Spring Break
Cult Hit Comes To Xbox 360
Joshua Denenberg
Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: Focus
"Rez" has always been one of gaming's best kept secrets. Hampered by a limited Playstation 2 release and a Sega Dreamcast version that was released only in Japan, it is no wonder why "Rez" has always maintained a cult status attributed primarily to its bizarre aesthetics. Now, it has been re-mastered in high definition and is downloadable for the Xbox 360, and is easily one of the best games to get for the Xbox 360, downloadable or otherwise.
In "Rez," you control a single flying character as you guide them on a set, on rail, path while shooting down everything that comes your way. Some neat tricks, such as the ability to upgrade the main character by collecting power-ups and the "scan/lock-on" shooting system, are nice but fail to make the gameplay stand out amongst other on-rail shooting games particularly amongst the likes of other classics such as the already mentions "Star Fox" series. Compounded by a relatively brief game (it should take the average person about two to potentially three hours to beat all five levels of the game at least once), one could find the actual game content a bit lacking even if the difficulty does increase significantly toward the later levels.
But the reason anyone should play "Rez" is not for the gameplay, but for its unique design. Simply put, "Rez" is the absolute pinnacle of visual design ever conceived and seen to fruition in a video game. Forgoing true graphical superiority, "Rez" features minimalist and highly stylized graphics in its best effort to create a feel of cyberspace, where the game takes place. Rather than shooting down enemy planes and the like, you shoot down colorful "geometric shapes" meant to represent other computer programs. Combined with the black background, the transparent polygons and wire-frames and vibrant colors, "Rez" has a distinct look.
Each level is separated into 10 sections which you reach by shooting down an "exit" toward the end of each section. Here is where things start to get interesting: as you progress through the sections, a new layer of audio is added to the background music. Keeping with the progression of music, as you advance through the sections of each level, the graphics and color pulsates and changes to the beat of the music. As if that were not enough, the actual timing of your shooting fit into the beat of the music, making the gameplay less like a shooting game and in many ways more like an interactive techno mixer.
In "Rez," you control a single flying character as you guide them on a set, on rail, path while shooting down everything that comes your way. Some neat tricks, such as the ability to upgrade the main character by collecting power-ups and the "scan/lock-on" shooting system, are nice but fail to make the gameplay stand out amongst other on-rail shooting games particularly amongst the likes of other classics such as the already mentions "Star Fox" series. Compounded by a relatively brief game (it should take the average person about two to potentially three hours to beat all five levels of the game at least once), one could find the actual game content a bit lacking even if the difficulty does increase significantly toward the later levels.
But the reason anyone should play "Rez" is not for the gameplay, but for its unique design. Simply put, "Rez" is the absolute pinnacle of visual design ever conceived and seen to fruition in a video game. Forgoing true graphical superiority, "Rez" features minimalist and highly stylized graphics in its best effort to create a feel of cyberspace, where the game takes place. Rather than shooting down enemy planes and the like, you shoot down colorful "geometric shapes" meant to represent other computer programs. Combined with the black background, the transparent polygons and wire-frames and vibrant colors, "Rez" has a distinct look.
Each level is separated into 10 sections which you reach by shooting down an "exit" toward the end of each section. Here is where things start to get interesting: as you progress through the sections, a new layer of audio is added to the background music. Keeping with the progression of music, as you advance through the sections of each level, the graphics and color pulsates and changes to the beat of the music. As if that were not enough, the actual timing of your shooting fit into the beat of the music, making the gameplay less like a shooting game and in many ways more like an interactive techno mixer.
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