Video Game Review: Fez

One of most insanely brilliant games ever made? You bet.

Fez is magical. I truly believe that. From the moment I started playing right the end, I was sucked into a fantastic, vibrant magical world. I was exploring worlds, solving puzzles, classic platforming reminiscent of old Nintendo games. Fez has it all. This is one game I’ll recommend to everyone, even to non-gamers, if only to watch and figure out the mind-bending puzzles.

You are Gomez, a little 2D person who lives in his two-dimensional world. Everything is normal, until a mysterious 3D cube shows up, turning the world on its head. Gomez acquires a little red fez, and the power to see things from a 3D perspective. With his new hat, Gomez sets out into the new dimension to get back the cubes and save the day!

First of all, Fez is gorgeous. Lovely vibrant pixel art is packed into the game. Very well textured and designed, you never get bored of it. The animations are wonderful too, with little animal sprites popping all over the levels. Gomez is full of life, with a little sidekick called Dot to help him on his way.

The main crutch of Fez is the ability to rotate 2D worlds. Gomez can change his perspective of a world at any given time. This means that there are many different ways to solve puzzles and move around the environment. In a second-rate platformer this gimmick would outstay its welcome, but Fez‘s levels are so marvellously crafted that you don’t get tired of it.  There are no enemies or bad guys. There is also no penalty for death. If Gomez should fall, he is merely teleported back to where he once was. This encourages players to explore, giving them a lot more freedom.

If level rotating is the bones of the game, then puzzles are the meat. And boy are they delicious! Fez is ridiculously awesome when it comes to puzzles. They are a few simple ones that don’t require much brainpower to use. There are others that just require good platforming skills. However, there are some which will break your brain. I found myself jotting down notes and codes, anything out of the ordinary in case it could be relevant later. It forced me to really  think about how many angles I could view a problem from. At points it presented me with a QR code, so I had to download a scanner to utilise it! I had to learn a whole new language to crack codes! I combed through achievement titles, in case there was a hint somewhere. A game this imaginative really stressed my creativity, but always rewarded me when I got it right.

Fez pays homage to a lot of retro games. There are codes made up of Tetris blocks, there are loads of noises and sounds that reminded me of old SNES games. All of this is accompanied by one of the best video game soundtracks I have ever heard. A melee of brilliant electronic music, it perfectly captures the feel of the game. Mark my words, you WILL be humming the theme tune long after it’s finished.

Fez is a gaming masterpiece. I absolutely love it to bits. One of the most unique games I have had the pleasure to play, you can bet that I’ll be playing this game for a long time, just to be transported back into its magical world.