Rez HD
February 4,2008 - Back in 2002, Sega released Rez for the Playstation 2 in North America.  While the game received critical praise it still went mostly unnoticed by the general gaming public.  Part of the reason for this was likely due to the fact that Rez was almost impossible to find at retail.  The game had a very limited production run so even if you did manage to track a copy down, the sticker-shock was enough to turn most people away.  This is no longer a problem, since Q Entertainment and Microsoft have brought Rez to the Xbox Live Arcade with updated visuals for the paltry price of 10$.

Project-K is a sophisticated computer network.  All of the world’s information travels through this network.  To keep things moving smoothly a highly sophisticated Artificial Intelligence named Eden is created to manage, analyze and make sense of all this data. Unfortunately as the amount of traffic through the network increases, Eden starts to become overwhelmed.  If this were a Terminator movie, the natural solution for Eden to come to would be to eliminate the source of all of the traffic by eradicating the human race.  Instead, Eden is a little bit more civilized than that.  It has a more human reaction, becoming unsure of itself and going into a depressive shutdown.  You play as a skilled computer hacker, literally entering into the cyberspace of the Project-K network in order to reboot Eden and avoid an all out network crash.  In effect, Rez is quite possibly the coolest IT job anyone could ask for.

Rez is and always has been an on-rails shooter.  You play using a third person perspective and navigate through a fixed path through the game’s various stages.  You have two main weapons at your disposal.  The first is a standard laser type weapon.  It can function as either a single shot, or a multi-targeting lock-on laser.  Also available is the Overdrive mode.  This is effectively a Smart Bomb attack which destroys all enemies and projectiles on the screen.  Like most rail shooters, Rez limits your ability maneuver around the screen.  It’s actually more restricting than a lot of games in that aspect since you are not able to dodge incoming projectiles. To avoid getting hit by incoming fire you will have to shoot it down.  Rez is unique in that your shots do not happen in real-time.  They are timed to the beat of the game’s background music.  The ability to lock your laser onto multiple targets at once becomes a key element because of this.  To succeed you’ll not only need to know which enemies you can take out with single shots, but also which groups of enemies you will Queue your lock-on shots to.  It’s a mechanic that may take a few minutes to get the hang of, but is very rewarding once you do.

Rez has a very interesting style to its presentation.  The visuals have a distinctly retro looking feel to them, being made up of simple textures and wireframes, but in the context of cyberspace this works very well.  The new High-Definition update might not be apparent at first, but the game also includes the standard version in low-resolution and 4:3 which really makes the differences clear.  The game’s soundtrack has remained untouched since the original, which is a good thing.  It wasn’t broken then, so why mess with it?  The music evolves as you progress through the level, starting off simple and gradually working in more elements as you progress.  Rez also doesn’t use sound effects in the traditional way.  Every shot and explosion is timed to the beat of the music, so as you shoot down enemies you will also be imparting your own elements to the game’s already existing music.  Rez was known for its excellent use of vibration to help enhance the overall experience.  The Japanese PS2 version had an extra peripheral known as the Trance Vibrator which provided an extra layer of tactile feedback to go along with the vibration coming from the controller.  In Rez HD, rather than coming up with a new peripheral to achieve this same effect, the developers have opted to use additional controllers.  It is possible to use up to three other controllers in Trance Vibrator mode.  The effect is even better than the original was, since you can place the extra three controllers wherever you’d like.  One at the base of your back, one in your front pocket and another one under your feet seems to give the best effect when combined with the controller already in your hand.

What Rez HD offers is an old-school feel with modern touches.  It brings together the senses in a way that no other game has done before, and it does it in style.  If you were one of the people who missed out on Rez the first time around, and that is a lot of people given how the game had a very limited release, you now have the chance to see what all the fuss was about.  Rez HD is a fine addition to the Xbox Live Arcade and well worth the small asking price.

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