I’m not a connoisseur of Indie games. I don’t purposely seek them out. I pay attention and check out those that people sing praises for. Fez was one of those long awaited Indie titles. I wanted to play it because I found the pixel art charming and the rotating of the world to be an interesting mechanic. I was attracted to Fez on a superficial level and I enjoyed it for that alone.
It’s been long time since I’ve seen pixel art efforts like Fez. There were so many little details such as wildlife, flowers and cryptic graffiti throughout all the levels. I was impressed with the density of the details. Remember, there were four sides to each area and all of it was meticulously crafted. Gomez’s idle animation also filled me with nostalgic joy.
I trotted through this strange nostalgic world as Gomez, the white puff with a red hat. I spun the world on its axis and used the different perspectives to reach places that would normally be impossible. Puzzles involving that mechanic were easy to feel out but there were puzzles that were staring me in the face that were just too cryptic for my feeble mind.
I recognized the QR codes but I couldn’t decipher the strange glyphs on the walls. Even with the artifacts, I wasn’t able to connect the dots. Even though I wasn’t able to solve every puzzle, I reached the minimum required and was satisfied. I had no desire to proceed any further after the credits rolled.
The music of Fez was one of the pleasant surprises for me. Disasterpeace’s chip tune pieces were relaxing and something I could see myself listening to while working. Many of the tracks encouraged exploration with an air of whimsy. It’s so good that it will likely outlive the game for me.
My only gripes with Fez were its technical issues. The game crashed a couple of times and there were numerous juddering moments as well despite the seemingly unwavering framerate. It’s stuff like that this makes me wish the NVIDIA G-Sync technology was installed everywhere.
Phil Fish may have been brash and quick to temper but Fez was nothing but. It was a pleasant time. I had fun with the mechanics, puzzles and the nostalgic trip. However, after finishing Fez, I couldn’t help but wonder what the sequel would bring. Phil may have publicly declared it quits for Fez 2 but I — like others — believe he just went into hiding to develop his next masterpiece.
Verdict:
Must Play
For more information on Fez, visit the official website.
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