Fez Reviews
Fez is a brilliant, beautiful platformer. Play it immediately.
It’s about opening doors, exploring, deciphering languages, and dipping your toe into the well of insanity just enough to hopefully come out with the knowledge needed to open one more door, to get one more cube. We’re sure some will be turned off by the dense, unorthodox style – it’s absolutely not for everyone – but we’re in love, and expect to spend many more hours unraveling the game’s secrets.
The game may never live down the notoriety of its designer but this is still one of the most entertaining and imaginative indie games of the last decade.
A masterful puzzle game that challenges you to think in new ways
Fez is the most authentic exploration of the NES era of games that I've ever played, from its sound and visuals to its obtuseness. It uses the capabilities of current systems to take those ideas further, while limiting itself with specific intentions, deploying scrutability in bits and pieces. It doesn't just love the games it borrows from — it understands them. It knows what it is and what it wants to be, and doesn't compromise on it. And for those willing to bury themselves in Fez's alien world and logic, there are plenty of treasures to be found.
Fez has pitfalls you have to accept if you're going to enjoy this adventure. Technical problems, baffling map design, and obtuse puzzles can serve as a serious barrier to entry. But it's worth putting up with the missteps for the wondrous adventure that awaits. Fez goes far deeper than the simple platformer it initially appears as, and figuring out the solutions to the many puzzles is an experience that harks back to a time when games weren't scared of taking off the leash and letting you run wild. Invest time in Fez's colorful world, and enjoy the wealth of incredible ideas buried within.
The weird, wonderful world of Fez operates on multiple levels, but only the people who are willing to dig all the way down to its core will come away satisfied.
A novel exploration of the underpinnings of game graphics, Fez at once pays tribute to classic 2D platformers while revealing the shenanigans that went into their design. Borderline inscrutable at times, Fez is a puzzle on many levels. Yet its mysteries, clever as they are, deserve to be unravelled.
Polytron has crafted an exceedingly gorgeous world, full of surprises, temples, and eye-melting cuteness. Switching perspectives holds up as a gameplay mechanic, deftly avoiding gimicky traps along the way. At around 7 hours for a completed game and only $10, you could do worse than FEZ on MICROSOFT's XBOX LIVE ARCADE.
The ability to play across all of your systems, and transfer effortlessly between them, cannot be overstated, and the fact that you only have to pay once for it is an ideal that some companies are sadly still avoiding. Whilst there isn't necessarily much of a traditional challenge to the game, working your way through the different worlds is so enjoyable that you'll barely notice.
An absolute masterpiece. A unique experience that satisfies the eyeballs, timpani, brain and even the heart.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Fez was one of the most enjoyable and entertaining games I've experienced last year and the same thing applies with the PC version. It's a charming, charismatic adventure that will leave you with a smile across your face for the duration of your play. It's also incredibly cryptic and is far more than skin deep, introducing a deceivingly vague world. I can't decide if Phil Fish and his team are geniuses or completely out of their minds.
Over the course of two years, Fez has somehow been able to break out of its Xbox Live Arcade confines, re-releasing on PC and now Sony's platforms. As it remains, this is still one of the most charming, charismatic adventures you will have, leaving those who experience it with a smile across their face for the duration of their play.
FEZ is a fun, challenging puzzle platformer fit to burst with original ideas and unique gameplay wrinkles. Its puzzles bend reality and even leech into our own world on occasion, but aside from a few select mega-challenges never stray into the category of too obtuse or unfair. A few visual and mechanical quirks stop this from being a perfectly polished experience, but these are outweighed by its charm and other wonderful qualities ninefold. It's another one of those 'games you have to play' on Switch, and it couldn't be more at home.
Perhaps more appealing than the brain teasers is Fez's mesmerizing setting. I'm not usually a fan of low-fi aesthetics for the sake of looking retro, and initially Fez might resemble an 8-bit throwback, but upon closer inspection it's a finely detailed world simply made out of cubes with scenery as varied, atmospheric, and inspired as any triple-A title I've played.
This is a fun blend of classic and modern ideas: pixel graphics meet polygons and special effects, 2D gameplay meets a 3D world, twitchy reflex action meets a relaxed, easy pace.
For $10, FEZ is one of the most solid “must-buy” titles in the indie game scene.
Simon Parkin: The delightful Fez is a game in which the true aim is nothing more than to explore and to find treasure while doing so
For what is a very reasonable price of 800MSP, Fez is a game that will give you hours of gameplay. There are still questions unanswered, even with the collective mind of the internet, so who knows how much the game has to offer. I do know that, even now, you will get a lot of enjoyment and frustration from this game if you are at all interested in puzzles. The cuteness and originality far exceeded my first expectations, and bodes for an overall excellent game.
Fez straddles the line between platformer and puzzler, taking the best from each genre and blending it into a refreshing whole. It doesn't punish experimentation or require advanced controller skills, letting you discover the game's secrets at your own pace.