While the debate moves on about rhythm games, you have to take into consideration that Rez really is a shooter rather than being anything else. Although the game totes itself to be a game that allows you to create music through battle, there is little more here than a game of challenge on both the eyes and your patience. Blending together a game with both musical attributes and shooter ties, you have to be a fan of shooting games rather than music games in order to appreciate what this title has to offer.
The storyline that you find here in Rez is actually an interesting one set in the future. You take control of a hacker who is uploading into different systems, looking to take files and defeat security systems. While the actual storyline might be a little deeper than that depending on who you talk to, the game play is something that you have to get into, leaving whatever story in the dust. Regardless, you’ll be too busy blasting things and letting your eyes adjust than worrying about why the hacker is actually there.
Game play throughout Rez is something that you have to get used to, not only because it is potentially the easiest, if not shortest game that I’ve played, but rather the way that the game moves. You take on different forms depending on the power up orbs you scan through your little adventure and the only way to get a good success rating on any of the stages is to blast everything in sight. As you’re blasting enemies, you’ll be able to add beats to the music at different points, which is where the music portion of the game kicks in.
Well, sort of.
The challenge that you find here really isn’t all that difficult and anyone of any skill level should be able to pick up the game and unlock the various secrets that the nodes have to offer. While the control isn’t all that difficult, you’ll have to learn how to lock onto several different targets {up to 8} and then fire off the little laser. It seems a little hard, but you should be able to get the gist of the game and be able to play through on the hardest difficulty within the first five minutes!
Visually, the game really doesn’t have much going for it other than a wire-frame effect that is strangely familiar to Tempest. The enemies all have different designs and even some of the boss characters have some interesting ways about them. However, once you’ve seen a certain set of enemies, you’re looking at them most of the way through the game repeatedly. What you have to get used to is the amount of speed that is given and the way that the game colors flash.
Considering this, you may have to wonder just what the point of the game is. The sound is where it is supposed to be, even though the game has some pretty light music. For every enemy that you take out, you add notes to the currently playing song, and even that is pretty cool for the first hour or so. However, the sound effects are what make up the majority of the game music, so you’ll have to work with the enemies and work on blasting them all in order to get a good audio quality out of the game.
Rez is a game that you have to consider as being a game that really doesn’t have a set genre. With different aspects of the game having different effects, it’s easy enough to play through, but in the end a little too short to really enjoy. While other people will say that it is one of the most innovative games to have been created using shooting aspects as well as music, I’d only half agree simply because the game is too damned short and really has nothing going for it.
If you like shooting games and have a Play Station 2, then you might want to check this out on a rental only. Gamers who are hard core into shooting games will want to check this out simply as a rental as well, because when you boil down the quality of the game and the quantity as well, there is little here that hits the right musical note, and rather leaves you with an eye-burning headache as well!
6/10
//KasketDarkfyre
