really begin to look at the game from another angle that you can see there are multiple layers of rather deep gameplay and mysteries you never expected. Gameplay that is set in a world where tetrominos hold the keys to deeply rooted secrets. A world where an entirely separate alphabet was created. Where QR codes hold the keys to solving puzzles and raising all new questions.
Fez is a puzzle title that goes beyond expectations. It's up to you as to whether or not this is a good thing and in our case at TGN it was a fantastic revelation.
A typical view as you rotate from one 2D plane to the next
Players begin the game as Gomez, a 2D character in a 2D world. It's only after a mysterious cube bestows a magical fez on our lead role that things take on a whole added dimension. With the fez firmly in place atop his head, Gomez can rotate his once 2D world on its axis to discover the third dimension. This opens up gameplay in ways you would never expect. If a platform seems too far out of reach on one side, simply rotate around and you may find it's a lot closer than you think.
Tasked with finding smaller cube pieces to create larger cubes, Gomez will run, jump, and rotate around his world to find all that he can. This typically means that you will enter a level and climb to the top, finding the pieces along the way. If you should happen to miscalculate a jump, there is nothing to worry about as Gomez cannot die. The game simply resets him back from the point at which he took his leap of faith.
The rotation mechanic isn't terribly hard to get a grasp of and the goals are fairly straight forward. In fact, if you want a straightforward, no frills game that doesn't require you to think too hard, than it is entirely possible to conquer the first half of the game and come to an ending. Granted, that is just one ending of what seems to be two possible outcomes.
Is "retro light and shadow" a thing? Because it should be
Of course, those of you who want more from their puzzle titles will not go away disappointed. The world of Fez is ripe with cryptic clues hidden in plain sight. Seemingly empty rooms hold far more than meets the eye. QR codes can be scanned with your QR code reader of choice. An alphabet can be decoded to find out even more clues that, once discovered, will grant Gomez the means to solve particularly difficult puzzles. It's this seemingly minor addition that adds a tremendous amount of depth to the game.
Not since the days of Myst have I ever had a need or a want to use a notepad to jot down my findings and try to figure things out outside of the game. Fez did this. For those who want a bit of an easy pass, there are already countless discussions on various forums that break down the game's bigger mysteries for you, but what is the fun in that?
Fez's world itself is an ever changing series of connected hubs, each main hub being visually distinct from one another and each offering up their own challenges to overcome. One hub will take you to a dark and stormy graveyard and next will be a bright and vibrant water world locale. The visuals are distinctly retro with everything sharing a pixel art style that works incredibly well here.
C'mon Gomez, you can make it!
The musical score continues this retro feel and features level appropriate compositions. Caves, graveyards, and all manner of dark locations feature Castlevania-like music that really set the tone for the level. Upbeat tempos punctuate the brighter and "normal" looking levels. While no actual voice work is included, the tones associated with character speech drive home the idea of retro in all the right ways.
While it is possible to obtain 32 cubes and beat the game, it's when you start the game again that you discover there are 32 additional cubes to find. Aided by your newfound New Game+ abilities, areas that were once without cubes suddenly reveal their hidden bounty. I won't ruin things too much here, but it is quite nice that Fez is almost like two games for the price of one.
For as engaging, fun, and challenging as Fez is, it's not without a few faults. Often times when transitioning between sections in the same level, the video gets a bit jerky. This sometimes becomes a bit distracting and takes away from what is an otherwise visually engaging game. Perhaps this is a result of background loading, but as we are not technical experts it's not our place to really speculate here.
While I personally haven't experienced this issue, it does seem as though the game will sometimes crash back to the Xbox 360 dashboard without warning. Fortunately, Fez features an auto-save system that kicks in quite often, so losing progress should never be much of a concern. It's also something that I'm sure can be easily fixed by a small patch. Aside from these fairly small issues, Fez is a game almost without fault.
Yes, that wall is crying and vomiting a waterfall
Fez is, without a doubt, one of the best purchases you can make on the Xbox Live Arcade. Having just a basic idea of what to expect, Fez blew me away with how deep the game's mysteries can go. Phil Fish, the creator of Fez, and Polytron have done a tremendous job here. They have created a puzzle title that will keep pulling you back for more.
I personally started Fez the other night and figured on just playing for a short bit before getting some sleep and continuing the next day. "A short bit" quickly turned into a couple of hours as I wanted nothing more than to try to figure out the deeper mysteries that Fez had in store. It is a game that I can't wait to return to, a trait that I really wish more games had in this day and age.
Fez is only 800 Microsoft Points, which is a mere $10 (USD) in real-world currency.
A special thank you goes out to Polytron for making this review possible. For more information on Fez, feel free to head on over to the game's official website.
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