When comparing FEZ vs Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, the Slant community recommends FEZ for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Linux?” FEZ is ranked 29th while Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is ranked 90th. The most important reason people chose FEZ is:
The core mechanic of FEZ is the ability to spin the world around in 3D, and then traverse and interact with the resulting terrain in 2D. This allows you to experience navigation puzzles that are rarely found in any other game.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Clever 2D rotation game mechanic
The core mechanic of FEZ is the ability to spin the world around in 3D, and then traverse and interact with the resulting terrain in 2D. This allows you to experience navigation puzzles that are rarely found in any other game.
Pro Brilliant puzzles
Fez has some deviously hard puzzles and mysteries that will require gathering clues from around the world to solve them.
Pro Mysterious world with lots of depth
FEZ goes beyond just being a great puzzle platformer. It also has a very clever storyline and game world with a mysterious bygone civilization that fits perfectly with the mysterious puzzles of the game.
Pro Charming graphics and world
The characters are interesting and expressive and the world they inhabit varies between vibrant forests and villages, foreboding caves, rainy cityscapes, and more.
Pro Great atmospheric soundtrack
Soft synth sounds mixed with chiptunes makes for an enjoyable soundtrack that evokes a feeling of nostalgia while creating a fitting atmosphere that complements the graphics.
Pro End game takes advantage of all players’ skills and weapons
The end game is the best part of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel as it requires the player to make the most of their skill and experience while utilizing all of their abilities and weapons. It is quite a balancing act, and when you pull it off it’s very exhilarating.
Pro Low gravity effects
The new low gravity effects work quite well, giving players more of a chance to put distance between themselves and their targets. This makes sniping a lot more viable than in previous Borderlands titles.
Pro Four new playable characters each with different acting special abilities
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel has four new playable characters in the game, each with action skills that feel completely different from one another. The action skill trees add further levels of customization depending on what areas in the tree you choose to level up.
Cons
Con Minimal direction
The lack of clear direction + the mysteries of the foreign writing alphabet and numeric systems may overwhelm players who got in expecting a simple & cute platformer game about a white dude with a red hat (a traditional Ottoman hat, which is called a "fez").
Con Pen and paper absolutely required for full completion
There is a lot of backtracking and so, you need to keep a pen and paper near you to take notes, because you might need something very important later on. For some people this might be a fun killer.
Con Not metroidvania
Nothing in the form of powerups,. this is a puzzle game - not a metroidvania.
Con Very limited depth
The core gameplay loop of "jump until stuck, then rotate" is boring and repetitive within the first hour. Aside from this perspective-shifting mechanic, the game does not have much to offer.
Con Limited button mapping support on keyboard
FEZ has a couple of preset control schemes to choose from, but the buttons can't have functions assigned individually.
Con Phil Fish made it
Phil Fish has had a long rap sheet of being incredibly arrogant and toxic in his behavior, purchasing this game is an implicit endorsement of this kind of behavior.
Con Guess-and-check instead of intuitive puzzles
Unlike other great puzzle games like Portal or Braid, many of the levels in Fez are unpredictable. You can't just look at the map and predict exactly what to do. You have to guess and check, and not all of the results are intuitive. While guess-and-check puzzles works well for games like The Witness, it's really tedious in a game like Fez.
Con Loads of backtracking
The world is an intertwined maze that rely on specific portals to travel between. Since the entire game revolves around locating cubes -- a minimum of 32 cubes are required to reach the game's ending (64 cubes and "anti-cubes" exist in total). A considerable amount of backtracking is needed to locate the needed cubes; which are intentionally difficult to find and acquire.
Con Slow gameplay
Navigation isn't quick, and each missed jump can make ascending an area feel like a laborious chore.
Con Frequent crashes on PC
PC version of the game has stability issues. Luckily, FEZ autosaves often so no much progress is lost when the game crashes.
Con Poor writing
The writing in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is nowhere near as good as in Borderlands 2. The jokes often fall flat or seem like total non sequiturs. Some players may also object to the prevalence that the writing gives to social issues; this has been described as pandering to a certain audience by some critics.
Con Side missions all the same
The side missions of the game are all very similar: Travel to an area on the map, use a key, and maybe kill some bad guys while accomplishing this mundane task.
Con Short
Even if you complete all of the side quests, the game only lasts about 25 hours. Purchasing DLCs or playing through additional times with other characters can extend this considerably.
Con Loot feels limited
Unlike past Bordelands games, the loot in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel feels very limited. Legendary items are almost impossible to find in chests or from enemies; it’s more likely you will find them in an item shop. This means you may have to spend hours grinding for cash in order to purchase the weapons that never drop.