Rez

"Poor AI cannot hide behind the excessive flash"

Rez is a game full of promise that claims to expand the realms of gaming, with fully absorptive gameplay, seamless musical transitions, and interactive sound play. While this certainly piques interest, it ultimately falls into a freefall of disappointment; never mind the excellent idea. Rhythm/Dance games have a tough time carving a respectable slice of gaming popularity, further proved by the lack of press and hype associated with dancing games, save a few staples (like Dance Dance Revolution). Rez is referred to as a 3d shooter with rhythm/dance elements mixed in, quite skillfully, but unnecessary and clumsy since the shooter base is standing on weak, pathetic knees.

The shooting is painfully dull requiring little skill, strategy, or defensive maneuvers. First of all, the game utilizes a relatively large cursor making it easy to select multiple enemies on screen—essentially the same effect as using a magnet to pull the enemies towards the cursor. UGA thankfully employed a combo system to spice up the dullery though it is the most elementary of systems due to the forgiving cursor and anemic enemies. The enemies happily stroll on screen, usually in groups, slowly slide around attempting to dodge, confuse, and fake out the cursor, then finally slow to a near halt and wait to be shot. It’s quite hilarious to see enemies sit there, not firing at all, simply floating in air. Imagine you’re in a 1 vs. 1 paintball match in the woods. Your opponent is a stupid, overweight, slow-footed kid. In a pathetic attempt to distract your aim, he shakes and gyrates his upper torso wildly, but his entire body only moves a few inches laterally since his fat legs cannot move as quick. Then he falls down tired. He lies where he falls because the effort to get up is too great. That’s what it feels like.

Surprisingly, dormant enemy firing becomes a universal property throughout the game though its much more prevalent in the first couple of stages. As a matter of fact, it’s possible to experience the first level in its entirety without a single enemy firing. Without any pressure from enemies, gamers have all eternity to line up the cursor and place shots. Placing shots is not a prominent action verb, however, as it does not require the push of a button; just hold down the trigger, wave the aiming cursor in the general direction of a target, select as many targets as possible, let go of the trigger and watch the targets fall. At one point, out of sheer boredom, I decided to throw combos away and shoot the enemies one by one, only to grow even more irritated at the lack of difficulty since the targets hardly move.

Each level culminates into the proverbial boss fight complete with a dramatic musical change, a secluded area, and a gigantic contrast in body size. The bosses are slightly more edgy since they all possess layers of exterior skin and armor that must be cleared away before damaging its main health and they fire with more aggressiveness. The boss fights aren’t fun though, because the targets on the bosses are hidden and scattered unintuitively throughout the massive body, thus making the gamer confused. Obviously, something must be shot...but what?

Apparently, the chief ploy in Rez is to stimulate the gamer with enough exciting, stunning visual graphics, and energetic audio (all supposedly interactive, by the way), that the moronic shooting can be forgiven. The ploy fails. Perhaps the arty, colorful backgrounds were made with the intention to appeal to left-wingers, but the backgrounds are so wild, so exotic, enemies become lost in a sea of vibrancy. The backgrounds replicate the inside of a computer/network, full of sharp thin lines, transparent to semi-transparent boxes and rectangles, silicon clutter, and gallons upon gallons of color and flash. With the pile of distractions, sometimes flailing the cursor about the screen will be sufficient in rolling out of sticky situations---especially when the line between enemy and visual fluff is blurry.

As soon as the game boots up, a disclaimer is displayed warning that the game requires either headphones or a very good 3d speaker system to enjoy at full capacity. That alone can wet the hardest of audiophiles’ pants, since that is an obvious indication of the amount of effort put into the audio. UGA put in so much effort they claim to provide an audio bliss of dynamic sound effects, hypnotic trance and techno music that is completely user controlled.

Not quite. The only interaction to experience lies in the sound effect of a snare/hat sound that plays whenever the trigger is pressed. Fundamentally, all techno songs contain a high-pitch drum sound to provide a sense of rhythm and to balance out the deeper sounding bass. Accompanying the snares are high-pitched keyboard notes that play as targets are selected and laser beams are fired, which are also normally found in techno songs. Nothing impressive at all; Rez sounds and plays like a techno song.

The only other possible revolutionary item must be the dynamic shifts in background music, yet they are quite ordinary and non-impressive---fitting the definition of “promotional gimmick” perfectly. Rez plays out in a four large areas, split up into 10 levels each. Supposedly, the innovation takes place when the background music gradually builds up tempo, energy, and substance as the player progresses through the levels, starting with the basic beat and ending with the full techno song. The selections of songs are good; very fast, very trippy, and very exciting (Ken Ishii’s Creation the State of Art (Part 1-6 is brilliant), but millions of techno songs exist with the same, or better quality. Lacking conforming gameplay, the game quickly becomes a generic audio sample of ubiquitous techno music, since the interactivity is feeble and elusive. Look at it from a programmer’s perspective: How difficult is changing the music once a level is passed?

On a personal note, I was absolutely floored when I learned of the game’s unique premise after I viewed Ign’s Dreamcast page. The dreamcast had a few outstanding rhythm/dance games released on its system, Samba de Amiga being my favorite of all. Imagine the shock when I read the description of Rez---a game where I could dynamically control the audio while shooting enemies! I scrambled down into my basement to grab all the audio equipment I could find, including two 10” subwoofers, one 6” subwoofer, five satellites to tackle any positional audio, and a 900 watt receiver to power all everything. Boom! The game started up and I was literally engrossed in a mountain of bass and music, which absolutely crushed the wood foundation the gear sat on. I had begun to play, shooting down the weak enemies, futilely powering up my character, and progressing through the tasteless game, though with each level passed, I felt more and more bored. I wished I could have just enjoyed the music without actually playing; I’d probably enjoy myself more. And that’s exactly what I did. I popped the game out, put in a 2001 trance greatest hits album, and turned on a full screen visualization window. I had effectively emulated Rez, using the cd player and the fancy, vibrant visualization of Winamp, and without a doubt, I had a better time with the emulation. Not good, not good at all.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 04/16/04