Fez - Pixel Logic

Before I even begin this review, I have to start stating facts. Will I be talking about the notorious Phil Fish here? Answer: No. This is about Fez as a game and that's that. Anyway with that quick note out of the way, how exactly does this weird pixel 2D/3D-ish platformer fare?

Lets hit the good points first then and there's thankfully plenty of them. Here in Fez you have to complete tasks and explore various different areas, the twist here being that all the levels are actually 3D, the player character having the ability to shift between viewpoints with the hit of a button. The whole system manages to be quite clever as shifting soon reveals platforms, ladders and areas to clamber. This also builds into the various puzzles that Fez throws at you where shifting planes can show various sides to puzzles, shifting can also go into the various codes and secrets hidden around the game.

The game also looks beautiful. Okay, its pixelly all over, but the actual style of the game is great with detail popping out everywhere, from small creatures roaming the levels, to detailed rooms full of pieces, detailing the story of the world. The music accompanies these graphics brilliantly, chirpy tunes helping to keep pace and the feel of the entire game, from spooky tunes for the more dark areas, to happy woodland music, to Legend of Zelda esque cues on discovering new secrets.

All of this makes a great game to play through from start to end... However for those who prefer to clear their games 100% all the time, there's a fair amount of pain to go through too. Secrets are often hidden away, often in completely obscure places. This is minor however compared to the sheer insane difficulty of some of the puzzles where knowledge of binary code, code breaking, time manipulation and some insane back to front knowledge of the games release all come into play, often in ways that will have most players scrambling for a hint system and/or a walkthrough.

So final thoughts? Brilliant game to play through but one that turns into a total horror when attempting to clear 100%