Rez's relatively simple gameplay belies a much more immersive world of sight and sound like nothing ever seen before.
I'm an avid Dreamcast collector, and when I heard that Rez did in fact come out for the white box in Europe, I had to import it. Of course, I expected it to be a Panzer Dragoon-esque 3D rail shooter, with a cyber-space background, which I was all for. It turned out to be much more then just your average rail shooter, and after playing 10 minutes of the first area, I was completely awe-stricken. But, instead of just piling up my awe-stricken emotions, I'll get down to the very basics. Gameplay in this game is not as defined as say, Panzer Dragoon Orta, but it doesn't need to be. The storyline is about you trying to activate this one girl, named Eden from a "cyber prison" by going inside the system, and hacking into 10 different cube like figures per 4 rounds, to try to get to the center of the system, which is a 5th, secret area, and stopping her from putting an infinite "blue screen" of death on the worldwide network that the world, of course, runs on. To hack into each cube, I must first tell you how you shoot, which is pretty basic. There is a square shape in the middle of the screen, which is your viewing range for moving around the screen, targeting and shooting at enemies. You can target up to 8 enemies at one time, by pressing down the A button over enemies. in which the square turns into a number from 1 - MAX to tell you how many you're targeting. You use the multiple targetting a quite a bit in the beginning of the title, but you'll have to learn how to rapidly press it as the game gets overwhelmingly difficult at the end. To hack into each area, after a whlle in each "level" of each area, a little robot-thing comes up holding a red cube. After you target it and shoot it 8 times (or MAX on your targetting square) you get thrown into a new level, and you get 10% more of the analyzation complete. Another way of attacking is through the relatively rare "overdrive" attack that obliterates every enemy on the screen for a short time, that you can obtain through getting these red... orb/cube things that appear after you attack an enemy. It tends to appear randomly, so you can't really judge when it will appear. You do not need to hack each and every cube or level to beat each area, but 100% analyzation is needed in order to acquire the final, 5th area. Your character you play as has a very unique life "gauge" too. At the beginning, your character is a mere few polygons, but as you go through the stages, and get these blue "upgrades" like the ones for your overdrive attack, and obtain about 8 of them to bring up the white gauge to the max on the bottom of the screen, you go up a level. In all, there is 6 levels you can obtain (7 if you include the last area) that increase your power as you go up, and each time you get hit by an attack, you go down a level. You start at level 2, actually, so if you get hit in the beginning of the game, you won't die right away. In all, you can get hit a maximum of 6-7 times in an area without dying. Sounds hard, and it is, once you get to the overwhelmingly tough levels near the ending of the title. The enemies are pretty much cannon fodder throughout the game, except for a few near the end that can get on your nerves. The true enemies in the title are the long, cinematic bosses at the end of each stage. Not only do they look and sound amazing, the design of each one is exceptionally brilliant, especially for a 3D rail shooter. However, by the time you get to the 3rd through 5th bosses, they overwhelm the player to the point where the only way to fight off all the attacks coming at you is with an overdrive attack. The 5th boss, even at level 7, is exceptionally difficult, and is one of the hardest bosses in rail shooter history, and of course, is extremely frustrating. However, the gameplay is actually almost just an added bonus to this game, as the true calling to the game is it's graphics, sound, and presentation, as every action you do on the gameplay not only creates new graphics on the screen, but affects everything around you. Without those, Rez wouldn't be worth a whole lot, but with them, the gameplay feels brilliant.
This is going to be the hardest game to describe graphically, as it is different then everything else out there. Rez brings you into it's own cyber world in ways only a few games could ever hope to accomplish, and manages to push the Dreamcast to a graphical showcase that almost seems impossible. There is really nothing to compare this game to, as there is nothing even close to the graphical style of Rez. The look has a very wireframe-look to it, but with many different colors, and graphical touches to make each level and area look entirely unique. Speaking of levels, each level has an overall theme of a certain time-frame, corresponding to what part of the network you're in, but that is only if you can notice the subtle, yet engaging story that is in Rez, which, few people can. The explosions, attacks, and your character all look great, and the overdrive attack just looks amazing when you first try it. The blur effect that happens each time you hack into a new level looks simply amazing, especially for the fact that I've never seen that done on the Dreamcast. There actually is plenty of polygons on the screen, but overall, it doesn't matter. Some of the best looking areas in Rez is the bosses you have to go against, as each one really shows what the old white box can do.... other then that, they're simply IMPOSSIBLE to describe fully in a short amount of time. What else is there to say? You have to see it to believe it, and even after you do, you'll still find it hard to believe.
The music, sound effects, graphics, and gameplay are driven all by your actions, and the soundtrack in the background. Sounds improbable? Well, guess again. United Game Artists has somehow made rail shooters original again by implementing sound as THE driving force to the gameplay and graphics. Each action you do, either by attacking an enemy, gaining support items, or hack into the next level adds more to the soundtrack in the background, which is amazing just by itself. Each level you go to adds more to the soundtrack, and each level your character goes up adds a different sound or techno instrument to the game you're playing. This is a musical masterpiece, and easily a piece of art, in a way you've never heard, or probably will never hear again. I... can't describe it any better then that. I'm sorry if that disappoints you, but just the same as the graphics, as both of those go hand-in-hand, this is almost impossible to describe fully, and it's something you must experience for yourself.
Sadly, the only part of this title that isn't extremely overwhelming is it's replay value. The game, like most rail shooters, is sadly pretty short, and once you beat it, it's hard to go back, even with the absolutely sublime presentation and seemingly impossible interaction between graphics and sound. Getting 100% analyzation is easier then heck to do, and level 5 is still as easy as the rest of the levels, and if you lose in the last battle, well, you still get the credits. Unless you really want to complete this relatively tough boss at the end of the game, this game will not last you more then an hour or 2 at the most. After a few months, you'll keep having urges to play this title over and over again for the experience, so it will last you long term, actually.
Rez, in one word, is "indescribable." The mixture of sight and sound is something unheard or unseen in anything out there today, or yesterday, for that matter. It is not for everyone, however. If you want a shooter for action, and not just for the experience, this game will disgust you, but if you're a hardcore gamer, and an avid Dreamcast game collector like myself, you'd be stupid not to pass this up, either on Dreamcast or Playstation 2. And with the prices increasing on the PS2 version, the opportune time to buy this title is now.