Many problems arise while giving an opinion on a video game. While reviewing a game such as Metal Gear Solid 2, do I praise the title for it’s excellent story, movie like FMV and constantly great style of the game. Or do I slate it for having far too many FMV’s and not enough gameplay? A problem came up when I decided to write a review of Rez and that problem is. “How do you put such a game “Rez” into word?” “How do I explain it to” because Rez is a game you have to experience before you can really get the idea of how good it really is.
Many casual gamers average Joe’s or whatever you like to be called. Will take one look at Rez and most likely laugh at the screenshots. Why? Well it’s use’s wire-frame style of graphics, which aren’t the nicest to look at, if you’re looking at a still image. However when you see it moving it’s silky smooth, very fast and bright and colourful. The frame rate continues to keep up with all the action on screen and there’s no slow down, pop-ups or jaggies in sight.
Rez is a basic, simply arcade shooter. When an enemy appears you shoot it. You work your way through the five levels and of course at the end of each level you encounter a boss. The nice and special feature is, when you shoot an enemy, a short sound / tune happens. Essentially the idea is that you can make your own songs. Every time you play it will be slightly different, as you will hit the enemies at different speeds. Sadly this hasn’t worked as well as you would of thought. It is almost impossible to keep a rhythm going for more than ten seconds. The boss’s are all very well designed and all require you to shoot / dodge until you eventually blow it to pieces.
Rez, it’s all about the music. You always get a bass backbeat that repeats it’s self and whenever you hit an enemy a little tune plays. It’s just a shame that the tunes can get very annoying after only a moderate amount of time. Due to the constant “boom, boom, boom” and garage / dance tunes. There are no explosive sound effects it is all music. When you start the game, there are very few enemies so the music is very slow and there are long pauses, they make the game feel a little quiet. But once you get to some of the later levels, the sounds are always happening and end up giving you a headache.
The Dreamcast has had it’s fair share of shorties. Crazy Taxi as a perfect example. Rez is no different it only has five levels of the game and it won’t take you more than a weekend to complete. Not to worry though as there are a number of bonus games to play one you have completed the full game.The “beyond” mode being the best. However it is an arcade shooter and won’t keep you for long and the fact that there is no replay value. You won’t be coming back to this one again that much.
Overall
After what Sega have promised us with Project K (The code name for Rez) we can’t help but feel slightly disappointed. It isn’t the revolutionary game we were expecting. It’s a bit of a love it – hate it affair. Much like Marmite really. I personally love it but many people may feel that it is too simple and short for their liking. It can get very repeative after a while too. Still it’s an enjoyable shooter, with lots of options and fantastic style. Maybe they can really improve it with a sequel…
Score
9/10