PS VITA – There’s a lot of indie games appearing (sometimes console-exclusively) on the PlayStation 4; not one of them has very amazing quality stories – all this while not having jaw-dropping graphics. Fez is one of these products. I can only recommend this game for every gamer, who has ever liked platformer games!

Is it a two-dimensional game? Yes… and no. Well, I have immediately grabbed the thing which made Polytron’s game dateless. And I don’t say that you should give Fez a try just because of this – aside from the gameplay element, it has great music and calm, yet game-inducing mood as well.

Cube!

An average day in Gomez’s life. He gets a message in his mailbox that he should go to the „roof”. Already here you’ll spot how Phil Fish’s game has a sort of „retropixel” look to it. This isn’t a problem though, I managed to quickly acclimatize to the looks of Fez. And this is just the beginning: after getting to the roof, a golden cube found me, and then it promptly fell to pieces… or rather shards. However, our hero’s head will meet the namegiving cap, while getting a new, and – let’s face it – brilliant ability. Gomez gets to know that his world has a third dimension as well, which makes him shocked… In fact, shocked to the fact that the game actually makes fun of it, rebooting in a sense!

Cubes!

After this „reboot”, we will be able to spin our environment by 90 degrees. There’s a house, but we can’t get to the top of it. How about spinning it once to uncover the spindle on the wall, helping us climb to the top? This experience is really creative, and it does it in a great way, while making the player actually think. Doing this in 2014 is a brave move, but Fez pulls it off very well. Completing our task is extremely joyful – what Gomez’s task is, you ask? Finding the 32 shards of the cube. And don’t forget: one cube shard consists of six pieces… So you will end up spending some time with Fez!
Fezzel egy kis ideig!

Calming

Most videogames nowadays punish the player, if he/she ends up messing up something. This is something that Fez goes directly against. Do you mess that jump up, ending up falling? No problem, you will end up almost at the same point where you performed that bad move (without getting any penalty, like getting cube pieces taken away). Enemies? Don’t worry, there’s absolutely nobody that tries to harm Gomez in his challenge. Don’t consider this as a negative point, because thanks to this, you can clearly concentrate on the navigaton between the platforms. But still, why am I calling Fez calming? Take a look (or rather, listen) at the soundtrack. Rich Vreeland has made a wonderful composition for this game – it boosts the already correct mood higher, while sneaking just behind us in the background, not really disturbing our cube piece collection.

Homage

Aside from the graphics, Fez does pay tributes to other games. I don’t think it won’t be bold to spot those tetrominos (Tetris pieces, if you prefer) in the sky, but the treasure chests bring in some memories from the first two episodes of The Legend of Zelda. How about the unmissable (really, is everyone making levels like this?) sewer levels? Those take up a monochromic look, closely resembling the 1989 handheld beast, none other than the Game Boy. Nice, small references – only for those, who ask for them.

Recommended!

So Fez is a well made platformer. Likable visuals, very enjoyable audio (not mentioned the sound effects yet, those are also retro), calming gameplay, while not punishing the player. This is one of those games that I’d pull out on a rainy weekend, when nothing and nobody should disturb me. I’d just put a cup of hot chocolate next to my turned off mobile on the desk. Ready to pull the DualShock 4 out!

And what is Fez’s negative point? It will sound weird, but the fact that it will never get a sequel! Phil Fish announced it in last July, one month after the brief announcement at E3, after arguing with everyone on Twitter that this is enough, he takes the cash and runs with it…

…And with that, the sequel is gone down the drain. This will just make the first (and only) episode more worthy, and everyone should try it, who has ever spent 5 or more minutes in a platformer game.

-V-

Publisher: Trapdoor, Polytron Corp.
Developer: Polytron Corp.
Genre: Platformer
Publication: 2014 augusztus 6 (PS Plus)