Steam Deck Playable!Welcome to my review of FixFox which is brought to us by developer Rendlike and publishers Joystick Ventures (Lost in Play, Around). Rendlike is actually a one-person team based in Prague. This surprised me quite a bit as FixFox feels like quite a polished game with zero bugs or glitches.
In FixFox we play as a human-fox hybrid named Vix. Vix must escape a mysterious planet that she has crash-landed on. Oh also, it’s forbidden to have tools here! This game is available on PC via Steam.
Fix Things As A Fox!
How did I get on playing as Vix? Continue reading to find out. You can also check out my previous review where I played Expedition Zero on the PC.
The Game
As already mentioned, the protagonist of the game is a human-fox hybrid named Vix. Vix also has her trusty sidekick, Tin, who is a robotic toolbox that helps us on our journey. We soon find out that this game is pretty humorous as Tin doesn’t want any dangerous or sharp items put inside of it again. We then go through the basic tutorial of the game that teaches us how to fix items, what different materials can do for fixing said items, and how to use and store these items.
I soon learned that most of the ship has some form of AI and is “alive”. Especially the ship door, which gets jammed, so we have to give it a few fancy love taps which the door seems to enjoy. Not before long, Vix’s ship crash lands on a mysterious planet where tools appear to be forbidden. We soon learn this the hard way as once we escape the ship, we find one of our old tools. This tool then gets confiscated by a strange flying craft that appears and takes anything useful away from us.
Soon enough, Vix discovers some secrets about this planet, one of which involves items being hidden in cracks in the planet’s surface. These items can be used for trading with merchants or in some cases used as components in the fixing process of machinery you come across during your journey on this mysterious planet.
I do like the game mechanic of repairing in FixFox, it feels kind of unique to me. Need some metal to bridge two connection points into one? Use a coin. Need some tape to repair an electrical cable? Use a bandaid. When you’re fixing items you must select the required material i.e a coin from your toolbox, and then drag this to the top of the screen which then will drag this onto the item you are repairing.
That’s not all there is to the game though. We meet many different NPCs are we are traveling around the planet, some of them offer you small jobs in exchange for a meal ticket. The meal ticket will grant you one free meal. The game then moves you into a new mini-game where you can eat the aforementioned free meal by scooping it up with a spoon and dragging the spoon to the bottom of the screen. Different, but cool.
So who is piloting the mysterious craft that takes our tools away? Only you can find that out when you play FixFox on PC.
Look & Sound
In true pixel-art style, the graphics are sharp, colourful, and fun. The effects are also very well done, such as smoke and explosions. The dev also gives us some depth into some of the scenes as we’re traveling the universe.
The graphics feel like they have some form of layering to them at times. They don’t just feel like completely flat pixels. I like it. The game is running in the Unity engine.
The same can be said in the audio department. I love the sound effects and music in FixFox. Whilst they are rather basic, there’s just a certain charm about the audio in this game. It feels somewhat relaxing.
Length & Replayability
FixFox will set players back a good 10+ hours of their time whilst they traverse the mysterious planet. The game has 37 achievements should the player wish to take on the challenge of unlocking these.
Of course, as with anyone other game, you may miss some things as you’re adventuring through. Therefore this would leave the potential for you to play through again and collect what you may have missed first time around.
Conclusions
FixFox is a very fun game that will draw you in and just help you zone out from those daily woes that you may be having at work or life in general. It is very charming and delivers the story in a humorous manner which had me chuckling away to myself at times.
I give FixFox a score of 8/10. If this game sounds like your cup of tea, check out the FixFox Steam page.
A code was kindly provided for us to review this.
