Fez Review: Trading Perspectives

When I was really young, a lot of older kids in my neighborhood were really into The Legend of Zelda for the NES. When I played it, I hadn't played much else. At the age of 7, I thought the goal of Zelda was to run around shooting/swords at bad guys. Puzzles? No clue. Getting other items and upgrades through logical progression? What does that even mean because I'm 7 years old. Later I came to realize that the allure of the first Zelda game was its inherent mystery and the risks and rewards of exploration; a far cry from more modern games including Zelda sequels. The fun and frustration of mystery has been replaced by the yin-yang of accessibility. Because I missed that chance with Zelda, Fez is a game for me. Fez may or may not be a game for you.

What is Fez? You play Gomez, a resident of a 2D world whose inhabitants claim that 3D shapes are simply “non-possible”. There is no third dimension except OH WAIT THERE TOTALLY IS. Some cube-looking entity shows up, wrecks your shit in a spectacularly meta way, and Gomez gets the titular Fez, allowing him to shift his 2D perspective 90 degrees to the left or right. Though he perceives the third dimension, Gomez's brain can't cognitively sort out depth, so each perspective is smushed back down to 2D terms, making new paths: the crux to solving traversal issues as well as solving puzzles. If you've ever played Crush or Echochrome, you've seen perspective-play in action before. Though intimidating at first, this perspective-based platforming quickly becomes so routine that newcomers may watch you play and wonder how your skull managed to withstand your brain's internal explosion. So what else is there to do? Puzzles that make sure your brain stays exploded.

FEZ LAUNCH TRAILER

While most modern games focus on guiding player experience, Phil Fish and company wanted to bring back not just mystery in open worlds of the non-crime-spree variety but also, an attempt to understand what a game can try, and is trying to tell you in every form but real language. After an incredibly brief tutorial in a kiddy-pool of sorts, you're quickly granted free license to swim the entire metaphorical ocean. Furthermore, you have the basic tools you need to go anywhere and solve anything. There are no monsters to fight--like many modern games, death in Fez is rare and hardly an inconvenience. Instead, you're battling enigmatic clues, a made-up language, and a test of how games-literate you are.

This is where things get divisive. I agree mostly with Phil Fish when he urged players to avoid the Internet when solving Fez's puzzles. Impatience often drives me to the FAQ-safety-blanket, but I rob myself of the sense of discovery and accomplishment every time I do so. I'm glad I played the game early, prior to the inevitable FAQs that will expertly & coldly dissect the game's inner trappings. I often got stuck and sometimes frustrated during Fez. But I also solved some puzzles that were truly challenging, making Zelda's best puzzles feel like a paint-by-numbers book. Fez's puzzle-solving mostly takes place literally outside of the game, whether it be because you're taking notes or scanning a QR code with your smartphone (don't worry, the QR codes are optional). Though most of these puzzles are clever, there are many that you will solve and not be sure what you did to solve them other than dumb luck. Others are so abstract and mysterious, that even if you do find the solution elsewhere, you'll wonder how anyone logically solved it. I'm currently in New Game + with items whose functions I have yet to discern.



These puzzles are the opposite of the hand-holding tutorials that permeate triple-A games made by hundreds of people with millions of dollars invested. They want to ensure the easiest experience for the widest range of people. And that's fine. And that's not Fez. Many puzzles leave almost everything to your imagination. an opposition to the fault of hand-holding games never letting you try anything, some of Fez's puzzles don't work because you're too busy trying everything. Sure, you'll flip some switches and move some blocks, but you'll also be translating symbols, drawing maps, and writing notes. And though a lack of contextual info means more possible solutions to work through, there is a discernible lack of feedback from the game up until you've finally solved a puzzle. Or you'll get to just before that point and not deem it worth the effort. And that's fine too.

Even if you don't think you'll be that kind of person, or if you're not sure, there's plenty in Fez to see that you can experience without finding all of its secrets. Polytron have done incredible work with the 3D/2D visuals in their Trixel engine, but more importantly, the art direction and fourth-wall breaking moments are what really stand out visually. Various areas utilize vibrant, consistent color schemes, and certain cutscenes will make you wonder whether or not the in-game performance hiccups are intentional or not. The ambient, sometimes foreboding and sinister soundtrack by Diasterpiece makes me feel like I'm playing in a cartoon world made by someone who just watched a Darren Aronofsky flick or Donnie Darko, so naturally I love it. When I heard the soundtrack being described as chiptune, I imagined something much different (for the worse), but the soundtrack perfectly sets the tone of Gomez's world on the verge of either salvation or destruction. These all tie back into the gameplay elements in ways that show that Polytron knows what medium they are using to create their experience. This is the gamiest game I've played in a long time. It speaks through gameplay and sound instead of exposition; it shows more through environments instead of cutscenes or scripted events.


Full disclosure: I've been waiting five stupid years for this to come out, and though I try to avoid getting swept up in hype, I was at least relieved to finally have the finished product in my hard drive. As of this writing, I have solved 40+ of the 64 (or more) puzzles. The hardest ones have only been solved by a small group of people whom have yet to drop any hints or spoil the whole game entirely, and for now, I'm glad that they're waiting.



Polytron have made a game that not only encapsulates the visuals and sounds of an 8- or 16-bit game, and then ran them through a digital version of Pink Floyd's The Wall, but they've also captured the trappings that surrounded those games during the pre-Internet days. If you were the kid who actually wrote notes in the backs of NES instruction manuals, or at least were upset that you didn't get that kind of experience of playing a game steeped in mystery and abstract clues, Fez will bring you that feeling and more. The lack of constant feedback allows the game and the player room to breathe and ruminate, though the lack of feedback during puzzles might get to be too much for some. The esoteric nature will either be what keeps you invested in Fez, or what forces you to walk away.


More info:
Fez is a game currently for Xbox Live Arcade, with tentative plans to be released on Windows PCs. It costs $10 in Microsoft space dubloons, and you should probably try the demo first if you're still not sure.

Official Fez website

Fez soundtrack with streaming samples

I'm so glad I got through that review without making a single Doctor Who reference.