Fez Reviews
Fez isn't as fresh as it was two years ago and is purposefully frustrating by design at times with its pretentious refusal to adhere to a few sensible design decisions. There's a lot of effort required to progress and the game offers little back in return. If it could talk, it would say,"Play me or don't, I'm too cool to care." So you may want to punch it right in its Michael Cera, but the forgiving attitude to failure and the admittedly neat world-rotating to explore every surface to find more cubes may pull you in. Try the demo first though.
Fez, despite what faults I personally found with it, is by no means a bad game, and is easy enough to cope with given the aid of a strategy guide to go along with it. However, I, along with the entire industry can only imagine what Fez 2 would have been like if it had have been developed as originally planned.
Fez offers a clever gameplay premise and a charming, minimalist presentation, but its overly open-ended nature and confusing navigation system detract from the overall package.
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.
Ultimately, I have more positive things than negative to say about FEZ. Sure it can be cumbersome and confusing at times, but it’s still a beautiful and creative game. It’s nice I was finally able to play this one-time exclusive on a Nintendo console. And though I didn’t 100% beat the game, I at least got one of the endings before writing this up. Now armed with my cool shades, I might be able to find the other hidden 32 cubes and maybe learn the true secrets underpinning the world of FEZ. If you enjoy puzzles, platformers, and indies, I’d definitely give this one a shot. Just don’t be ashamed if you need to consult a couple of guides online.
Fez is a very easy-going experience for the most part, but it is also very capable of presenting a diabolical challenge to anyone looking for one. The descent to an otherworldly nightmare glitch-world is something that is not often done in video games, yet it makes a lot of sense; especially for something that focuses on a theme of perception and dimension. While the creator of Fez may have his issues, his game has very few and is very pleasant to play.
If Fez is indeed a gem, he is not as polite as his peers, the Limbos and other Braids. But despite its bugs and inaccuracies, Fez is a smart game, made for lovers of puzzles and puzzles, those who like to take the lead, as much as exploring enchanting worlds and deliciously referenced 8bit. Personally, I completely cracked, and scribbling symbols, diagrams, in search of its secrets made me reconnect with a simple pleasure of play: that of discovering without being taken too much by the hand.
Review in French | Read full review
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.
Fez is ultimately a game about games much in the same way Hugo is a film about films. Fez can be very demanding to get the most out of it, but without ever actually asking anything of you. Do not play Fez to beat it, but play to explore and get lost in its puzzles and pixilated world.
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.
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 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.
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.
Given the amount of development time and the public nature of the game, Fez no longer seems like a revolutionary title. The puzzle mechanics has been used in several different ways in other games (that were released earlier), and the move away from realism and into a more whimsical, older look has also been done by other titles. The graphics and sound are still charming, even if it falters in a few places. More importantly, the game does a great job of throwing in a number of obtuse and brain-melting puzzles, and the sense of elation when you finally solve them is second to none. Those who love a good challenge will have some fun with this well-made puzzle platformer.
Even PlayStation users finally have the opportunity to try one of the most important works released outside the indie undergrowth, able to soar with arrogance even among the most prominent titles of the time thanks to its captivating formula, made with a care at times maniacal. FEZ is now a piece of modern video game history that certainly needs to be recovered.
Review in Italian | Read full review
For $10, FEZ is one of the most solid “must-buy” titles in the indie game scene.
All that for $18.95? You'd have to be a Square not to.
This far into the Switch lifespan the list of outstanding top-notch indie titles that haven’t yet made it to the platform is dwindling...
Fez has a unique and visionary aesthetic, after all it is not trivial to unite the concept of Ueda with a visual style of the 8-bit era and that can be, at the same time, charismatic and profound; as well as mysterious and humorous. Fez's problems are few, probably the most serious of them being the fact that it is not very challenging: it is very easy to inductively solve the puzzles, and the real challenge is to find the hidden anti-cubes, but they are optional.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
In short, Fez is as good now as it has always been. The reason I call this version the best way to experience this indie game is mostly due to the perfect combination of the Switch’s portability and its screen being much larger than the Vita’s. This is easily one of the best indies ever made, and one of the most important games of the past decade.