Sega is definitely the king of unusual games. From the simple, oddball fun of Super Monkey Ball to the graffiti-spraying action of the Jet Grind Radio games, Sega is not a company that's afraid to take chances. In this regard, Rez is probably their most ambitious title to date. Passing over standard game conventions in favor of a more experimental format, Rez is a game that should definitely be experienced at least once by any gamer with an open mind, but its ambition overshadows its play value, almost to a fault.
Rez takes place in a futuristic cyber-world, where the resident super-computer that controls just about everything is failing. In order to bring it back online, you must hack your way inside, shooting down viruses and busting through firewall programs in order to bring the supercomputer back online, and, presumably, save the world. (All shooters involve saving the world somehow, after all.)
The story really isn't important, though; it only provides a setting to the action. You control a cyberspace avatar who, simply, shoots everything in sight as it travels through the cyber-landscape to the supercomputer core. At its core, Rez is a rail shooter; you constantly move forward through the stages, and the only way to keep from being destroyed is to blast through everything in your way. To this end, you're given a crosshairs on the screen and can lock on to up to eight targets at a time as you blast your way through each of the five stages. You're also able to pick up overdrives, which shoot at everything on the screen simultaneously, should you get into a bind. So far, the game is pretty standard.
However, what really sets Rez apart is the way that it blends graphics and sound together with the gameplay. The baseline graphics are essentially wire frames, like the old vector-based arcade games of the early 80s. While they're not particularly impressive early on, every move you make affects how the environment looks. Hot a certain enemy and beams of light will shoot out. A color will change here and there. As you collect certain items, your avatar will morph into more and more realistic-looking forms, and so on.
The game really makes its strides with the sound, however. The base music consists of bass-thumping techno tracks, which, on their own, are good enough to get you into the game. As one would expect, the music grows in tempo and intensity as you progress through the stage, to the point where, when you reach the boss, the music has reached blistering intensity and is almost taunting you to achieve victory.
Where you really start to interact, however, is that each action you take affects the music. Locking on to an enemy, for example, creates a handclap, and instead of explosions when enemies are destroyed, you get different tones to blend into the music. So in addition to saving the world, you're helping to compose music at the same time.
The really cool thing about the music, though, and I've yet to see this in any other game, is that the controller vibrates along with the music in order to further draw you into the game. In the beginning of the stage, the vibrations are barely noticeable, but as the music intensifies, so do the vibrations, so that you're drawn into the game with all three of your eligible senses. I will note that those who are distracted or made uncomfortable by force feedback in general will likely not appreciate Rez's tactile immersion, as the vibrations can be quite intense. This is easily turned off in the pause menu, however, should that particular aspect of the game prove too intense.
Control is kept extremely simple to allow the player to concentrate on the other aspects of the game. Simply, you use the left analog stick to move the crosshairs around on the screen, hold down X to lock onto targets, and release to fire. O performs the aforementioned overdrive. That's it, in a nutshell. One thing that I did appreciate is that the game allowed an inverted axis for crosshairs control (so that pushing down on the stick moves the crosshairs up, and vice versa). I found the control is very intuitive, and there's even a simple tutorial should you be manual-deprived.
The problem with Rez, though, is that, much like a later Radiohead CD, it seems more intended to be appreciated than enjoyed. This isn't necessarily a game you're going to bring out to show off your system with, nor are you probably going to get dozens of hours of gameplay out of it. Truth be told, there are only five stages, and each only takes a few minutes to complete. A player adept at shooters could easily complete the game from start to finish in an hour or two. There are a couple of extra modes like score attack, but those really don't do much to extend the game's replay value.
I have a great appreciation for Rez and for Sega's willingness to think outside the box. As a rental, I think Rez is a whole lot of fun, and I hope that more designers try to step outside of the norm in order to create an innovative gaming experience. However, for $50, I can't suggest that you go out and buy Rez right away. I think that it definitely should be experienced, but the amount of gameplay that Rez provides outside of the initial burst of originality isn't worth the high price tag.
Rez is the type of game that everyone should play at least once. Unfortunately, until companies price these types of games reasonably enough that the play value is equal to the purchase price, original games will end up like Rez: Overpriced and underappreciated.
