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Rez

Score: 8/10

Hmmm, what do we have here?  It’s a shooter.  It’s a musical, though granted it’s a far cry from Rogers and Hammerstein (unless the gang at United Game Artists aren’t telling us something).  While it wasn’t nearly as revolutionary of an experience as I was expecting from this game, it still did what is most important for a game to do: be fun.  It takes a totally different, abstract, dare I say artsy, approach to visual design and packs in a fast paced, frenzied rush through a cybernetic world.  If you have an open mind and enjoy the concept of fun, this is definitely a game worth giving a try.  

The play mechanics only take about 15 minutes to get used to.  Unlike you’re everyday shooter, players don’t aim and tap the shoot button.  Instead you need to aim the crosshairs on the target, then hold down the fire button.  From there it is possible to drag the target over a maximum of 8 targets, thus having locked onto all of them.  All a player needs to do now is release the fire button and their on-screen alter ego will shoot down all of the targets that were locked onto.  Getting used to releasing the fire button in order to shoot enemies takes some getting used to, but a with a little time and patience it becomes second nature.  Of course the enemies aren’t going to just let you shoot at them, they actually shoot back, and the action actually gets quite intense.  By the time the latter parts of the levels come up be prepared for a good amount of dodging while frantically trying to destroy the repeated salvos of missiles launched at you, and let’s not forget that there is still the little matter of actually destroying the enemies themselves.  Once you get through this gauntlet there are still the end of level bosses that must be dealt with.  They are really quite creative in their design and maintain the tradition of giant shooter bosses.  They start off pretty weak, but by the time you hit the third level things pick up and the challenge is quite obvious.  To help keep these assaults from getting out of hand there are a couple of very handy dandy power-ups that players can collect in their travels through the levels.  First we have the Overdrive, a special attack that sets all of your guns ablaze at once allowing you to clear the screen in a pinch or really unload on a boss.  The second power-up is of a defensive nature, as much as offensive.  While traveling through the levels a number of blue, glowing globules appear, some worth one point, others worth four points.  After collecting eight of them your on-screen persona levels-up and gets a new look to reflect their new suit of armor and a more powerful ray blast.  However, get bonked by a bad guy and you get knocked down a level lickity-split.  It’s simple pleasures for simple fun when it comes to the power-ups in Rez.

 

- Playstation 2 Game Reviews - Music Game Reviews - Shooter Game Reviews - Reviews of Games Developed by United Game Artists - Reviews of Games Published by Sega

But while the gameplay is reasonably simple after getting acquainted with it, the game is as difficult as you want it to be.  A lot of this comes from playing the game in as musical of a manner as you choose.  If you just try and blast everything and worry solely about finishing the game, then Rez is very easy, save for a few particularly difficult areas and bosses.  The point of the game isn’t really to finish it though, it’s more about enjoying the moment, blasting enemies while adding to the rhythmic audio experience that is the 

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true crux of the game.  When shooting at enemies and when these enemies blow up little extras are added to the beat of the music, each varying depending on the enemy hit, and the level of strength your firepower is at.  Working with this, trying to work out new beats, all the while avoiding getting blown up can be very fun.  

While this gameplay is certainly a break from the norm, the visuals too are very unconventional to say the least.  The graphic design in the game is extremely abstract, but it is a welcome diversion from the constant “Oh, look at me and my photo realism” that just about every other developer seems bent on bringing to the table.  UGA actually went straight for artistic merit with this game and the results work splendidly.  Just look at the screenshots, it’s a lot easier to look at the pictures than to try and make sense of any written description I could write.  From a technical standpoint, the visuals move very smoothly with no slowdown or choppy frame rates either.

Seeing as the audio is so heavily manipulated by the gameplay, both the music and the sound effects  it's really up to the player to determine the audio experience of the game.  Even if you have terrible rhythm the electronic tunes aren’t half bad.  The music isn’t terribly complex, even when going full tilt, but it gets the job done, providing looped electronic beats.  There’s more than enough manipulation of the music to keep players busy for a good long time.

Rez is certainly a different sort of game.  It still comes packing the fun though, and that’s the most important part.  If you can get comfortable with the fact that the point of the game is to enjoy the experience, not focus on finishing the game then you have a real gem on your hands here.

- Mr. Nash

(February 6, 2002)

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