Making games isn't easy, especially indie games. Small studios with employees you can count on one hand producing a deeply personal product for people to buy and for assholes like me to scrutinize. Nobody likes having their work criticised but speaking as an artist myself its an essential part of producing bigger, better and even more personal works of art.
Some people however cannot take criticism to help themselves grow and developer of puzzle-platformer Fez, Phil Fish, is the industries #1 example of this. Thanks to Indie Game the Movie we got to see Fish as Fez was in its final stages of development, where he battled with legal issues and disappointed fans due to the games lengthy development time. This can be a lot to deal with, however Fish didn't deal with this appropriately and made himself the centre of attention, not his product due to irrational behaviour. More recently Fish has caused argument over his opinion of videogames from other cultures and his cancellation of a sequel to Fez due to several unnecessary arguments over Twitter.
Though Fish may come off as a ignorant and at times nasty person, we cant deny that Fez is in its own right an amazing game, one that he cared deeply for and one that was worth the wait.
First released in 2012, Fez is a rather unique puzzle-platformer. Though it is presented in a 2D style and gameplay takes place on a 2D plane, the world of Fez is actually a 3D environment and one that requires being explored in 3D to complete puzzles, and how do you do that? By turning the world of course.
By pressing the shoulder buttons/triggers you turn the world 90 degrees and doing so change the landscape. At first its difficult to wrap your head around this mind bending task but as you progress through the game you begin to master the games unique laws of physics and as such the puzzles become much more tricky to complete, requiring you to be in certain places at certain times of the day, decode treasure maps and even learn a new language. Its these things that separate Fez from your standard, run of the mill indie game and make it something much more ambitious and something rather special.
Your goal in Fez is to collect 32 pieces of a shattered golden cube and re-assemble it. There is no “story” to Fez as such, but it does follow little guy Gomez's journey across lands and dimensions he never knew existed.
The more you begin to understand the mechanics behind Fez, the more it has to offer you. You must also collect 32 pieces to an anti-cube, because of course every positive has a negative in scientific terms. Not to mention all the other hidden secrets the game has to offer you in the form of hidden treasure, artefacts and without spoiling too much, yet another another dimension.
Fez is a game that keeps on giving, when you find out something new, you learn a new mechanic, when you learn a new mechanic you are given access to another games worth of content. Every inch of Fez oozes its lengthy development time and thank god for it.
Fez is presented in a retro-style, pixilated graphics with a soundtrack to match. However every millimetre of terrain in Fez has had hours of attention and the detail is absolutely staggering. Just at a glance, the game looks stunning and will never age a day. But look beyond it at the dynamic weather, integration of time and its own language system, plus the care over making puzzles challenging, yet never impossible if you know the games secrets. You'll never have anything handed to you with Fez, you'll have to look for it all, which is not a bad thing as I could look at it for days.
The soundtrack not only adds atmosphere to the game but it is a great soundtrack in its own right, something I would happily listen to outside of the game.
That being said, Fez is not perfect, nothing is. The game's difficulty fluctuates frequently and at times can become irritating when you have been staring at a puzzle for half an hour, only to realise you don't have an artefact you need to finish it, or when the puzzle is so vague that you simply cant work out what is required of you. There are a couple of times when out of desperation I looked at a guide and still be confused as to how I was supposed to figure that out. It also introduces random black hole appearances later on in the game, some of which blocked pathways to the point where no matter what I did, I simply couldn't progress onwards in that area.
Its also short, coming in at around 4 hours for a 32 cube search and that's with some struggle here and there. A 64 cube search however requires you to start a new game + as certain mechanics required to find some cubes will be locked out until a second playthrough which is a cheap attempt at increasing lifespan if you ask me.
But despite these problems, Fez is still one of the best indie games on the market today. Its an experience that is worth the price and more for several reasons, even if people who refuse to look up puzzle solutions may never finish the game.
Its an instance where I almost don't want to like the game because of someone who was involved in its development, but ultimately I praise him for having the idea for the game in the first place. No matter your opinion on Fish, Fez is a game everyone should play.
Fez – 9/10
+Extremely Unique Gameplay
+The Sheer Depth & Complexity Of It All
+Beautiful Art Style
+Amazing Soundtrack
-Alienating Difficulty
-Short
