For the avoidance of doubt:

http://polytroncorporation.com/61-2


of a packet of crisps.

Like so many games these days, FEZ as all retro-looking, with giant 
"pixels" and chip-tune music. Because people remember retro games 
fondly, so making a game look retro automatically makes it good. Right?

Well, you can kind of see the allure of it all. Drawing an 8x8 pixel 
grid so it looks vaguely like a monkey is *drastically* easier than 
producing a high-definition photo-realistic model of a monkey. Or even 
animating a cartoon monkey, for that matter.

Plus, there are a lot of old games that people rave about as being 
excellent. I think that makes certain people think that if you just make 
a game that looks how the old ones looked, that will automatically make 
people love it.

Of course, it doesn't actually work like that. But even though the 
graphics for FEZ are terrible... it costs less than a packet of crisps, 
right? So why not try it?

Next time I looked at the clock, an entire hour had elapsed. I honestly 
thought it was only five minutes. (!!)

For me, what sets FEZ apart is the music. Remember me ranting a few 
weeks ago that computer games used to have awesome music? [I wish I 
could find that YouTube video that Warp dug out as a counter-example...] 
Well, FEZ has really good music.

It's cheating, of course. It *sounds* like the chip-tunes of old. 
Except... the C64 never had convolution reverb, nor stereophonic 
phasers. In amongst the overtly retro bleeps and gurgles, you can make 
out what are clearly sampled real-world sounds. (The frogs are 
particularly obvious.)

Then again, the whole game is cheating. It *looks* like something from 
an ancient 8-bit system. But it's a half-gigabyte download. It has these 
huge pixels, but a handful of effects happen at full resolution. And the 
rotations happen at full precision too.

Unlike so many other mass-produced psuedo-retro clones, FEZ has music 
which is really atmospheric and talented. The opening sequence is really 
quite cinematic (all the way down to the simulated computer crash and 
POST screen). And on some levels, almost every square inch of screen is 
crawling with life and activity and *detail*. Which I guess is only 
really possible *because* it's extremely low-res.

Not to say that FEZ is perfect, mind you. The number of jumping puzzles 
is really beginning to irritate me. (Hey, it's a 2D platformer!) And 
it's really easy to get totally lost and not be able to figure out where 
you've already been or how to get to where you're trying to go next.

The big feature of FEZ, of course, is that it's a 2D platformer, but you 
can rotate the world in isometric 3D. And the 3D is deliciously bent, 
allowing you to pull off manoeuvres which ought to be impossible. I'm 
reminded of Portal.

The standard trick is you have two platforms which are a mile apart. 
Rotate to a different 2D view, and the platforms appear to be right next 
to each other. Take three steps forwards, rotate back to the previous 
view, and you've somehow ended up half a mile to the side. DOES NOT 
COMPUTE! :-D

Having spent several days playing FEZ, I think maybe the novelty is 
starting to wear off. I still think the music is fantastic, but I'm 
starting to find myself longing for more visual variety. But we'll see 
how long I keep playing it...

Post a reply to this message

On 04/12/2013 10:31 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:

> Unlike so many other mass-produced psuedo-retro clones, FEZ has music
> which is really atmospheric and talented. The opening sequence is really
> quite cinematic (all the way down to the simulated computer crash and
> POST screen). And on some levels, almost every square inch of screen is
> crawling with life and activity and *detail*. Which I guess is only
> really possible *because* it's extremely low-res.

Let the cinematics begin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQfa0aRmdIc

Post a reply to this message

Le 04/12/2013 23:51, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
> On 04/12/2013 10:31 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> 
>> Unlike so many other mass-produced psuedo-retro clones, FEZ has music
>> which is really atmospheric and talented. The opening sequence is really
>> quite cinematic (all the way down to the simulated computer crash and
>> POST screen). And on some levels, almost every square inch of screen is
>> crawling with life and activity and *detail*. Which I guess is only
>> really possible *because* it's extremely low-res.
> 
> Let the cinematics begin:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQfa0aRmdIc

About Fez, you might want to take note of patterns on some walls... as
there is more than randomness and some puzzles are from such grammar.

-- 
Just because nobody complains does not mean all parachutes are perfect.

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gotta love chiptunes

a smartphone/tablet/Facebook game with delightfully catchy chiptunes and
addictively simple gameplay:  Pocket Mine.  Plays like a mix of tetris, dig dug
and Minesweeper...

for another cool 2D platformer you might wanna try Limbo...

Post a reply to this message

On Thu, 05 Dec 2013 13:27:12 +0100, Le_Forgeron wrote:

> Le 04/12/2013 23:51, Orchid Win7 v1 a écrit :
>> On 04/12/2013 10:31 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> 
>>> Unlike so many other mass-produced psuedo-retro clones, FEZ has music
>>> which is really atmospheric and talented. The opening sequence is
>>> really quite cinematic (all the way down to the simulated computer
>>> crash and POST screen). And on some levels, almost every square inch
>>> of screen is crawling with life and activity and *detail*. Which I
>>> guess is only really possible *because* it's extremely low-res.
>> 
>> Let the cinematics begin:
>> 
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQfa0aRmdIc
> 
> About Fez, you might want to take note of patterns on some walls... as
> there is more than randomness and some puzzles are from such grammar.

I understand that there's actually a lot of depth and complexity in the 
game if you look for it.  I started playing it a while ago, but then got 
distracted with other things (like work), and haven't gotten back to it 
yet.

Jim

Post a reply to this message

On 04/12/2013 10:31 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> Having spent several days playing FEZ, I think maybe the novelty is
> starting to wear off. I still think the music is fantastic, but I'm
> starting to find myself longing for more visual variety. But we'll see
> how long I keep playing it...

Having said that, I just found the level that looks exactly like a 
Gameboy screen. They even did the ordered dithering. Man, somebody 
invested A LOT of effort into making it look this bad! ;-)

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