Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
Website: http://fezgame.com/
Shane:
- Platform: PC
- Hours logged: 6.0
- Playthroughs: 1
- Rating: 10/10
- Platform: PC
- Hours logged: 1.0
- Playthroughs: 0
- Rating: --/10
- Shane (4/8/2014): This game is fantastic. I finished it a couple days ago and sent Lee a comment to the effect of "Fez: 6 hours, 1 playthrough, 10/10, will play again."
A lot of my communication with my brother is done at a high degree energy. I swear when it is not strictly necessary and exaggerate for comic effect on occasion. For this reason I have found that there are occasions where saying less can convey more. This felt like one of those times. I ended up with a solid emotional connection to this game.
High level, in this game you play a little naive villager in a 2D world who receives a fez from a floating sky cube, changing his world into one with 3 dimensions... sort of... some of the time... The character only interacts with the world in 2 dimensions, but the player can rotate which 2 dimensions the character can move across. As the world rotates around a Z axis, various things can become closer or further away (or in some cases they will leap into or out of existence.) There is the format. Now for the personal touches.
The starting village has a bunch of little people who talk in text we all understand (Written English). Once you leave the starting village you encounter a different script. It is written on signs, scrawled across buildings like graffiti, crafted into neon signs, and scribbled on notes in abandoned classrooms. Some items found in treasure chests hint at an ability to decode this script, though I didn't spend that effort in my first time through.
While the "alien language" serves to add confusion and deeper content to the game, the map feature helps keep track of where you have been and what you have yet to discover. Many times the map feature in a game feels sterile. Like an owner's manual for a Chinese made child's toy, written by the most expendable person on the design team. Here the map is more fully integrated. I used it like a checklist. Each "room" tells you if you have completed all tasks within that space.
The last point I want to hit on right now (beyond my intent to play through again) is that I don't know if I have ever given a non-open world game a perfect 10 before. I 10ed Minecraft and Starbound (Hmm... wonder if Starbound will continue to hold up as the devs keep tinkering) but this game is confined. There is a definite "end" to the game. Even with that limitation, I loved it.
Takeaway: If you haven't yet played this game I will happily recommend it. Not only is it the best of the platformers I have ever played, it is one large puzzle that is rewarding and doable. 10/10. Will play again.
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