Fez

The idea behind the adventure of the friendly Gomez is very simple: the world we see is in two dimensions, but there is a third, a mysterious Z direction that the creatures of the world cannot even imagine. A bit like the Flatlandia square, our hero encounters an inconceivable entity, an hexahedron, which reveals the existence of a phantom 3D and assigns him the task of saving the world from a cosmic collapse. From these premises a platform / puzzle / adventure is born, all centered on a very particular mechanics, rotation. To save some digital ink and not get tangled up in spurious explanations, I invite you to look at figure A.

(figure A)

The world we see is 2D, but it is actually the projection of a 3D landscape, the result "crushed on the screen" of a reality made of cubes and not squares. When we turn it, Gomez remains in the same position, but the world rotates, changing the point of view and revealing platforms, doors and chests. On paper it is brainy, but in practice ten seconds are enough, both to understand and to be amazed by the beauty of the effect. This mechanic, in the expert hands of Phil Fish, creates an intelligent platformer, with ingenious puzzles that often and willingly break the fourth wall, violating the conventions of modern games and asking for a healthy dose of lateral thinking to those who hold the controller in their hands .

Fun fact: I broke up so much with Fez that a friend gave me a Fez. In the real world.

The greatest achievement of Fez, however, is linked in double thread to the genius of its creator, to that spark of madness mentioned above. To describe it, I have to do a little spoiler, so if you want to keep yourself free, go directly to the next paragraph. Done? I go? OK. From the outset, you can see how the game world is full of symbols on the wall, written in an incomprehensible alphabet. In my twenty-first century innocence as a player, I expected them to be a simple decoration, a note of color. But no. After a couple of hours of play I realize that they have a meaning, a relevance for the adventure and the plot. Once again, in my innocence, I expected to find a magical object, something that said to me: "Congratulations! You got grandma's glasses! Now you can read all those written in an intelligible format! " It would be normal, wouldn't it? Here, however, the key to understanding those symbols, some of which are actually used to continue the story, is hidden in small details of the game world. Walls to look at from different perspectives, blackboards, cubes ... The moment I deciphered the very first part of this puzzle I understood that Fez was serious, that he was crazier than I had imagined, and that everything I had seen and believed it had to be looked at with different eyes, with an almost scientific spirit. The thrill of being in such a coherent world, the result of such a particular fantasy, is and remains one of the revelations of the latest generation of gaming. This is the reason why Fez, beyond controversy and chatter, is a classic of the future, a gem, a masterpiece in the fullest sense of the word.

Graphics are much more than just a repechage of pixels. There is art.

These wonders are perfectly found at home PlayStation, both on home consoles, where it is easier to enjoy the fantastic soundtrack of Disasterpiece, and on PS Vita, thanks to which the obsession of puzzles can also follow you on the subway, with the increasingly indispensable cross-save (the real flagship of the Sony ecosystem, in my opinion). If you've never played Fez, this is the time to do it. Forget the chatter from Beautiful that surrounded its eccentric creator, and if you are part of the detractors of Phil Fish and his poor diplomatic skills make an abstraction effort. If you go to Cracco to eat, you don't do it because he is a nice and affable man: you do it because he is a great cook and because his style in the kitchen is special. The same goes for Fez: Phil Fish is a particular character, but the beauty of his work deserves three stars on the 2014 Michelin / Kenobit guide.

After scooping up numerous indie prizes and being released for consoles over a year ago , Fez has finally made it to the PC - and at number 1 in the pre-sale charts on Steam, although developer Phil Fish calls his buyers "ungrateful" and asks to steal the game. But he deserves it, because the jump & run around the marshmallow-like hero Gomez not only convinced us in the test with its original game mechanics and clever puzzles.

Incidentally, Gomez did not choose his hero status himself, his predecessor Geezer simply buried him in the role of adventurer. As such, Gomez not only gets the felt hat that gives it its name, but is also let in on a well-kept secret - the third dimension.

Going crazy in 2D

This is exactly what makes Fez what it is. We run and jump through two-dimensional levels in Gomez 'form, but these are only flat images of the three-dimensional areas. The advantage of three-dimensionality becomes apparent when we turn the environment by pressing a button or, better still, pressing a gamepad button (the controls on the keyboard are heavily overloaded) and thus change the accessible terrain. It can happen that our felt hated hero disappears behind objects or buildings, which sometimes confuses us for a short time.

The turning shop not only looks great, it also has a playful benefit. Through the targeted level rotation, we not only reach previously hidden places, almost insurmountable abysses can suddenly shrink to cat jumps, or we unexpectedly find ourselves at the other end of a platform. In addition, the whirling around of the levels surprises us again and again with occasional brain-wracking aha experiences.

Rubik's Cube

The reason why we chase Gomez through the consistently square world is a cube or - to put it mathematically correct - a regular hexahedron. This holds the world of Fez together at its core, but breaks into its individual parts at the beginning of the game. Our job is to turn each level upside down to find the fragments and put the hexahedron back together.

When looking for the 32 dice, we quickly notice that there are also 32 anti-dice to be found, plus nine treasure maps and four artifacts, the use of which has not yet been revealed to us. In addition, Fez confronts us with a mysterious sign language right from the start, with which we cannot do anything with the best will in the world.

In order not to get lost, Fez gives us a map of the world that is a bit confusing, but stylish and informative. On the map we can see, for example, whether there is still a cube fragment in a level, or whether there are locked doors or boxes. If we have found everything in a room, opened all the doors and solved all the puzzles, it is outlined in gold on the world map. So we know directly where we still have work to do. Also practical: the time travel gates. With their help we can jump back and forth between certain nodes without having to visit the levels in between. That saves us a little time, but still leaves so many route and door searches that we miss a direct travel function in all levels at the latest in the second run.

It continues at the beginning

Wait, second run? Right, once we have finished Fez, we have the option of starting a »New Game +«. Then the story starts all over again, but the game world remains as it was from our first run. Because the first time we solve a lot of puzzles, we are not able to find out everything. Since we already have our level rotating felt hat at the second attempt, it would be illogical to get a second fez on our head. Therefore we are given a new accessory and thus a new ability that allows us to solve further puzzles and find all 64 cubes. We won't reveal what our new aid is about here. However, it fits seamlessly into the world of Fez and motivates us, assuming the corresponding ambition, to return to the level we have already visited.

Puzzles with paper and pen

All puzzles within the game world can be solved in the coherent and well thought-out Fez. In theory at least. In practice, however, some tasks turn out to be more difficult than necessary. While we can still easily find out the meaning of the Tetris code, i.e. the combinations of the Tetris blocks that we see in many places, deciphering the secret language requires not only an above-average perception but also our upper room.

As in the old DOS days, we even have to use paper and pen to take notes during a game! But that doesn't always help either, even the community only came up with the solution to a riddle about a black monolith through merciless and aimless trial and error. In order to play through Fez, we do not necessarily have to go to this more complex level, but the bizarre universe makes us so curious that it is almost impossible not to get involved.

Technically, Fez doesn't have to hide in his class. The detailed retro world is presented as if it were made from one piece, and the mixture of three-dimensional levels, which are broken down into two-dimensional levels, impresses us with its cleverness. Gomez and the other inhabitants and living beings are all softly animated, and we always enjoy watching the fauna.

Or we stop and watch Gomez curiously look around the area or take a nap. The soundscape is also pleasing. While the synth background music adapts to the mood of the individual levels, the many ambient noises allow us to immerse ourselves wonderfully in the harmonious world of Fez.

The second decade of the 21st century is extremely interesting in the gaming industry. It turns out that we have reached a stage where an independent creator, without a background of unnecessary scribblers, can give the world something that will not only prevent it from getting a rash, but even speechless with delight. FEZ did not have an easy story - the game's premiere, postponed several times, was significantly delayed. Hence, the solutions used in it are no longer so shocking with freshness, but today, after the premiere of FEZ, it ceases to have any significance. I did not think I would write it again, but this year (and only a quarter has passed) it is the second title that I would not hesitate to compare to a work of art . PlayStation 3 has received an amazing and insanely emotional Journey , and the Xbox 360 can boast of FEZ .

What exactly is FEZ ? Simply put, it can be said that a two-dimensional platformer, the main character of which, Gomez, is able to manipulate the third dimension through ninety-degree camera rotations that change the perspective of the two-dimensional background. Thanks to this, we create transitions and shortcuts that allow you to explore the location. FEZ , however, offers much more than just the fun of perspective. In fact, it is a very complicated game filled with intelligent puzzles , in which exploring the half of the open world is games with the player consisting in putting together, brick by brick the history of this universe. Which - I assure you - is no less fun than solving puzzles.

FEZ consists of dozens of smaller and larger locations to which we gain access along with finding the next golden cubes. Which is our main goal, in most cases not representing some great intellectual challenge. The cubes are scattered in different places and the only problem in reaching some of them is the proper perspective setting. Collecting thirty-two large dice, each consisting of eight smaller ones, ends the game. At the same time, it is an introduction to the actual knowledge of this production, because breaking it down into prime factors means also finding all the secrets leading to the map treasures, additional artifacts and thirty-two so-called anti-cubes. Locating them is much more difficult than the ordinary ones and in almost all cases it is necessary to solve puzzles to which you don't even know how to go. The authors did not bother to guide the players on the trail and left them alone . Which works fantastic, because it turns out that thanks to this the world gains depth, we become fascinated by the mere finding of clues and the celebration of the wonderful game design. It reminded me vividly of the time spent exploring the mysteries of Myst , and yet these works are separated by a genre gap. During my adventure with FEZ, I also had the impression that its world and some of the solutions proposed by the authors refer to the wonderful series The Legend of Zelda . All these titles represent different genres, different technical solutions, but have at least one common denominator - in each of them something completely new awaits around the next corner.

A map, which may seem unclear at first, is helpful in finding oneself in this mini-universal. This first, not very good impression passes after several dozen minutes, when it suddenly turns out that the dependencies prevailing in FEZ cannot be presented in any simpler way. After a few hours, we only realize that this small world grows to a size that makes it difficult to move easily between distant locations, so returning to a specific place may require even several minutes of walking through the already visited areas. Take it easy, even though FEZ is a platformer, you cannot die in it, because after a failed jump, we immediately respawn in the place from which we made it. There are also no opponents in the game, so the only difficulty on your way back may be finding the right passage. Nevertheless, it is a pity that the authors did not decide on some faster form of travel. Perhaps such a solution would strip FEZ of the aura of mystery?

It is impossible to describe FEZ's artwork otherwise than as brilliant pixel art. It is true that the constant fashion for large pixels may seem boring, but what the people from Polytron did are knocking down with taste, quality of workmanship, ingenuity and diversity. Villages, islets, waterfalls, neon lights, driving rain, a cemetery - long to mention places and phenomena causing uncontrolled "wow" . It is no different with the sound, for which Rich Vreeland, a young composer specializing in chiptune, is responsible. The music for FEZ is excellent and adds character to the game.

FEZ developed in pain for several years. It was worth waiting - this is by far the best adventure and platform game available for Xbox 360 on the Xbox LIVE Arcade service . This title may have been some two years late to be able to be called a milestone in the development of the indie scene or games in general, but you can label it a work of art. What I am doing hereby, and I encourage all the readers to find out for themselves.