FEZ vs Insurgency
When comparing FEZ vs Insurgency, the Slant community recommends FEZ for most people. In the question“What are the best indie games on Steam?” FEZ is ranked 13th while Insurgency is ranked 48th. 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 Slow and measured gunplay creates a more realistic atmosphere
In an effort to be more realistic, the gunplay is slow and measured. This makes for an immersive experience, both because of how real it feels and because of how different it is from other FPS games.
Pro Mature community means more people can experience enjoyable communications and interactions while online
Insurgency's player community is more mature and respectful than what is commonly expected in online shooters, making communicating both on forums and in the game more enjoyable.
Pro Easily play against friends, no matter the OS they use
The game works on Windows, macO and Linux, which means anyone can play the game against someone with one of these different operating systems.
Pro Easy VoIP support, as it is built in
Insurgency has Steam integration that allows for easy VoIP communication.
Pro Gameplay stays balanced thanks to no allowed class repetition on each team
The game doesn’t allow multiple people on the same team to have the same character class. This helps ensure the game remains balanced as no two players can have the same roll.
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 Steep learning curve at first
Even with experience in other FPS games, you will need to have solid knowledge of the maps and the tactical approach before you start to really enjoy yourself. The maps are very complex, which can cause this process to take a few hours.
Con Requires a good team
To really succeed, you need to communicate effectively in order to set up a winning strategy. This is much easier for groups of people that are familiar with one another as opposed to random people playing together.