Fez Review - Xbox 360

You may have heard of Fez for a variety of reasons - some of them may be good and some of them may be bad. The discussion on Phil Fish’s personality and comments on modern Japanese gaming isn’t what this article is about; I'm here to review Fez.

Fez is a newly released game currently on the Xbox Live Arcade; I purchased it on a whim due to its colourful yet pixelated retro-style screenshots. Right from the get-go Polytron’s logo shone brightly on my screen, presented with a whimsical 8-bit tone... and then the game crashed.

A quick re-launch brought me to the main menu; new games, bugs happen. Diving headfirst into the world of Fez, I am presented with a cute white creature, stuck in a lovely looking 2D sprite room, complete with Drum-Kit. It is clear to see that Fez knows what style it is aiming for; the music, graphics, animations and world, everything is a throwback to retro-gaming with a pinch of modern.

Exploring the village and speaking with NPCs, I was presented with dialogue lines such as “My favourite shape is a square, definitely not a cube, definitely not.” The game uses this section to teach the very simplistic climbing mechanics as well as showing us how to interact with NPCs. Proceeding onward Gomez, our protagonist, is teleported into a strange dimension after a short conversation with an NPC. A large 3D cube present above Gomez rotates, seemingly displaced from the 2D space that the game sets itself in, and then something beautiful happens! A Fez descends from the heavens landing squarely on Gomez’s head, whom then immediately erupts into a happy ecstasy.

Gomez and Fez

The game now introduces to us its main mechanic, the reason we’ve all heard of this game... the ability to rotate the 2D world in 3D space. Upon following the tutorial to do this, the game promptly breaks as the cube shatters into 32 pieces, booting into an old BIOS boot-load screen complete with the noises I would associate with a ZX Spectrum crashing. The journey begins here. Collect the 32 golden cubes scattered across the world, along with 32 anti-cubes, a selection of artefacts and treasure maps.

Rotating the 2D world becomes a subconscious, or at least it should do. It lessens journey time when used appropriately and it changes the way you think about the traditional platforming routes. Changing years of hardened tradition isn’t easy, but Fez achieves it with absolute ease, providing new ways to utalise the rotation mechanic throughout the game. One minute Gomez will find a new type of interactive object, the next he will be forced to rotate 2D space on the fly to utalise it in timed situations. Mastering this mechanic is the core of Fez and even after hours of play, I find myself pleasantly surprised how routes and platforms spring up, change and appear to meet me from a simple rotation.

The level design compliments the rotation mechanic, and I can’t fathom the thought that must have went into each and every level of the game, with inaccessible platforms reachable just from a quick rotation. Several varieties of worlds are available to the player with two central hub worlds, each connected via a large number of doors and warp-gates. Puzzles and various objects present themselves throughout the levels, I find myself franticly checking the world-map (which looks astounding when zoomed out by the way), looking for that lovely golden border around my current position, indicating that the room/area is complete and devoid of any hidden objects. 

Gomez, complete with Lighthouse and Fez

Checking every nook and cranny of each room, the levels are covered in writing; cryptic messages and clues, each with their own meaning and connection to the ‘Fez Alphabet’. One corner of the game-world the alphabet is spelled out to the player using an old familiar saying, something that I won’t spoil here, but was particularly useful. Any death that the player may find themselves experiencing (this will be frequent) is recovered by an almost instant respawn where you left of, meaning death doesn’t feel like a punishment, just a learning tool to try out new routes, solutions, or just simply try again.

Fez even goes as far as to make connections to the player, puzzles that are solved through the use of QR codes, and the way Fez used an age old function in controllers that we take for granted, as a solution to a puzzle is something I haven’t seen before. Puzzles that require the player to pay attention to his real-world self or use real-world objects are one of the few things that have truly blown my mind about Fez.

Priding itself on its visuals, the game is littered with moving sprites, be it animals, or people. The game is overcast in a day and night cycle which projects colours of orange, yellow and blue across an already beautifully designed world. From cities, to forests, sewers and ruins, the game never lets up its beauty, and this is only further enhanced with its gorgeous soundtrack.

Orange and pink light the sky as dusk settles in

Throughout the game, composer Disasterpeace provides a wonderful soundtrack that enhances and matches Fez’s visuals. From the relaxing main-menu screen right through to the other 25 additional tracks each is encompassed in a retro 8-bit feel that few games can match. Writing this review to Fez’s soundtrack, I am briefly reminded of Minecraft’s own calming tunes which strike a similar nature.

This is one of the few games that have made me break out a pen and note-pad. Scribbling down combinations and symbols akin to the Fez World, my notepad is full of dots and shapes, reminding me of certain rooms to go back to along with various access doors. The game seemingly puts a lot of emphasis on the player, be it from the real-world connections or the ability for a player to forgo his conceptions about route and platforming in favour of something new and fresh. That is what Fez feels: refreshing.

Moving onto technical issues, there were only a few that I encountered, the aforementioned game crash bug I mentioned at the beginning has only happened twice, and any frame-rate issues only occur when transitioning between stages; this is hardly an inconvenience.

It is a real shame that players will miss out on this game, either because of its limited console release, or because of their views on Phil Fish. I feel that if you can purchase this game at all, you owe yourself to do so. This game is built with love and retro in mind, bringing so much to the table that makes me feel that this game will have a place in my favourites. Hopefully it will see a PC release sometime soon so that even more people can experience it.  I can see this game having its own cult following, if it hasn’t obtained one already.

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Being my first review, I would love for everyone who reads this to give me your feedback. Tell me what is good, what is bad, what I can do to improve, anything at all. 

Send an email to GratedCheeseGameReviews@gmail.com with your feedback, and I’ll be sure to take it onboard.