Rez

"Nirvana"

People argue that games can't be stripped down and rated one element at a time. They say that a game is a combination of all its different elements and as such, even when writing a review for it, you should see it as a whole. I personally disagree. I think that although games are whole and are a combination of their elements, they can be stripped down and looked upon one element (graphics, sound, story, etc..) at a time. But Rez is different.

If I were to give the parts of Rez individual scores, it would be like this:

Graphics:2
Sound:4
Gameplay:1
Story: 1

But when combined together, they produce a 10/10 game; Rez is much much more than the sum of its parts. The reason is because, unlike in other games, in Rez you play with the graphics, you toy with the sound; you make your own graphics and sound. It all mixes up together like in no other game I've played. And that is why it can't be stripped down and rated part by part.

Rez is a rail shooter, meaning a shooter where you don't choose where to go, but only move the crosshairs and shoot stuff. You have a large crosshair and when you point it at an enemy, instead of instantly shooting it, you lock on to it by holding down the (X) Button and shoot at it by realeasing the button. You can use this lock on thing to target multiple enemies (max 8) and then shoot at them all at once for a combo. That's the basic premise of the whole game.

Whenever you destroy an enemy, a sound goes off. Different enemies make different noises and even similar ones make different noises in different levels. The act of firing produces a sound as well and combos make different tunes too. Getting a '2' combo makes a different noise than a '7' combo which is different from the 'max' combo and so on.

These sounds vary and range from simple bleeps to explosions to high pitched screams which make cool musical tunes. That's not it though, because in the background, while you're doing all this, a high beat techno song will play and make things much more interesting and diverse. The surroundings in the game are all wireframed buildings and monuments (like the Sphinx) that warp and move (dance) with the techno song.

Not only that, but the whole ground, space and enemies (which are blocky polygonial shapes) wobble and "dance" and move in accordance to the song in the background. This along with the explosions and cool colours and effects produced when destroying enemies make Rez a very unique and unprecedented game.

Also, the game has its share amount of depth. Aside from the enemies, you can shoot two support items found throughout the levels to improve yourself. One item gives you an overdrive block which when used, makes you shoot automatically on all the enemies on the screen (thus producing really cool sounds and graphical effects) and the other makes you level up, just like in an RPG.

Getting eight of the level up items will raise you to the next level which changes things and how the game is played. Every level you're in (there are seven in total) gives you a different shape, different shapes of projectiles fired, different noises produced when firing and even act as an extra life and makes firing faster. Since Rez relies heavily on how things look and sound, leveling up can change the current game play and makes things much more diverse.

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Notice how I kept saying 'you' and 'yourself' instead of 'the main character' or 'the hero'. That's because in Rez, you play as if you were in the system, fighting the programs and firewalls. Rez is closer to virtual reality than any other console videogame and you will be completely in trance while playing it. The techno music will keep your adrenaline pumping and the visuals will trap you and suck you inside the system like virtual reality. More to add to that effect is the rumble feature in the controller. Throughout every level the controller will vibrate along with the beat and this, in conjunction with everything else, creates a surreal out of this world experience that probably no other game has given you. It's that awesome.

Before you start playing a warning will show telling you to keep the lights on while playing. Don't listen to them and turn off all the lights and raise the volume to the max (or wear headphones) because then you will get the max experience from it. That's the way it's supposed to be played and the warning's there just for legal reasons I guess. So in conclusion, the gameplay in Rez depends heavily on the adrenaline pumping techno beat and your own mix of tunes, along with the colourful cel shaded wire frame graphics and explosion effect, which completely pulls you inside and puts you in a trance.

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At first I thought of the story as nothing more than something they threw at us at the last minute to give the game a goal. To give it purpose. Then I thought about it, and I dug deep inside my soul and finally realized how important and invoking the story is. The story changed my prespective to life. It changed the way I understood and saw every thing. It made me understand what every thing means, what living is all about.

Each level in the game consists of ten "layers" that can be opened by shooting down a layer security breach. As you move through the layers, the complexity of the backgrounds increases, as does the complexity of the techno beat. As you go through the layers of the self awaring AI, you witness the evolution of human kind and the human brain. You witness the magnitude of this computer's knowledge. You will feel sorry for it and know how much grief it is in for everything it knows.

Each background represents a thought, and as it gets more and more complex, you experience new knowledge and wisdom ushering inside you. You realize what life consists of, what thoughts consist of, until you realize that all knowledge is now within you, and you regret it. With each shot you make at a virus, seeing it exploding into millions of colours and sounds, you become more and more aware of life, death and beyond. You become fully aware of the struggle of life, and you learn that the universe is nothing more than colours and sounds.

Until finally at the end, when you confront the AI's final and purest firewall, and you try to destroy it. It's then that you realize what every thing means. When you see the AI running away from you, trying to remain in its eternal slumber. Then fighting to keep you away, even trying to give up its own existence to stop you from waking it and letting it go on with its knowledge and "life". And finally realizing what "life" is. It's then that you become more engaged and inside the "game" than any time before. It's then that you discover what it's all about, how complex humans and their thoughts are. How complex and engaging life is. Filled with paradoxes. It is then that you witness the ultimate representation of life and death.

The story in Rez is one that reveals while playing. There are no cutscenes in the whole game, no story sequences at all. The explanation at the start is found in the manual and is the only thing regarding the story that's explained to you clearly and explicitly. Everything else is interpreted during gameplay and understood abstractly. The music and graphical effects open your brain and lets you understand things differently than in a normal situation. During gameplay is the time which you understand the story and its deep meanings regarding existence and intelligence. And that's one of the reasons which makes Rez so innovative and unique.

Listen, just play the game. It's one of those things that you need to try out for yourself in order to experience. The game's hidden meaning behind the whole gameplay, sound and story thing is very deep and well meant for. Behind this "game" is an experience, and behind this "experience" is the meaning of life, death, and the universe.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/06