Tech: Rez HD review

I normally don't give full reviews to XBLA titles, but Rez HD warrants an exception. Some years ago, copies of the original Rez were fairly scarce due to a limited production run by Sega. People often paid full retail on eBay to grab it for the PS2. Now, in 2008, you can download it on your Xbox 360 for 800 points ($10).



Rez was designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi as an all-out assault on your senses (there was even an infamous trance vibrator accessory that will either impress your friends or gross them out). Everything that happens in the game adds a sound to the underlying mix, and in hectic situations when you're fighting a bunch of enemies, the resulting cacaphony of sound is sublime. All in all, it's less of a game than a visual interface for a bunch of great trance music tracks, including a truly epic remix of one of Adam Freeland's songs, "Fear":



The basic "gameplay," though, will be familiar to anyone who's played a rail shooter like Panzer Dragoon or Starfox. You highlight enemies with your cursor, and then unleash a barrage of homing missiles on them. All the while, you'll be shooting down stuff that's headed towards your avatar. When things get hairy, you can use a screen-clearing "Overdrive" that allows you to automatically fire on nearby enemies for a limited time.

Rez HD supports HD graphics, which are a huge upgrade from the original jaggies suffered by Rez on the PS2. Even though the game is 5 years old, it doesn't look dated at all - the timeless wireframe style of the game's environments is a big factor, of course. The only major flaw with Rez HD is its short length - you can "beat" the game in about an hour. Thankfully, achieving high scores in the various modes and going for perfect scores should extend the life of this one a bit.

Rating: 78/100