Rez

"Whoa... My Eyes are Watering..."

After hearing a couple of great Rez opinions and seeing a copy, I was quite intrigued. I scrounged up some cash and brought home the most bizarre, trippy, and awesome rail shooter ever. Rez isn't even a game, it's an experience that demands your senses, and for the lights to be on.

Graphics
The graphics are the highlight of the game. If you'll notice when you boot up the system, it warns you to turn the lights on and stay away from the TV. This is an understatement, as Rez is all about flashing lights, warped enemies, and awesome environments. First off, Rez is very polygonal, so for those who need smooth graphics, back off. The main character looks progressively cooler as its level increases, going from a sphere, to a wire frame, to a complex wire frame, to a silver body, and so on. The enemies also looks good, if very bizarre. The enemies are completely blocky, but its intentional, and suits the game well. For the most part, the environments are wire frames, but get gradually more complex, going from a few lines to huge wire frame temples, canyons, and tunnels. The final graphical touch are explosions from destroyed enemies. These can either be massive, colorful explosions, or bizarre blasts that light up the screen in blocks. It must be seen to be understood, and it looks excellent. Also, keep the lights on! Even with them on, my eyes water profusely.

Music and Sound
This too is a high point of Rez. The music is soothing techno/trance music that suits the game perfectly. As you progress, the songs get more and more complex, so by the boss fights you are listening to awesome techno. The shooting also affects the music. When you shoot, your shots will move at different speeds to add extra noise to the music. This feature was over hyped, but it is still a very nice touch and almost makes it feel like you are adding to the music.

Story
Yes, there is a story. Yes, it's not good. The premise is that you are a hacker in the future, and you are trying to hack into the supercomputer called Eden. The reason for this is that Eden is confused by all the data it receives, and is trying to shut itself down. So you must travel through the game destroying viruses and firewalls to reach Eden's core. Fortunately, it's a shooter game, so no one in their right mind would avoid this because of a bad story.

Game Play
Rez is a rail shooter, much like Starfox. You simply move through a level shooting everything. However, unlike Starfox, you cannot move at all. You are stuck there, but fortunately, this is a good thing, because otherwise you'd be flying into every wire frame in the game. The shooting system is odd as well. In order to incorporate the musical effects shooting has, you can't just shoot, because it wouldn't produce music on the beat. So, you instead hold down the X button, and wave your target box over the enemies. Up to eight enemies can be targeted, and when you release the button, up to eight shots will fly out of you and smash into your foes. So, the game consists of shooting enemies and their projectiles quickly. The downside is that if you move quickly, the enemies won't have time to shoot at you. This makes a great deal of the game far too easy. The inclusion of overdrives, attacks the hit everything on screen, make it even easier. When you are hit, you lose a level. Run out of levels, and you die. To regain levels, you must uncover blue spheres and shoot them. (Most are hidden in enemies.) When you get 8 spheres, you level up, making your character look cooler.

The meat of the game, however, is in the firewalls. (Bosses) During these, you fly around, attacking huge and bizarre things ranging from a bunch of cubes that change from looking like a man to looking like a sphere, to huge towers that spray enemies at you as fast as possible. These fights are excellent and are one of the main reasons to play Rez. Defeating these bosses unlocks new modes like Trance and Score Attack, adding to the replay value. Sadly, there are only 7 levels, which just isn't enough. If there was a little more depth these would be plenty, but there isn't.

Overall, Rez is very enjoyable, but its replay value is very lacking despite its extras. If you can rent or borrow it, do so before purchasing it. If you see it cheap though, you may as well pick up a copy. It's rare, and very fun while it lasts.

Overall Scores
Graphics-10/10
Music & Sound-10/10
Story-4/10
Game Play-9/10
Replay Value-6/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/03, Updated 06/07/03