MeeM’s Thoughts on Voxel Hat Dimension Hopper

For those of you who don’t know – That’s FEZ. FEZ is a small game about a guy, called Gomez. He has a hat. More specifically, a fez.

This covers the majority of the storyline.

The rest of the storyline centres around the magical ability of this fez. It allows Gomez to visit unseen dimensions. Not quite a third dimension, but simply different perspectives of the same dimension. If you get what I mean. And if you don’t… you won’t.

The thing about a FEZ is that (slightly less than) half of the game can be achieved solely through the application of generic platformer skills. The main purpose of exploring this seemingly stupidly large world is that you are tasked with collecting 32 different golden cubes. Which are either found as a single piece or are formed by collecting 8 smaller cube fragments. However, in the game, there are actually a total of 67 cubes to collect. That’s 32 golden cubes, 32 purple cubes and 3 red cubes. The purple cubes pose a much more complex and insightful challenge than that supplied by the golden cubes. The only way to know an area contains a purple cube is by a small mark denoting it on the map. Now, unless you’re cheating, I’m fairly certain you can’t get every purple cube on your first playthrough. And I’m really, really, REALLY certain you can’t get all the red cubes. This is due to the player, upon completion of the first playthrough, being rewarded with a set of sick, mlg sunglasses.

Now these aren’t any ordinary sunglasses. Well… from a logical standpoints they are BUT STILL! These sunglasses allow the world to be seen in true 3D. With depth and things. The reason this is important is due to the fact this allows you to see behind and below things which would have been impossible to see otherwise.

Ok, so now that you understand what the game is about I’m going to start talking about it, more specifically, what I like about it. To begin with there’s the thing that often draws me to games – the colours. FEZ features a beautiful array of green hues, sharp oranges and smooth blues all present within their respective domain. And, within each area, the colour scheme tends to remain mostly consistent. There’s almost no examples where you might go from sunny yellows to murky greens (without using a fast travel point). Instead you transition from sunny yellows to evening reds to deep blue storms to murky greens. Something that can easily be missed if you aren’t paying attention.

The second thing I adore is the soundtrack. I’ve always been a fan of chiptune and the FEZ OST fulfills my needs to the letter. Featuring a wide arrange of tempos and themes I feel that the music is one of the main reasons that the world felt so inclusive. Starting off as light, high pitched frequencies and slowly transitioning to darker, fuzzier songs. It’s my belief that many of the best features of games are bolstered by the addition of the correct sound.

The third thing I fell in love with was the art style. Now, this also falls under the colour scheme but the way the game is presented was perhaps one of the only things that kept me going to 209.4%. Everything just looks so good. The trees look dense, the rain looks cold and the sun looks warm. Just behind sounds my favourite things about any game is the environment. Even more if that environment is randomly generated (which, for FEZ it isn’t). If the world is properly portrayed it doesn’t matter how easy it is for one to imagine they are there, but it matters how easy it is for one to imagine what’s beyond the background. To extend the world.

The final thing and, in my opinion, the most important was the solution. Every puzzle (bar one) can be solved without looking outside the world. You simply need to connect the dots. This room looks very similar to that other room I was in, perhaps they’re connected (spoiler, they are). You’re supplied with a series of cryptic cubes which generally define the numerical and alphabetical system in the game which, by the way, you have to solve if you want to complete everything. But it’s all there. All the little pieces that you need can be found, right in front of you.

Indeed, the only bad thing about this game is perhaps one of the silliest. The developer. Phil Fish. Now personally, I feel bad for the guy. He fed the trolls and he got trolled. I mean, yeah, he went a bit odd in the end but still… He made a nice game. But oh well, if TF2 has taught me anything it’s that no matter how much you blame the devs, chances are things won’t change.

With that in mind, FEZ will always remain one of the jewels of my gaming collection and I’d strongly suggest it to those who enjoy puzzles and colours. (And the odd bit of platforming.)

Just my thoughts.