F*ck Phil

Nice game tho

FEZ was overhyped.

There is no denying that. When I first started playing it, I was let down. The world-turning mechanics were boring, the platforming unresponsive, at least to my tastes, the art style didn't suit me. I wondered, what was it that people loved so much about FEZ. I hated the game so much that I dropped it almost immediately.

Fast-forward to yesterday, to the day that everything changed. I forced myself to play just a bit more in order to at least beat it. I thought I was returning to the land of tedium, and yet this wasn't the case. Maybe it was the anti-hype quarantine period that helped. I discovered that this game was not what it seems. Instead of platforming, I found increasingly challenging puzzles. It was filled with cryptic messages, lingustic riddles, hidden ciphres. It was fascinating.

This game does nothing to help you discover it's true beauty. It's radiance comes from the fact that it holds you to extremely high standards. What other game forces you to decrypt a language using a Rosetta stone like device? Pen and paper are a must here.

Think of a brutally hard, unforgiving game. Be it Super Hexagon, Dark Souls, Super Meat Boy, I'm sure you remember the extreme sense of accomplishment that surged through you when you conquered it's many challenges. FEZ is like that, only instead of your reflexes, it challenges your mind. Do yourself a favor and play it. Do yourself another favor, and never use guides. You will love it. I promise.

I told myself I'll never use this Review section for writing negative stuff about someone's effort but hey... never say never.
I'm totally NOT recommending this game, because:
- it heavily relies on techniques beyond just using your controller like: changing system date and time multiple times; using qr code readers; knowing binary/hexadecimal representation of numbers and conversion to ASCII; deciphering controller rumbling (or speaker tunes)...
- one (not so short) level which can damage your eyes
- nonexistent information about main technique for solving puzzles which is critical for progress (you have to decipher it by spending vast amount of time in game world and trying to guess how the author of the game thinks)... on second thought, you have to guess the authors thinking about most stuff in this game
- ...

Watching the ending multiple times, I started to think what's the point of this game and what the author wanted to prove by making this game. Many people (including myself) will get to the end relying on guides... Don't get me wrong, this game has unique style, levels are well designed, it feels good playing this for some time, but if you try to go deeper than playing few levels... well, good luck with that.

At the end, this game seems just... wrong.

-

Click for Gameplay Trailer

-
-----------This is my review account, because the low playtime.
+ detailed game world
+ soft animations
+ seamless mix of 3D and 2D
- few polygons
- sparing effects

+ different areas have different moods
+ always dense atmosphere
+ cute, charming hero
+ own alphabet including numbers

+ atmospheric soundtrack
+ rich sound effects
+ adapts to the game situation

+ difficulty increases pleasant
+ complex puzzles level not essential
- some puzzles require a too large mental leap

+ always logically
+ five warp gates
+ much to discover
- no fast travel feature

+ tetris code
+ each level is a puzzle
+ usually solved with some brain
+ varied tasks


+ level rotating fez
+ additional item for the second pass
+ useful treasure maps
+ artifacts as additional loot
- but who do not benefit
- key system acts unnecessary

+ two ends
+ curiosity arousing, oblique universe
- simple framework story

+ solo playtime around 12 hours
+ large, coherent game world
+ many secrets
+ high replay value thanks to new possibilities


This well designed world has pulled me immediately under her spell and never let go. Although the developer Phil Fish wants you without the help of the Internet, to explore the mysteries and secrets of the universe, but unfortunately most references fall far too cryptic. It is constructed entirely logical, many of the puzzles can be solved with a little brain, and by the end surprise new scenes and crazy ideas. oh my first, about seven-hour long run I still have not all cube, anti dice, artifacts, boxes and secrets discovered - the next seven hours make therefore equal to twice as much fun. The reading of the Fez alphabet I must still learn, but at least I've known Tetris code and can decipher the numbers.



Sorry for my bad english.
Thanks for reading! If you Like my Review, give me a Thumbs up in Steam.
Your help is greatly appreciated :)

My Curator Page:

Sub

My Steam Group:

GameTrailers and Reviews

My YouTube Channel:

Steam Reviews

I don't care what people say about Fez's creator...all I know is this game is total genius!

♥♥♥♥ Phil Fish, he is a piece of trash, and a professional victim.
He says he won't do Fez 2 becuase his fans are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥s, but you know what, I bet he could not make Fez 2 any good, he's a one trick pony and he knows it. He got nothing more to give.
Don't buy this game, he does not deserve your attention and money.

My first experience with Fez was through watching Indie Game: The Movie. That movie prompted me to add the game to my wishlist and ultimately purchase during a Steam sale. It played exactly like the movie promoted matching what I had envisioned, yet the game ended up being quite a bit deeper than I anticipated with a plethora of doors and warp gates in which I ultimately got lost trying to maneuver through. There are also a lot of extra secrets and ciphers which aren't necessary to complete the game, but are rewarding if you spend the extra time to discover them. And that ultimately sums up Fez--you get out of it what you put into it. That's an aspect I wish more games offered.

BE AWARE: Before I tell you, what I think about this game, and (hopefully) will make you want to have it (because after hours of gameplay, I have come to the conclusion that this game is one of the most underrated, unerestimated games ever!), let me tell you first what FEZ is NOT:

1.) it's NOT your common plattformer
2.) it's NOT over when you reached it's end
3.) it's NOT what it seems to be - there IS more to meet the eye!

What can I say? This is the most beautiful, creative, inspiring, mind-blowing gaming experience I ever had with a game that was meant to be one of those titels you play "in between"!
You can look at it as a plattformer/puzzle-game but that just tells you the obvious as if one would say "at the moment I'm in front of my PC screen!"

You can just enjoy the game and it's puzzles, and surely reach the end, having had a good time with plenty of fun! But - if you take a second look at the surroundings, the lovingly architected characters, places and little things, waiting to be explored, you can't help but feel that there is yet more to all of this than meets the eye! You will find that nothing (literally: NOTHING) was place by coincidence, there's no such thing as "by sheer chance"! First, you may think that the "dialouges" are nothing but symbols neatly arranged. But can you fight the feeling that there is more to this?
In other words: if you are looking for a game that can take you to another level (both game-wise and mentallly spoken) and leave you with a REAL experience - here it is!

If you've ever wondered if there's a hidden world within games, you just found the game that will give you proof!

As for the puzzles: they reach from "ezee as hell" to "challenging and f*+++*g difficult", but IMHO never unfair! The soundtrack is somewhat awesome though never gaining too much attention!

Get it - you won't regret it, I promise!

Very interesting concept and creativity. One of the most unique games out there.

dont buy it due to the maker, dont support him

A cool and creative 2.5D (kinda 3D but looks like 2D) platform & puzzle game. Recommended.

Choke on it.

This game sucks
Don't support Phil Fish
-1000000000/10

This Game Is actually pretty good 8.5/10. My computer is bad so i cant run it but ive played it at a friends house, The reason i give it a downvote is the developper.


In case you are fortuanate enouph to not here of phil fishes raging on twitter and just in general then allow me to inform you of the jist of what happened.


Phil Fish is an indie game developper. made fez for pc. It did well. Decided to try consoles. No big issues with sony. Went to xbox. Xbox is bad with indie games notoriously. Decided the gaming industry was cruel. Lashed out at all his customers and people who admired him. Inferred we were the cause of his dispute with xbox. Complained that putting footage of gameplay on youtube is piracy and the game devs should get money(him). Showed trailer for fez 2. Someone on the internet made some constructive criticism. He starts raging about how we will never get fez 2 because "we dont deserve it." Is probably still going to release it. He also still continuously attacks gamers because he thinks we are corrupt twisted people. Now tweets about nothing about how gamers are bad people and about ferguson. Makes me sad because he showed potential.


Long story short good game pirate it because phil doesnt "deserve" your money if you dont "deserve" fez 2

I am editing this review to make my point clearer.

I will start again as in my previous one stating that FEZ is actually a very easy game; and I think I have ground to say that, since I have obtained the 64 cubes without any guide or spoiler (other than being informed about the red cubes so I wouldn't waste my time with them).

If you watched any trailer and/or played the game, you know about the mind-blowing mechanic of "rotating & projecting" (R&P) which is very, very ingenious and has potential for a lot of fun. Potential, I said.

In FEZ you basically have to collect Yellow Cubes (32 max), Blue Cubes (anti-cubes, 32 max) to unlock doors. You unlock the ending after collecting 32 regardless of colour. There are also 3 "easter egg" Red Cubes which do not count towards anything.

To obtain most Yellow Cubes (and thus complete the game) you need nothing but this R&P mechanic, which is essential to reach some places. After few minutes you get the grip of it and it gets old. It gets easy, too easy; it is just interesting, not really challenging.

The hype is about the *other cubes*.

Several Blue Cubes are trivial as well, some of them are fun... but... *none of them are about the R&P mechanic*. To unlock these cubes here you usually need to press some buttons in a specific order, usually in a specific room. The "challenge" resides in finding the said sequence, but finding them does not depend on the R&P mechanic either, and at this point you'd be just playing a regular platform game where you use R&P merely to reach different rooms.

Whereas some combinations are readily available in their own room, some others require hints hunting throughout the FEZ world - and that's the only hard part of the game. Searching for patterns and glyphs throughout the world - which is very confusing to navigate - in a sea of things which could be a hint for a puzzle or just decoration... no problems if you have a photographic memory or a memory just good enough to remember "where did I see these symbols before?" but otherwise you would need to be paranoid like myself and take a screenshot of 50% of the rooms in the game just to make sure you will have those symbols available in case you need them sooner or later. Some of them can be bruteforced as well, which can be far more enjoyable than travelling in FEZ's map.

While you might enjoy hint-hunting kind of games, even that is not clever: the hints are straightforward and require very little brainwork after you actually find them (I enjoyed cracking the counting cube though). You just go "there and use it" - no clever use of the R&P mechanic either. That is definitely not what I expected from this game here.

Lastly, Red Cubes. Not even funny. By analogy, I would say that the red cubes are equivalent to the following riddle:
"_____ ____ have I, two below and ___ in a ____; Then ____ ____ one kills, ____ . What is my name?"
This is not a clever riddle, its just incomplete. In the same way, there is nothing clever about the red cubes. It is okay though since they were supposed to be "easter eggs", they do not progress the game and the devs were not insane enough to put them as achievements.

All in all, the game is interesting, but it doesn't deserve the hype. The awesome mechanic was not properly exploited by the devs.

I'm gonna start out by saying that platforming and puzzle are two of my favorite genres. I had this game sitting in my library from some Humble Bundle and decided to try it. I tried to play and judge the game on its own merits and not the developer, Phil Fish aka "Suck my ♥♥♥♥, Choke on it".

But the game completely bored me. I played 1.2 hours of it and probably will never play any more. The presentation is nice. Pixel art looks good and the sound is fine. However, my problems set in with the main gimmick, rotating the world. The novelty and fun of this mechanic wears off extremely fast. I'm talking like first 30 minutes. With that gone it's just a mediocre platformer with inconsistent controls. I fell off vines or platforms countless times. Combine that with the awful map and exploration becomes a chore and a puzzle in itself. Oh the puzzles... They're almost all obscure as ♥♥♥♥ with little to no hints. I spent like 15 minutes getting an anti-cube by rotating blocks around to match tetris patterns but it was such trial and error I almost gave up. And I love puzzle games. Admittedly, I haven't seen the later puzzles in the game because I was just so bored I couldn't be bothered to finish it.

It would be hard for me to recommend Fez. I always thought it looked interesting but the end product is an obscure puzzle game spread thin by a shallow platformer wrapped in pretty but unorginal art design. Buy at your own risk.

Arthouse ♥♥♥♥♥♥*t.

This game had a very neat premise, an excellent soundtrack, a very nice visual style, and something about it feels very fresh. If you can find it cheap (I paid $4.99), I'd say it's worth a try if only to satisfy your curiosity.

That said, even though I completed a good chunk of this game, I have zero desire to 100% it or even complete it. Many of the puzzles in this game are so cryptic that it borders on the impossible. At least one puzzle even included a QR code, which was useless to me since I don't own a smartphone. I love a challenge, and puzzle-solving is a very enjoyable task for me, but only when I feel like I have even a remote chance at solving them. Otherwise I'm left more frustrated than anything.

I had so much hope that this game would be fantastic. I loaded it up and prepared to enjoy a beautiful platformer. But unfortunately, it was a boring platformer with a story that didn't engage me.

Jesus tapdancing motherloving Christ this game is bad, i have never been so close to dying from a sever case of the borings in my life, why call your self a platforming game if you jumps barely see what you are jumping upon? I managed to beat the first level but my frustration and shouting caused a series of unfortunate events to occur, first my child awoke from my pained exhaultations and began to follow my activity with it's own personal twist of replacing my rage and frenzy into emotions and fear and discontent. Upon this child's screams laying gently upon my wife's morphine laced ears, she realised the situation involved a possible chance of me throwing the Liquid Crystal Display based viewing monitor carefully connected my my hard drive by the large greasy man from PC world who helped set up my computer when my previous failures caused two things, one, my wife's black eye, and two, me having to pay the gentleman to keep quiet and to return wo his home planet of Personal Computers without any mention of his experiences in our dimensional plane. Upon picking up the child she began calling the police in the fear that she would be subject to what i can only describe as a Beltbuckle whirlwind, I couldnt stop her as i usually could because I was too busy trying to figure out if what i was playing was a game or just a poor excue to exploit a gimmick that ends up just confusing the player and not providing anything new to a genre that was once a bastion of difficulty adn challenge, but with the addition of little to no enemies feztakes this genre into a direction that seemed good but was infact a step into uncle bubba's basement full of mystical wonders and restraining equipment.The police arrived promptly given my previous offenses and found the fifteen ankle bracelets that they had assigned to me all lying on the floor in a pattern that spelled out the words 'i fought the law and the law won'. The irony was not lost on me. I am writing this review from prison during my precious few minutes i am allowed on the rec room's computer time sheet. This is all just to pass time of course becausei can expect that my inmate (known only as big jim and i can tell you he is only 5'9 so the operative word 'big' must refer to either his hands or feet, or at least a hope so). The tragedy of this situation is that he wasn't planning on having his way with me until i mentioned that i preferred platformers that utilise enemy placement and difficulty and not just use silly gimmicks to trick people into thinking time and effort was put into a game, but unfortunately big jim disagreed. Well thank you fez, for the impending traumatic experience, i hope you realise just how pathetic you are, at least in my last moments of anal virginity i retain a shred of self respect which is not particularly easy for an abusive husband/father.