I went into this game expecting a bad platformer (Respawning right where you are? You can't have any challenge with that!). What I ended up finding is a puzzle game, and a pretty unique one.

Rather than having a set of rooms that you solve through using the quirky 3D mechanic, it's actually about exploring the world, gathering clues to understand how the various artifacts you find work. Somewhat similar to an in-game ARG that you can solve yourself.

Some puzzles can get complicated and the game sometimes expects you to make some pretty long leaps in logic. But once you figure it out after thinking about it for a while, you feel very clever and it can also bring light to another mystery elsewhere in the world that was getting you stumped earlier, which is quite rewarding and makes you want to go check it out immediately.

The ambiance is also a big part of the game, with it's pleasing atmospheric soundtrack and the wildly varying environments that you discover. This reinforces the whole "exploring the world" aspect of the game, and is very successful. You can also go look for deeper meanings to the implied events that happen in the game. I personally was very content just looking for puzzles and smelling the roses, but it's certainly there for people who like it, and it adds to the overall mysterious ambiance.

In the end, I was pleasantly surprised, and quickly found myself caught in the mystery-solving, ending up with a few pages of scribbles and a lot of screenshots taken as notes. If you like investing yourself into ARG-like puzzles you'll certainly get caught like me.

Now I feel sorta bummed out for Fez 2.

I went into this game expecting a bad platformer (Respawning right where you are? You can't have any challenge with that!). What I ended up finding is a puzzle game, and a pretty unique one. Rather than having a set of rooms that you solve through using the quirky 3D mechanic, it's actually about exploring the world, gathering clues to understand how the various artifacts you find work. Somewhat similar to an in-game ARG that you can solve yourself. Some puzzles can get complicated and the game sometimes expects you to make some pretty long leaps in logic. But once you figure it out after thinking about it for a while, you feel very clever and it can also bring light to another mystery elsewhere in the world that was getting you stumped earlier, which is quite rewarding and makes you want to go check it out immediately. The ambiance is also a big part of the game, with it's pleasing atmospheric soundtrack and the wildly varying environments that you discover. This reinforces the whole "exploring the world" aspect of the game, and is very successful. You can also go look for deeper meanings to the implied events that happen in the game. I personally was very content just looking for puzzles and smelling the roses, but it's certainly there for people who like it, and it adds to the overall mysterious ambiance. In the end, I was pleasantly surprised, and quickly found myself caught in the mystery-solving, ending up with a few pages of scribbles and a lot of screenshots taken as notes. If you like investing yourself into ARG-like puzzles you'll certainly get caught like me. [spoiler]Now I feel sorta bummed out for Fez 2.[/spoiler]