FEZ : Review

The first time we heard of FEZ, it was almost five years ago on a forum of independent developers. Since then, the game Polytron Corporation has received two awards at the IGF and another at IndieCade, has been delayed several times for tweaking and ended up in a highly anticipated documentary, ruining the way the health and life name of its inventor, Phil Fish.

The Canadian game designer has also made many players back because of his statements on the current Japanese productions and many other reactions sometimes childhood on social networks. But as games and their creators are not tested, see what lies beneath its FEZ pixels put into perspective.

PC version: Exclusive Microsoft is over, Fez comes a year later on PC, with the promise of bugs and other technical issues corrected. In fact, there are still issues to be resolved as evidenced by the SAV Polytron, but the game still appears much smoother in transitions between rooms and especially stable. No sudden crash or corrupted save point in our party, it is better than nothing. However, with the exception of display options (choice of resolution, full screen / windowed) and management of backup files, no significant improvement has been made in this version. Fortunately, the game is still as exciting, even during a second visit to the world of cubic Gomez.


There is a mixture of carefree FEZ discovery and obsessive research that we meet more often in a video game. In the manner of some of the 80 major titles, the player is practically abandoned to itself in a vast world filled with codes, inhabited by a handful of beings concise and often enigmatic word. There are really only two places inhabited in the fragmented world of the game, the first being the village where the adventure begins in the bedroom of the hero Gomez history to recreate the illusion of a role-playing or adventure Japanese old. Visit the village for tutorial, basic dialogues and events from disrupting the original quiet are applied to the letter, the disturbing element is the bursting of a golden cube which is expressed using glyphs and Gomez offering a headgear Arabic - the fez title - opening the doors of perception. Wearing the mystical artifact, the hero actually becomes capable of detecting the third dimension of the world, until completely flat.

ATTENTION TO EDGES

This spatial awareness will give him the means to leave his village in order to accomplish a mission imposed arbitrarily: find all 32 pieces of giant cube or dislocated to prevent the world from suffering the same fate. The challenge is great, but the challenge proves ultimately not so high. If it looks like an action / 2D platform game open in the manner of a Metroid or Castlevania, Simon's Quest line, the concept of death is totally absent from FEZ. No enemies, no life bar and a character who returns to the last place sprained foot in a fall "fatal" or suction in the anti-matter areas that appear randomly throughout the exploration . A wise choice, given the somewhat peculiar Applied Physics travel and breaks Gomez. Not to mention the errors of judgment during rotations of view, a central game mechanic that gives volume to the pixels with remarkable ease.

With a simple press RT / LT or RB / LB, perspective pivots right to one side or the other of the set angle, which allows you to see all four sides of the same place to reveal a door, fragments cube or continuation of an ivy snaking around the block. Playing with perspective also allows the meeting separated scales, moving platforms or reading generally obscure symbols inscribed on a wall. Once the basic interactions stored (with the indices of the small block rainbow sky as a guide knowing how to be discreet), progress quite easily and without pressure by collecting cubes or pieces of cubes, but also key and treasure maps stored in chests. The influence of Zelda is clearly claimed, with a formula that combines the advantages of 2D and 3D, while maintaining the almost absolute freedom to explore the very first episode of the saga. Tables aerial view were simply converted into rooms for several sides, connected by doors and a handful of teleports.


I CRACKED THE CODE, I CRACKED THE CODE

Map, not necessarily obvious at first reading with all its connections, in fact perfectly transcribed arrangement of rooms, tables and their I / O space. Icons legend and gold banding indicating the levels fully "cleaned" are also very useful for those who want to find all the secrets of FEZ, without stopping at the first end almost served on a plate, if only one has a dash of common sense. In the manner of Mario 3D is not inherently difficult to find enough open sesame to the ultimate holder of the game and find out what it conceals. By cons, it will take a lot of patience and understanding to get their hands on anti-cubes, artifacts and other objects by deciphering the clues and ubiquitous in the decorations codes. Without this second quest made possible in part by a new game + as smart as teasing, playing Phil Fish as it is a shadow of itself, such a limited aspect that sets the initial 2D village before Gomez opens his eyes.

It would be criminal to spoil the real surprises of the adventure, as efforts to discover and solve additional puzzles embedded in the DNA of FEZ masquerade as the status game nice gimmick (like Super Paper Mario, Echochrome or Crush ) than the benchmark for overall design. Construction levels already deserves respect for having managed to make navigation a kind of evidence despite the many translations to be made, but any cryptography and information with the ability to be discreet before jumping in the eyes (among other ) also show a great degree. Developers know as well bring the player into the world of Gomez that make out to appeal to as simple as a pen and paper outside help. Followers of tricks to break the fourth wall will certainly appreciate all the fans of deciphering symbols. A game that relies on the intelligence and logic of the user without a face challenges unfairly twisted and silly conventions, we do not cross that often.


FEZ TAGADA

Especially since FEZ is also interesting in its construction and in its aesthetics, without varying complex tones, moods and graphic effects. The pixel art can be considered a vulgar decoy nostalgic by Grumpy, but it is totally justified in relation to the inspirations and about Polytron, in addition to being executed with great care. Each table vibrates through its delightful animations and varying colors, thanks in part to the day / night cycle not having a cosmetic concern. The game allows several tributes to the generation 8/16 bit, as well as pure hypnotic sequences carried by a synthetic soundtrack sometimes casual and airy, sometimes dark and heavy. Listenable largely on the site of the composer Disasterpeace (aka Rich Vreeland), it is very much in the mood of joyful mystery of the title. Certain assumptions even want the full version contains a clue to solve the final puzzle (?) Black monolith, defeated only by the gross manner or confidence Phil Fish at the time of writing these lines.