Gomez was a two-dimensional creature, living happily in his two-dimensional village in a two-dimensional world, until one day he is shown a great secret: the existence of a third dimension. However, something goes wrong, the great Cube explodes, and Gomez wakes up in his room now able to traverse this mysterious third dimension. He is greeted by a curious entity named Dot, who claims to be his guide, telling Gomez that it's up to him to find all the pieces of the Cube, and restore the world before the very fabric of existence collapses.
Fez is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer with a twist: the world exists in 3D space, but is always viewed as a 2D plane. The player can switch the perspective at any time between four different views; in a similar manner to Crush or Super Paper Mario, Gomez traverses the world as he sees it. Two platforms may be quite far apart, but suddenly appear right next to each other when viewed from the proper direction. Similarly, a hazard may be blocking Gomez' path, but when rotated out of view, it will no longer harm him.
The goal of the game is to find the 32 Cubes -- some whole, some broken in to eight smaller "Cube Bits". The player must manipulate the perspective, as well as various objects that can be moved in 3D space, on order to find and reach them. There are no enemies and few environmental hazards, and if Gomez dies, he simply reappears at the last solid ground he stood upon. There are also many puzzles in the game, entirely optional to basic completion, which are much more subtle, and often require careful observance of the environment.