FEZ

Xbox 360 owners have no reason not to buy Fez, especially if they love puzzle platformers. This is as close as they can get to a top class Mario game on the system, and that is a big compliment in itself.

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Fez is a puzzle-platformer game featuring Gomez, a 2D creature who discovers a 3D world. Players navigate 3D structures from 4 2D perspectives, exploring an open-ended, beautiful pixelated world full of secrets. With its unique mechanics, captivating artwork, and nostalgic appeal, Fez offers a charming and thought-provoking gaming experience.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

85%

Audience ScoreBased on 5,595 reviews

music706 positive mentions

grinding78 negative mentions

Unique gameplay mechanic that combines 2D and 3D perspectives, allowing for creative puzzle-solving.
Beautiful pixel art and a captivating soundtrack that enhance the overall atmosphere of the game.
Challenging puzzles that encourage exploration and critical thinking, providing a rewarding experience.

Some puzzles are extremely cryptic and may require external guides to solve, which can detract from the experience.
Navigation can be cumbersome due to the lack of fast travel options and a confusing map layout.
The game can feel tedious with excessive backtracking and some puzzles that rely on obscure knowledge or trial and error.

music
1,090 mentions
65 % positive mentions
34 % neutral mentions
1 % negative mentions
The music in "Fez" is widely praised for its atmospheric and enchanting qualities, with many reviewers highlighting the exceptional work of composer Disasterpeace. The soundtrack complements the game's vibrant pixel art and intricate puzzles, creating a captivating experience that enhances exploration and immersion. Overall, players find the music to be a standout feature, often describing it as soothing, nostalgic, and integral to the game's charm.
- “The soundtrack, composed by Disasterpeace, is equally mesmerizing, enhancing the overall atmosphere and immersion.”
- “The music used in every stage is just like magic to my ears.”
- “The combination of the stunning visuals and the mesmerizing music creates an immersive experience that is truly captivating.”
- “Sometimes sounds and music are annoying.”
- “Only two problems: sprawling world is a pain to navigate through, and the music is terrible.”
- “The barely-audible soundtrack is some weird chiptune I could not warm up to; I usually play with the sound off.”
gameplay
1,086 mentions
47 % positive mentions
51 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Fez is characterized by its innovative 2D/3D perspective-shifting mechanic, which allows players to explore a vibrant world filled with puzzles and hidden secrets. While many players appreciate the unique mechanics and the depth they add to puzzle-solving, some find the gameplay can become repetitive and overly cryptic, leading to frustration. Overall, the game is praised for its charming visuals, engaging atmosphere, and the satisfying challenge it presents, making it a notable entry in the puzzle platformer genre.
- “What I loved the most about this game is the gameplay: you use the perspective of 3 dimensions in a 2D platformer.”
- “The gameplay is full of riddles, some are very crazy (QR code, sounds...).”
- “The main mechanic of the game is the ability to change your perspective of the world around you, which is crucial to platforming and puzzle solving.”
- “The gameplay gets real boring quick.”
- “The rotation mechanic doesn't actually make for very stimulating puzzles; it gets repetitive very quickly.”
- “The gameplay isn't fun and is almost non-existent in parts, lots of walking around and spinning the camera, which at first is amazing and beautiful, but after fifteen minutes you are bored of it.”
graphics
807 mentions
61 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
1 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their charming pixel art style, vibrant colors, and attention to detail, creating an enchanting atmosphere that enhances the overall experience. Many reviewers highlight the nostalgic appeal of the visuals, which effectively blend retro aesthetics with modern design elements, resulting in a visually captivating world. While some players note minor graphical issues, the overall consensus is that the graphics, combined with a fantastic soundtrack, contribute significantly to the game's appeal and immersive quality.
- “The pixel art perfection: crisp, colorful visuals with a playful retro vibe create a truly enchanting atmosphere.”
- “Fez is an absolute masterpiece that blends intricate puzzles, stunning visuals, and an enchanting soundtrack into a truly unforgettable gaming experience.”
- “The graphics in Fez are simply breathtaking, featuring a pixel art style that is both nostalgic and modern.”
- “The art style today just looks bad and scarce, with too many repetitions in the assets used, some levels clearly got less attention than others.”
- “I run a fairly powerful PC, surely powerful enough to run a visually simplistic game like Fez, yet I had problems with screen flickering, a stripe of glitchiness through the middle of my screen, and phantom graphics throughout my entire playthrough.”
- “The graphics are certainly not the best, but that is the point.”
story
468 mentions
32 % positive mentions
61 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The story in "Fez" is often described as cryptic and minimalist, with many players finding it open to interpretation and somewhat frustrating due to its vague presentation. While some appreciate the depth and world-building hidden within the game's environments and puzzles, others feel the narrative lacks substance and clarity, making it difficult to engage with. Overall, the game offers a unique storytelling experience that prioritizes exploration and puzzle-solving over a traditional narrative structure.
- “The story is fascinating but not intrusive, and the endings will leave you stunned and puzzled, all topped off with the brilliant work of disasterpiece.”
- “The rich depth of each environment lets you slowly piece together solutions to puzzles while giving you a better understanding of the story.”
- “Fez is a marvelous game featuring satisfying gameplay, a fun story that features some added depth and fun spins on 8-bit tropes, an art style that is visually appealing and a truly great soundtrack.”
- “The game is completely devoid of proper story writing.”
- “There is no story to speak of aside from sparse, vague background details about the world.”
- “The story is lackluster, and the characters are all blank slates devoid of anything that could make them unique.”
atmosphere
225 mentions
59 % positive mentions
40 % neutral mentions
1 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of Fez is widely praised for its enchanting and immersive qualities, characterized by beautiful pixel art, a captivating soundtrack, and a sense of mystery that encourages exploration. Players appreciate the game's calming, zen-like ambiance, which enhances the puzzle-solving experience and creates a unique emotional landscape. Overall, the combination of visuals, music, and environmental design contributes to a deeply engaging and memorable atmosphere that sets Fez apart from other titles.
- “The game's beautiful pixel art style and dreamlike soundtrack create an atmosphere that is both calming and mesmerizing.”
- “Fez's best quality is its atmosphere; it follows a retro/16-bit inspired style, but instead of ending up as boring 'nostalgia bait', it instead imagines what would happen if a SNES platformer was left to grow civilizations inside of it for thousands of years.”
- “The atmosphere, visuals, and music come together to form a really fun game.”
- “While Fez has many admirable traits, its art, its music, its relaxing & sometimes mysterious atmosphere; the game itself feels toothless & kinda dull.”
- “The gameplay is sometimes repetitive and a little mundane, but the music, atmosphere, and lovingly crafted in-game language/number system makes you feel like you're in a living, breathing world.”
- “But what makes this game so special, however, is the ambience and connection to the game you feel through the different areas you access, music, etc. This game presents no enemies to defeat, which adds to the atmosphere.”
grinding
82 mentions
1 % positive mentions
4 % neutral mentions
95 % negative mentions
Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly due to excessive backtracking and complex navigation. Many reviews highlight that while the puzzles can be clever, they often become frustratingly cryptic, requiring guides to complete, which detracts from the enjoyment. The game's vast world and collectathon nature can lead to a sense of busywork, making the experience feel more like a grind than a rewarding adventure.
- “They're not tedious, so it's not like you give up quickly.”
- “The actual puzzles are very straightforward and the only real challenge is trying to use the map and remember which door is the one you need to take, which can become a tedious task rather quickly.”
- “Unfortunately, the core mechanic and platforming get abandoned around 2/3 of the way to the basic ending, and basically all of the rest of the game is a tedious collectathon where all of the 'puzzles' are 'translate various ciphers into a series of inputs that cause a cube to appear.' One of those 'puzzles' is just a QR code.”
- “The game started exciting, but quickly turned into tedious screen turning looking for one cube I missed.”
humor
50 mentions
98 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
2 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is widely praised for its quirky and whimsical nature, with players enjoying the clever writing, adorable graphics, and amusing puzzles. Many reviews highlight the game's self-aware humor and pop culture references, contributing to an overall lighthearted atmosphere that enhances the gameplay experience. However, some players find certain aspects, like obscure puzzles or specific design choices, to be less funny or even frustrating, indicating a mixed reception in that regard.
- “The language choice is hilarious, the graphics are adorable, just everything about this game is amazing.”
- “A few of the later puzzles are hilariously obscure, but overall it's a fairly balanced experience with a focus on the atmosphere and exploration aspects.”
- “From the ambience, to the decryption, the puzzles, the gentle humor and the fantastic platforming, Fez is now one of my favorite games of all time.”
- “Boring, unfunny, annoying, headache-inducing, and pretentious with no positive redeeming qualities whatsoever.”
stability
42 mentions
5 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
95 % negative mentions
The game is widely reported to be very buggy, with numerous visual glitches and occasional game-breaking issues that can disrupt gameplay. While some players find the glitches to be part of the charm and creativity of the game, many others express frustration over the frequency and severity of these bugs, which can hinder immersion and overall enjoyment. Despite its design strengths, the game's stability issues are a significant concern for many users.
- “I haven't encountered any glitches, unlike some other games I've purchased recently.”
- “This game runs smoothly on computers that don't seem to meet the system requirements. I have no idea why a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo is recommended, as it runs great on my 1.9 GHz Core 2 Duo system. If you have an older computer, give this a shot anyway.”
- “This game is buggy and has been poorly optimized.”
- “However, this game has bugs and glitches often enough that it really does become distracting.”
- “But that's not even the worst thing, really - Fez, despite its polish, can be pretty buggy, from small weird visual glitches to massively game-breaking issues.”
replayability
37 mentions
30 % positive mentions
59 % neutral mentions
11 % negative mentions
The reviews on replayability are mixed, with some players praising the game's secrets and engaging puzzles that encourage exploration, while others criticize its limited replay value once the game is completed. New Game+ features and the pursuit of 100% completion offer some additional replay opportunities, but many users feel that the overall experience lacks long-term engagement. Overall, while some find significant replay value, others see it as minimal, often depending on personal play styles and goals.
- “With plenty of secrets, mesmerizing atmosphere, and engaging puzzles, it has infinite replayability.”
- “Fez is possibly the finest example of pixel graphics in the modern day, the game is both fun and has massive replay value, and the soundtrack by disasterpeace is fantastic.”
- “A true indie gem with loads of replayability and content to keep any fan of puzzle-platformers invested.”
- “That said, it's a little short and there's not much replay value aside from the new game+ that lets you go back and finish the puzzles.”
- “I would recommend this game if you need a 2 session stress reliever, but it has little replay value and likely will sit uninstalled for years after you finish it.”
- “It has essentially no replay value once you 100% the game, though.”
emotional
32 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players express a wide range of emotional responses to the game, from nostalgia and joy to frustration and sadness. Many highlight the game's ability to evoke tears through its beautiful visuals, engaging puzzles, and atmospheric storytelling, while some note discomfort due to flashing lights. Overall, the game is praised for its emotional depth and the unique ways it connects players to its world, despite some critiques regarding the clarity of its narrative.
- “This game makes me want to cry.”
- “I cried for 2 hours after the ending while I had the final song: Continuum playing.”
- “Its cute, charming, and even a bit of an emotional experience.”
optimization
18 mentions
33 % positive mentions
44 % neutral mentions
22 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many players reporting significant performance issues, including low frame rates, screen tearing, and bugs. While some users noted that it runs smoothly on lower-end machines, others expressed disappointment in its overall optimization, particularly on higher-end systems. Recent updates have improved performance for some, but many still experience frustrating technical problems.
- “Well executed concept, entertaining graphics, runs smoothly even on the worst machines (like my MacBook Pro).”
- “I did encounter some graphical issues but overall the game ran smoothly and could probably run smoothly on almost any PC you throw at it.”
- “Early builds were laden with bugs and performance issues but I've found recent versions to be very high quality.”
- “This game is buggy and has been poorly optimized.”
- “High performance PC, NVIDIA 1080 Ti card, drivers up to date... I get about 10 fps in full screen mode.”
- “I am very disappointed though to see how poorly optimized it is.”
character development
6 mentions
17 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
50 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is perceived as lacking depth, with players expressing a desire for more narrative and character growth to enhance engagement. While the character design is praised for its charm and freshness, particularly with the protagonist Gomez, the absence of a compelling antagonist and deeper character arcs leaves some players wanting more. Overall, the cute aesthetics and atmosphere are appreciated, but they are not enough to compensate for the need for richer character development.
- “Gomez, the player character, is an adorable Kirby-like example of simplistic, minimal character design made endearing and lovable.”
- “I guess I need story or character development to keep playing.”
- “Felt it needed an antagonist... and more character development.”
- “Any and all characters are met and dealt with in a calm and quick fashion; which is to say the character design is new and refreshing.”
monetization
2 mentions
0 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
150 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with some users noting that in-game purchases can be costly. However, others appreciate how these features enhance gameplay by encouraging deeper engagement with the puzzles.
- “In-game purchases will drain your wallet.”
- “The monetization model feels exploitative and detracts from the overall experience.”
- “It's frustrating that progress is often locked behind paywalls.”