Fez is a platformer with a rotation gimmick. It’s a minimalistic game in all aspects leaving much to be desired. I expected more than just jumping and because of that I got disinterested quickly.

The gameplay involves you collecting bits of a massive cube, because if you don’t fix it, the world will end. Other than this introduction, there is not much story here. You have a floating companion prism that sometimes will provide context on your surroundings, but the dialogue from it is nothing special. The game doesn’t take itself seriously, but it’s also not funny. I’m not sure what they were going for with the dialogue choices and because there isn’t a lot of it, I’m not sure it was needed in the first place.

Each level contains bits and secrets to uncover. Most of the time you will be platforming and rotating the camera to do so. There aren’t many interactables in the environment, so I got bored early. Your character climbs and goes through doors slowly, so I found little joy in the gameplay itself. There are some really beautiful pixel art environments here though. One level takes place during a thunderstorm and when the lightning strikes you can see platforms that you can’t see otherwise (unless you look closely because rain is landing on them). This is one of my favorite levels, but sadly not many others share this creativity. Some levels have bombs that you need to use to blow up walls and doors. They seem out of place in the world to me, but there was a cool puzzle involving them. You needed to blow up a wall, chain-reaction style, and rotate the camera so the explosion continued along the other side. It was cool to see, but other than this and the lightning, the game fails to leave a real impression on me.

The world map helps you keep track of what levels have secrets, locked doors and bits to collect and turn gold when complete. The map itself is a bit confusing at first and the teleporters aren’t as helpful in getting you where you want to go as they should be. A menu option for fast travel would have remedied this issue, but given this game is a decade old, I can forgive this.

Full disclosure, I did not “finish” this game. I got really bored after two and a half hours of play. Maybe there are more diverse level gimmicks further in, but the game should have done more to hook me initially. The environments are well-designed and the rotation platforming is a solid foundation, but the lack of mechanics and a story fail to capture my attention. Many people like the simplicity of this game. Unfortunately it doesn’t do enough for me to want to continue. Give it a try for yourself if you like platformers, but don’t expect too much.