Rachel Reviews: Fez

What is Fez?

As strange as it might seem, I'm having problems classifying Fez.  It's a 2D platform puzzler in that the game is 2D and there are platform based puzzles to solve, but it has a 3D world that can be rotated by ninety degrees to shift perspective and find solutions with a different 2D view of the same thing.  This sort of trickery isn't exactly new.  Paper Mario had something similar where the world could be rotated to avoid some obstacles.  Echochrome is another example of perspective play, with a series puzzles to solve.  Neither of these have an actual completely 3D world to explore and get lost in, and getting lost is kind of easy to do.  It's easy to see how this kind of perspective play has been done before but the result is something completely unique.

Gameplay

The game plays much as you'd expect a 2D platformer to work.  The character, Gomez, moves left and right, jumps up to ledges, and drops down from them.  There are plants and ladders to climb which helps with exploration and they are sometimes needed to solve puzzles, and sometimes they are the puzzle.

There are no monsters or bad guys to fight, just golden cubes and cube shards to find.  It is possible to die though, but there's no real penalty or Game Over result from this.  Falling too high kills Gomez but it's not a huge setback as you return to the last stable platform you were on.  I say stable as some of them move.  While it can be if you die a lot trying to solve a problem, it's not as bad as it could be, like if you had to start the whole thing again.

The world rotation adds a lot to the puzzles.  Because the world is a full 3D world and perspective plays a hug part in the game, rotating the world allows you to get to places that wouldn't be accessible otherwise.  You might see where you have to go and it might seem impossible but rotating the world could reveal that it is actually really simple, though it might require a few rotations.

Graphics

The graphics are beautiful yet simple at the same time.  It's very reminiscent of the 8-bit era in it's aesthetics and style, but it's all very sharp and clear.  It has a very old school feel which only adds to the charm of this game and the high definition graphics allows it to do more complex things.  Standing by a door you've been through will show a preview of what's on the other side, and this preview is what you see when you look at the map of the world.

Overall Verdict

Fez is a charming game that looks and feels old school and simple while actually being innovative and highly complex.  Once you get into the game a bit and you understand how it works you'll be doing things that other people wouldn't think of when face with a 2D game and a platform they need to get to but can't jump far enough.  Amazing in every sense of the word, this is one game that everyone needs to get.

The only downside is that you might become addicted and it might just break your brain.