Rez Review

REZ has been a title that has excited me since it was known only as Project-K. Specific details about the game were scarce except for the fact it was coming from United Game Artists, headed by Sega Rally creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and was something to do with music. 



Well REZ more then lives up to my ultimate expectations, playing unlike anything thatâs ever come before it. When certain other developers are trying to innovate by mixing different genres into one and calling it a new genre, cough
Dark Summit cough⦠leave it to Sega to truly show the world what the word means.



Essentially REZ is an on-rails shoot-em-up, however if you play it like that then youâre going to be missing out on the whole point of REZ. In fact itâs probably doing the game a great injustice to call it a videogame, perhaps itâs best to explain it as a title merging visuals and sound into one supremely crafted interactive experience, nah sounds a bit weeny, suffice to say itâs easier just to say have a go then try to explain REZ in mere words, but here goesâ¦

If youâve followed or read any previews for this, youâll realise that each time you shoot an enemy a musical note emits, stringing together combos produces a rhythm. Itâs actually a lot more complicated then this, but if you begin to think about it whilst playing youâll fail dismally, instead Iâve found it better to just immerse yourself in the experience and be one with the music.



Itâs not only destroying enemies that emits a note, targeting them emits a sound as well, so you get a little rhythm between targeting them and destroying them, making the order that you target enemies crucial to the sounds you create. Whilst using your lock-on creates more elaborate music, i.e locking on to the maximum number of targets (8) lets out a quick snippet and then a vocal cry, whilst targeting four enemies produces an escalating scale, still with me?



Play like this, targeting the enemies on screen with your lock-on still isnât the right way to play REZ, as itâs
NOT a shoot-em-up. Frequently youâll have gaps when thereâs no enemies and thus it begins to sound a little⦠lacking, the trick is to keep hammering away at the X or A button
which produces hand claps/beats throughout the entire level/track, trying to keep in tone with the music, the beat, and then string in the music that emits when you target and
destroy enemies into this.   During your first few goes the music that youâll produce sounds a bit naff, but as you come back to the levels and earn 100% in the âanalyisationâ ranking, the music becomes more elaborate, with later levels sounding like acoustic heaven. 



Along the way youâll collect different power-upâs, blue power-upâs level up your character, which again allows you to produce more elaborate music, whilst red power-upâs give you an overdrive that works like a special weapon destroying all enemies on screen, and creating a big break-beat kind of effect. 



Throughout the levels youâll see little cubes, hitting these start a countdown that pushes you onto the next stage in the level and pumps up the tempo and beat of the sound, by the last stage the music is really going for it with heavy bass, vocals and some stunning samples.

Initially I was worried that it wasnât all going to come together, that the sound may have just been a novelty feature and at heart all we had was a simple shoot-em-up. However after extended play I can honestly say that U-GA has done it, REZ works if youâre willing to give it a go and
not play it like you think you should.

There are only five main levels within the game, however like Nights there is immense replay value built into coming back to the levels. Not only do they look and sound better the more you play, the game is built upon the timeless score based approach. Coming back and trying to beat the scores is a key component, older gamers out there should recognise the joy of this old school gaming approach.



Completing the game opens up the Beyond mode, which works like the Pandoraâs Box in Panzer Dragoon Zwei. New levels including a wacked out Trance level and a subliminal chilled out level; new characters including a Morolien the alien from Space Channel 5, and various other options are all opened by going back to the levels and beating the top scores.

REZâ visuals are the most distinctive I have ever seen in a videogame, wireframe objects are combined with all manner of lighting and particle effects, to create a truly unique looking title. The kind of look that we thought weâd be playing in the future, back in the 80âs, Tron merged with a Japanese direction, simply magnificent. 



Sega has drawn in some great artists to provide the backing tracks to each level, including the likes of dj Shadow, ColdCut and Tim Bran. Simply put the music is fantastic throughout with a range of different styles, it\'s not to everybody\'s taste, but European and Japanese clubbers should enjoy it whilst I hear House music is beginning to catch on in the US, better late then never.