Good game with some puzzle gimmicks. Initially i was expecting some of Aquaria like gameplay, especially due underwater environment and music relation (remember tunes in Aquaria?), but in truth they nothing like similar. There is no openworld, not much of exploration, a lot of rhythm based arcade puzzles, almost no fighting. In term of visual design its, in some aspects, have similarities to Aquaria, its even beautiful sometimes, but still not feature that much underwater world as Aquaria. Sometimes its can even be called dull. Overall its much more cartoonish. Plot is OK, but nothing like epic, with tiny bits of humor. Overall, its decent arcade, not hardcore underwater platformer with rhythm and puzzles. But nothing more.
I played this game several time and never managed to complete it. Reason - way too unexpected puzzles and cryptic quests. The plot, itself is very good, albeit featuring rather questionable visual style of heroes there is very carefully carved level design, attention to a small detail, a lot of possible interaction with things and so on. Its very hard to say "this is cheap one day game" or call it poorly made. I like it very much, especially castle itself (i think they spend tons of time making it - it looks like REAL one, i like music, but as i said - its way too easy to just loss any understanding of thats going on. There is a lot of strange quests, unclear esoteric hints and places to go, I understand that developers not meant to make game too obvious, they wanted peoples to think, but they gone way too far. Add almost non-existant game guide, lack of help on internet (there is only rather dead developers forum, but its 3 year old game). These weak sides make this game almost impossible to newbie. Still, i cannot give it less then five stars, because lack of active community is not game fault.
As many one states, this game is very similar (and opposite in same time) to well known Aquaria. No need to tell the plot, its quite direct with just minor plot twists, but plot is not main thing in WM. So, WM and Aquaria. To cut in short, Aquaria have water and Mars is Dry as hell (mostly). In Aquaria you fight hordes of enemies, and in WM you plant life (but still can be hurt). Aquaria is bright and colourful, Mars is monotone, relatively dark. Aquria is full of life and Mars is...oh well, thats up to you. In term of mechanics they have a lot of common in some ways. You fly in caverns, do stuff. Hardly can be called platformer. There is some puzzles and quests to complete and lot of space to explore, albeit in term of exploration Aquaria is more to offer. Metroidvania element is present in both games, but in Mars backtracking (and revisiting as well) is just minor. There is no new abilities, except new seeds, but usually when you done with area - you done. OFC WM is not perfect. Graphically its fine, but most caverns looks little too simplistic. Keep in mind, that WM was naturally MOBILE game, later ported to PC, while Aquaria is opposite. There is too much of grind in some areas, when you just feel little too high number of flesh mass, so you get seeds, feed them to bugs, repeat. Boring. There is some problems in game design like "spore infestation" - spores can grow in fungi which fill whole area with new spores killing all ecosystem in result. Its hard and tedious to get rid of that infestation and i never understood is it was flaw in design or challenge? But, to tell truth whole time i played i never felt urge ti rage-quite or drop game. It wasnt ideal, but it was fun enough for me.
Well, in short, FEZ is great and original game which is gone way too far at some aspects and that may ruin some fun. Now, let me describe it. First, id say that initial feeling from Fez is great for sure. Picture is pleasant and colorful, music is great, characters is adorable, plot is rather interesting. Can we ask for more? Well... As you lay and discover new and new locations you cannot stop wander how much of fantasy was put in this game and how much more secrets you will see. And then...you will stumble at "cryptic language" thing. You will talk with character and dont understand anything and see strange symbols a lot. There is way to decipher them, since hints scattered all over various locations in game but you o your own to find them. And now worst part - to actually finish game, at least in most complete way, you NEED to decipher that things. So you have to explore and explore, write them to paper and in characters dialogs translate letter after letter. VERY. FUNNY. IDEA. Not very new either. Developers of Aquaria used same trick - cryptic symbols, writing on the walls, but they was additions for fans, since they only opened some plot prehistory and not needed to finish game. It was compliment from developers, not boring chore. Fez dev decided another way. Did they decided that it will add some layer of depth in this game? Or that its will be more old-school ? Its even funnier if english is not your language. Just like AVGN says, What Were They Thinking??
