Zack Gill
Arts Editor
Hearkened by “Super Mario Galaxy 2,” video gaming has reached a platforming renaissance, with creative, artistic and original games like “Super Meat Boy” and “Rayman: Origins” achieving commercial, or at least critical, success. Five years in the making, Xbox 360 Arcade game “Fez” is slated to join that esteemed echelon of video gaming.
With its wonderful design, memorable music score, baffling puzzles and intriguing exploration, the downloadable “Fez” supplies hours of sublime gameplay at a budget price.
“Fez” stars Gomez, an adorable, two-dimensional amorphous blob-person-thing, as he is forced on an adventure to recover magical cubes in an effort to ensure that the universe does not collapse into itself. Along the way, he is forced to uncover ancient secrets as he explores a mysterious world.
Of course, Gomez isn’t just your average little sprite – at the beginning of “Fez,” he gains the ability to rotate the two-dimensional world by 90 degrees, left or right, allowing him to uncover hidden paths, doors to more lands, and other secrets. Phil Fish, the game’s lead designer, has described “Fez” as a two-dimensional game in a 3D world.
“Fez” is incredibly appealing visually. Crisp, bright colors are coupled with simple, two-dimensional designs. Even more impressively, locations manage to feel alien and ancient, despite generally cutsey graphical design. “Fez” is consistently atmospheric, even if its graphical style would initially suggest otherwise.
Wonderful music also adds to the game’s lonely atmosphere. Sparse keyboard compositions make up the entirety of the game’s sound track, lending “Fez” a serene, isolated quality.
The platforming sections of “Fez” are admittedly not as impressive as the level design displayed in contemporary games like “Rayman: Origins.” For the most part, they present little challenge. “Fez” doesn’t even have enemies. The only obstacles Gomez faces are difficult jumps, and anyone who has ever played a “Mario” game won’t find them overly difficult.
The puzzles of “Fez,” however, can be frustrating. Many are ingenious – one, involving an in-game clock tower forces the gamer to play “Fez” at a specific time during the day, and some are infernal; the legions of internet fans recently worked together to solve the game’s final, nearly impossible puzzle.
For all of its glories, “Fez” has a myriad of technical problems. Most importantly, the game is somewhat unstable. Many players have reported multiple crashes that force the game to unceremoniously shut down.
Thankfully, “Fez” constantly saves automatically and progress is never lost. Frequent load times also mar “Fez:” nearly every time the player walks through a door, which is very often, “Fez” stutters, thwarting the game’s attempts to cleanly transition between levels with its camera swoop, as they are often pulled out to a clunky loading screen.
The game doesn’t have as many glaring design flaws. Perhaps the only annoying thing about “Fez” is the vagueness of its in-game map. “Fez” has a large amount of branching paths and, thankfully, features a detailed map.
However, the map just isn’t quite detailed enough at times. The number of levels a level is connected to is shown, but the specific door that leads to any given level is not listed, and players will often be forced to go backwards to find the right door.
Still, for only $10, video gamers will be able to experience something completely new with “Fez.” The game was, astonishingly, announced in 2007, and has often been the butt of jokes due to its lengthy development. Little did we know that it would be so worth it in the end.
“Fez” is rated E for everyone and is available on the Xbox Live Arcade download service.
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