Rez, the digitally remastered director's cut for your electronic pleasures.
For the uninitiated, Rez could be closest-defined as a Rhythm-shoter game, with its closest sibling being Every Extend Extra (Extreme). You shoot enemies, try to target as many hits for high scores and your actions create interesting beats along the way.
Much to my relief, the story is finally spelled out in the documentation of this particular game, as I've only had to deal with no-instructions-equipped used copies of the game prior to this. And on the whole, whoever did the job of bringing this marvel to the Xbox 360 deserves a couple of free keggers because it plays so incredibly fluid, it brought back plenty of Dreamcast nostalgia.
Rez is also one of those games that even though you may find the main playthroughs relatively easy, there is still a lot to do afterward. Unlockable Score Attack modes let you finally see the kind of high scores you land, there's a "lost area" which feels more like a deleted scene that the devs decided to put in as a separate mode from the main game, and a bunch of other unlockable content to keep you freshly busy with the game even after you've unlocked most of its achievements.
As a rhythm shooter, music is obviously the make-or-break of it, and the trance soundtrack serves this game with a fit that even Giorgio Armani would be envious to receive. The only thing that I'd have wished in turn for bringing this game to the Xbox 360 is perhaps an additional custom mode allowing you to either stream or load music stored on the console to use as the background for randomly-generated stages or some sort. But in truth, this is one case where the "quality over quantity" argument fits because I'd rather have this solid execution of what's there rather than them trying to bring in new modes that don't entirely fit in as well as I'd remembered them to.
Controls work as they should, and there really isn't a whole lot that could have been done to screw with them; only thing I would have wished for here is perhaps a way to toggle the sensitivity, as trying to nail 100% shot rates on some of these levels is genuinely challenging. But then again, the experience helps suck you in and before you know it you're wanting to replay to constantly better yourself, improve your score or finding some other reason to continue in this psychedelic experience.
If this review sounds biased, then please forgive me. But I already loved Rez in its original format(s), so having the ability to play it again in a "digitally remastered director's cut" form pleases me on the level that it's the game I remember, yet where everything is a little bit better. Those who are against remakes and rereleases have their valid complaints, but my sentiment toward the game overrides all that for me.
If you like games that feature a good artistic style yet still manage to have really solid game mechanics, then I heartily recommend putting up the 800 points for it. If you were expecting twitch gaming, I would suggest waiting until Ikaruga shows up on XBLA to school your ass. And if you need something that is going to be family friendly, well, it's really hard to deny this game's ability to soothe and resonate with a wide age group.