Rez
|
The boxart used for Rez's Japanese and European PlayStation 2 releases. |
Rez, developed under the codename
K-Project, is a video game released by
Sega in
2001 for the
Sony PlayStation 2. It was originally released on the
Sega Dreamcast, but only in
Japan and
European markets, and is a fairly rare and very sought after game on the Dreamcast, mainly due to the many defective pressings of the game. The game was developed by SEGA's
United Game Artists division, which contained several former members of the disbanded
Team Andromeda, the SEGA development team behind the
Panzer Dragoon series. It was conceptualized and produced by
Tetsuya Mizuguchi. It was very critically acclaimed, but did not get much commercial attention in the
United States, partly due to its very esoteric gameplay experience. The game is set in a vast computer network where a female
AI program named Eden begins to doubt her very existence and purpose, dropping into a state of unconsciousness and must be found and awakened by the player by navigating through a series of levels. The plot is really not the focus of this game however. The K-Project name and much of the game's visual and synaesthesia inspiration comes from the Russian painter
Wassily Kandinsky, whereas the
Rez name is inspired by the
Underworld track of the same name.
Marketing information for the game at the time of its release focused on its qualities of "
synaesthesia," the association of different senses and stimuli with each other, which is a sensation experienced naturally by some people, and reported by many users of
LSD and other
hallucinogens. In
Rez, one's character soars over psychedelic, abstract, futuristic vistas to the hypnotic beats of electronic music. The game is tightly integrated with sight and sound; a thumping vibration in the Dual Shock 2 controller or Dreamcast rumble packs keeps time with the music, and literally every onscreen action, from missile locking, firing, and exploding to the pulsing of the landscape and the player's avatar themselves, synchronizes with the beat. As the player progresses further into a level, the music becomes more layered and intense, as do the visuals.
Although the original Dreamcast version now reaches inflated prices on eBay, the differences between it and the PlayStation 2 version are very slight. It is thought that the Dreamcast version offers cleaner visuals free from the "
jaggies" that are present in the PlayStation 2 version, as well as the ability to play the game via a
VGA monitor via the optional Dreamcast VGA box. It should also be noted that Dreamcast benefits from a superior audio card, whereas the Playstation 2 is only capable of about half the power. This is a fairly important difference since the game draws heavily from the sound aspect of gaming. Meanwhile
Rez on the PS2 benefits from a framerate increase (30 to 60), although it has times of slowdown. The core game experience remains the same, and the tangible difference is quite small.
As with any video game,
Rez may adversely affect anyone susceptible to
photosensitive epilepsy, as it contains many flashing lights and images, and could trigger a
seizure. This warning is explicitly stated in the instruction manuals and boxes for all video games.
Rez is an
on-rails shooter similar to
Panzer Dragoon, with the player portrayed as an onscreen avatar travelling along a predetermined path through the levels. The controls are very simple, with the analog/directional pads controlling an on-screen target. The player can either tap the shoot button to fire, or hold the button while moving the cursor over enemies to "lock-on". A maximum of 8 missiles can be locked, and many enemies require multiple hits to destroy, usually requiring one, two, four or eight shots to take down. The player cannot affect his movement at all, aside from choosing a few minor branching paths by shooting specific targets in one level.
In
Rez, the number of player lives is expressed through player forms; players can gain increments to their evolution bar, and every 8 increments results in the player upgrading to a higher form, while getting hit by an enemy downgrades the player to a lower form. The various forms have wildly different graphical and audio effects. With each upgrade, the player shoots faster. Getting hit at the lowest form ends the game.
There are three types of
power-ups in
Rez. The first is an overdrive, which, when triggered, releases a drone which fires continuously at all enemies on screen for a short period of time. The second is a health/evolution power-up, which adds 1 or 3 increments to the evolution bar. The third is a score bonus, which only appears in Beyond or
Score Attack modes.
The game features five main levels (Areas or Subsections), each of which has a unique musical track and visual style. The first four main levels have similar structures, each with 10 completion sub-points (Layer Levels) and a boss (firewall) at the end, and must be completed to unlock the fifth. Before engaging the boss at the end of each level, a console opens, displaying a series of incomprehensible lines of code; however, the player can easily note the name and subtype of the boss. The bosses for levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 are Earth, Mars, Venus and Uranus, respectively. Also, the player can note a subtype of MEGA, GIGA or TERA. This subtype reflects a player's shot-down percentage (for example, a Tera subtype requires above a 98% shot-down) and effects the difficulty of the boss, Mega being the easiest, and Tera being the hardest. This sliding scale of difficulty was employed by
Sega to keep Rez enjoyable for those who played the game with a light hearted mindset, and to keep the game difficult for those who were more adept at the game.
Level five, unique and separate from the first four, has many sub-points, mini-bosses, and adds a narrative story line. Upon completion of the levels in the main mode, additional "Score Attack" and "Beyond" modes are unlocked. Beyond Mode is similar to
Panzer Dragoon's "Pandora's Box"; a special stage select of sorts. Other unlockable features include the ability to play levels with different graphical themes, different beam types, and different character levels. Beyond Mode also contains two sub-stages, the Lost Area (a new stage unlocked by beating level 5 in main mode) and TranceMission (unlocked by getting more than 150,000 points in Lost Area). TranceMission is a repeating series of patterns with
psychedelic visuals and sound. Additional graphical game themes are unlocked by beating Direct Assault in Beyond with the themes on. Once you beat the game with all of the new themes, you unlock Immortality Mode. Score Attack is self-explanatory, and must be played up to 30 times to unlock different beam types. Also, you unlock different views by getting 1st in each stage.
Boss Rush mode is unlocked by getting 95% shootdown in main levels 1-5. Placing first in Boss Mode unlocks infinite overdrives.
A "Special Package" version of the game was sold in Japan only, including a
USB device called a
trance vibrator, [
1] which pulses in time with the music. While not explicitly marketed as a sex toy or masturbatory aid, it has reportedly enjoyed success in that area; the devices are available from various aftermarket retailers for (
as of 2006) approximately $35 USD. In contrast, any USB-controlled sex toys on the market are currently being retailed for over $100. It is also noteworthy that Space Channel 5: Part 2 also works with the Trance Vibrator on the PS2.
Reverse-engineering efforts to allow the trance vibrator to attach to, and be controlled by, a PC have been successfully executed in Japan, resulting in a
device driver for
Microsoft Windows 2000 and
Windows XP.
*
Official Web site*
Sex in Games: Rez+Vibrator*
More software with installation instructions*
IOverFlow : An open-source project aiming to create a Rez clone for the PC.*
Origin of the Rez name.*
REZ The Ultimate Audiovisual Experience - by BrunoF*
Rez shrine
