Indie Jeff's Weekly Pick: Fez

This week, I get lost in Polytron's Fez, the best game ever named after a hat.

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Ever since I had a chance to play a little bit of Fez at last year's IndieCade festival, I'd been anxiously awaiting its release. At the time, it wowed me with its aesthetics--both nostalgic and beautiful--and its seemingly pure focus on exploration above all else. In short, I've had pretty high hopes for the game. Now that the Xbox Live Arcade exclusive is out in the wild and I've been able to spend quite a bit more time with it, I'm happy to report that the game is continuing to surprise and delight in a number of unexpected ways.

The intriguing and odd-looking tasseled hat for which indie developer Polytron's game is named has been highlighted in a number of other mediums before. Before The Simpsons, Matt Groening adorned his comic-book characters Akbar & Jeff with the esoteric lids. Steely Dan and Dr. Who have also featured Fez's in one way or another. In the case of Fez the game, the tiny red hat bestows special 3D powers upon a cute little 2D creature named Gomez, who must collect a variety of cubes in order to save his world.

The joy of playing Fez, for me, comes from a few key things that the game does exceptionally well. From a presentational standpoint, it's what I'd call retro-stunning. In Fez, where exploration and collection are the core objectives, deft and compelling presentation matters all the more. A blocky, old-school aesthetic, a rich and varied color palette, fantastically-complimentary sound effects and music, and little touches like day-night cycles and the audio-visual rewards for progress help carry the experience.

Rotating the world is also a treat for the eyes, but is also key to Fez's primary gameplay focus: figuring out how to navigate and explore each environment in order to collect the glowing yellow cubes that are necessary to progress. Were Fez a truly three-dimensional platformer, this wouldn't be that interesting. However, the game instead renders each "dimension" as a 2D plane. There's the illusion of volume, but each playing field is 2D. This amounts to a number of navigational puzzles that are built on optical illusions. Since there's no real penalty for death in the game, one can also be recklessly experimental while trying to figure things out.

Structurally, Fez is set up as a series of interconnected "stages," that effectively create a giant web of locations to explore. There's a bit of a Metroid vibe, in that you'll need to return to certain locations after progressing a bit. It fits the exploration motif perfectly. I'm not keen to ruin them, but the game continues to introduce new gameplay concepts and throw puzzling little mechanical twists as things progress. I was initially a bit worried about Fez's lack of any combat akin to most platformers, but after a few hours, I haven't missed it for a second.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't think infusing Mario-like enemies into this type of gameplay experience would be interesting, but doing so would give the feeling of a much different game. Fez is designed in such a way that you can play for as little or as long as you like in a sitting, and is ultimately relaxing and contemplative. It's possible to get frustrated by some of the environmental puzzles, but they're anything but stressful.

Though I haven't yet finished it, I can already tell that Fez is a really special game, and one that Xbox 360 owners that love platforming and adventure games should really consider checking out. Impatient gamers may not find the game's zen-like, play-at-your-own-pace attitude to their liking, but it's turning out to be one of my favorite games this year, so far.

From The Chatty
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    April 15, 2012 12:00 PM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Indie Jeff's Weekly Pick: Fez.

    This week, I get lost in Polytron's Fez, the best game ever named after a hat.

    • reply
      April 15, 2012 2:13 PM

      Judas, from Binding Of Isaac, also wears a fez.
      Query: Have you come across any situations where you need to jump and THEN rotate the world while in midair? I'm just interested in how far they take those mechanics.

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        April 15, 2012 2:50 PM

        I did it for a hidden item, but it involved invisible platforms so I'm not sure if it was necessary or I just didn't see where I was going. But they do give the mechanics a workout, with rotating sections of the levels and stuff.

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      April 15, 2012 3:09 PM

      Looks like Paper Mario and Cave Story.
      I guess Western games are just two Japanese games duct-taped together.

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      April 15, 2012 4:01 PM

      Too bad this isn't on PC/Steam... I'd buy it...

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        April 15, 2012 6:27 PM

        I don't think that's going to happen.

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      April 15, 2012 5:32 PM

      Unless Microsoft paid these folks a tonne of money for Exclusive rights to this game (a'la Flower, Journey for PS3), why would you not make this available on other platforms?

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        April 15, 2012 6:01 PM

        Maybe just because it's basically done by one dude and he just wanted to focus on getting it done on one platform first?

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          April 15, 2012 6:59 PM

          I think Phil Fish has said he doesn't want it on PC as well.

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            April 15, 2012 7:06 PM

            I believe his exact words were "It's made to be played with a controller, on a couch" and "PCs are for spreadsheets."
            Also, he's not the only one working on the game, if anything the major brunt of the work is by Renaud.

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              April 15, 2012 7:09 PM

              If only you could hook a TV and a gamepad up to a PC... *sigh*

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                April 15, 2012 10:19 PM

                Why bother though? Just get a console already, it's very convenient.

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                  April 15, 2012 11:24 PM

                  [deleted]

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                    April 15, 2012 11:36 PM

                    It's very convenient. It's a DVD player, Netflix streaming player, and gaming system all rolled into one. Boots up nearly instantly and is hooked up to TV 24/7. PS3 and Xbox at this point could be had for $200 on a sale, no excuse not to own at least one of them. Personally I prefer PS3, especially now with addition of Amazon video streaming.

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                      April 15, 2012 11:39 PM

                      Meant to say out of consoles I prefer a PS3. When it comes to serious FPS gaming nothing ever will replace my gaming desktop or my i7 asus gaming laptop.

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                  April 16, 2012 4:56 AM

                  Being able to choose which platform you play games on is even *more* convenient.

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                    April 16, 2012 6:31 AM

                    you'd think whining on the internet about it would be too

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                      April 16, 2012 10:22 AM

                      I'd like to see where I whined about anything, troll more.

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              April 15, 2012 7:42 PM

              He also said, “I mean, ultimately, I would like to see it on everything. Why not?"

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              April 15, 2012 8:06 PM

              honestly I don't get these sort of comments anymore considering the complexity of consoles relative to even the consoles of the previous generation. I mean, has he seen the latest xbox interface interface? when was the last time he bought a console? There have been like a dozen different revisions and packages to consider when you buy these things now.

              it's jarring hearing them from indie developers. I mean I get it's about an appreciation for a kind of purity of experience, but alienating a large portion of players for the purposes of an experience that actually does not exist anymore seems extremely vain and stupid.

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        April 15, 2012 6:08 PM

        i think they sort of published the game, but i don't know the details

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        April 15, 2012 7:09 PM

        who knows.

        these xbla exclusivity deals seem to run anywhere from a few weeks to 6 months. I'm going to bet this one will be longer since the developer was kind of adamant about its console exclusivity

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      April 15, 2012 7:03 PM

      [deleted]

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      April 15, 2012 11:16 PM

      Everyone forgets about Hatris :(

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      April 16, 2012 4:07 PM

      Its a shame its not coming out on pc..
      Stoped buying games for my 360 almost 2 years ago.

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