Fez
One of the many great things about this generation has been the rise of the Indie developer, although I’m unsure of what exactly defines a developer as Indie, their development teams can be as big as more mainstream developers. Perhaps it has something to do with Publishers.
However it is defined Fez is one of those Indie games that drew the attention of some, offering quirky platforming puzzles and intelligent use of 2D and 3D. After 5 years it has finally been released on the XBLA and it’s refreshing to see an original title appear amongst a sea of sequels.
In Fez you play the role of Gomez, a Simple, cartoonish, white Imp-like character living an ordinary life in a small village in an entirely 2D world. Visually it is simple yet effective, choosing lots of blocks over smooth round edges.
In the first couple of minutes a giant cube appears and gives Gomez a Fez (hence the game’s title) that completely changes the world from one that was entirely 2D to one that is 3D. You still move in 2D but now you can rotate the world to change its perspective.
On the surface Fez is a 2D platformer where you change the environment around you to open new paths. You do this by rotating the world with the triggers, showing doorways around corners, shrinking gaps between platforms, Pushing levers, etc.
While some of these puzzles are unique and the idea works very well, the actual jumping is a little off and you’ll find yourself missing jumps occasionally because you didn’t exactly right. There is also an arbitrary point when falling that if you pass you will die. Fortunately dying isn’t much of a penalty (you’ll respawn after a second in the last place you were safe) but going up is certainly easier than going down. This is slightly annoying as most of your navigation will be vertical.
Fez feels like it’s going to be about spatial awareness but then you discover more interesting elements. A lot of what Fez really is revolves around code breaking. Scattered throughout Gomez’s world there are lots of hidden secrets, usually centred on translating secrets from codes. There are three codes to translate, one letter code, one number code and one that relates to controller inputs.
Translating the codes however can be a pretty daunting challenge, particularly the letter code. The number code in particular is annoying to translate as there are things that look like hints that aren’t. For example there is a dice like object you can collect. Normally the two sides of a dice add up to 7 (i.e. 1 and 6 are opposites, so are 5 and 2, and 3 and 4). The dice object is not meant to be used for translating the numbers, but there is nothing to suggest that using the dice to translate the numbers is wrong. There’s a 10 on this dice but until you work out the numbers you won’t realise this.
There are hints scattered around the world but navigating it can be a bit of a bitch. The Map isn’t the best and finding the route between two rooms is needlessly difficult. The best thing to do is take notes when you play and take a good hard look at any classroom blackboards you find.
At time you feel like the game should give you bigger hints. The hints you do get a very vague and don’t really help. There are also some really horrible puzzles, some are QR codes and not everyone has a smartphone to read them (although you can still get everything without solving these puzzles), there’s a nasty red blinking light puzzle where the lights blink too fast and for too long to get the full sequence when just your eyes, and the less said about the puzzle that uses your system clock the better (xbox live updates your clock so you have to do this one offline, one hand moves every 6 hours or so waiting isn’t really an option).
Still you have to admire Fez for the original way it handles problem solving. Sometimes though it can feel too clever for its own good and could do with providing better hints to stop gamers running to GameFAQs.
Visually it looks very basic but it fits well with the overall theme of the game. Same goes for the soundtrack although there are moments where both are used to great effect.
For all its ambition and originality Fez suffers from being a little too smart and a little horrible to the player. Some horrible puzzles, terrible navigation and fiddly platforming ruin what is otherwise an incredible game that every gamer should experience.
8/10
However it is defined Fez is one of those Indie games that drew the attention of some, offering quirky platforming puzzles and intelligent use of 2D and 3D. After 5 years it has finally been released on the XBLA and it’s refreshing to see an original title appear amongst a sea of sequels.
In Fez you play the role of Gomez, a Simple, cartoonish, white Imp-like character living an ordinary life in a small village in an entirely 2D world. Visually it is simple yet effective, choosing lots of blocks over smooth round edges.
In the first couple of minutes a giant cube appears and gives Gomez a Fez (hence the game’s title) that completely changes the world from one that was entirely 2D to one that is 3D. You still move in 2D but now you can rotate the world to change its perspective.
On the surface Fez is a 2D platformer where you change the environment around you to open new paths. You do this by rotating the world with the triggers, showing doorways around corners, shrinking gaps between platforms, Pushing levers, etc.
While some of these puzzles are unique and the idea works very well, the actual jumping is a little off and you’ll find yourself missing jumps occasionally because you didn’t exactly right. There is also an arbitrary point when falling that if you pass you will die. Fortunately dying isn’t much of a penalty (you’ll respawn after a second in the last place you were safe) but going up is certainly easier than going down. This is slightly annoying as most of your navigation will be vertical.
Fez feels like it’s going to be about spatial awareness but then you discover more interesting elements. A lot of what Fez really is revolves around code breaking. Scattered throughout Gomez’s world there are lots of hidden secrets, usually centred on translating secrets from codes. There are three codes to translate, one letter code, one number code and one that relates to controller inputs.
Translating the codes however can be a pretty daunting challenge, particularly the letter code. The number code in particular is annoying to translate as there are things that look like hints that aren’t. For example there is a dice like object you can collect. Normally the two sides of a dice add up to 7 (i.e. 1 and 6 are opposites, so are 5 and 2, and 3 and 4). The dice object is not meant to be used for translating the numbers, but there is nothing to suggest that using the dice to translate the numbers is wrong. There’s a 10 on this dice but until you work out the numbers you won’t realise this.
There are hints scattered around the world but navigating it can be a bit of a bitch. The Map isn’t the best and finding the route between two rooms is needlessly difficult. The best thing to do is take notes when you play and take a good hard look at any classroom blackboards you find.
At time you feel like the game should give you bigger hints. The hints you do get a very vague and don’t really help. There are also some really horrible puzzles, some are QR codes and not everyone has a smartphone to read them (although you can still get everything without solving these puzzles), there’s a nasty red blinking light puzzle where the lights blink too fast and for too long to get the full sequence when just your eyes, and the less said about the puzzle that uses your system clock the better (xbox live updates your clock so you have to do this one offline, one hand moves every 6 hours or so waiting isn’t really an option).
Still you have to admire Fez for the original way it handles problem solving. Sometimes though it can feel too clever for its own good and could do with providing better hints to stop gamers running to GameFAQs.
Visually it looks very basic but it fits well with the overall theme of the game. Same goes for the soundtrack although there are moments where both are used to great effect.
For all its ambition and originality Fez suffers from being a little too smart and a little horrible to the player. Some horrible puzzles, terrible navigation and fiddly platforming ruin what is otherwise an incredible game that every gamer should experience.
8/10
posted by Master hunter at 1:57 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home