Xbox Live Arcade Review: Rez HD

by John Kershaw on February 8, 2008 at 9:46 pm

When Rez was released into the world in late 2001, it became an instant cult classic with its trippy visuals and trance-like soundtrack. Rez HD sees the game being reborn on the Xbox Live Arcade with updated graphics and extra vibration.

Does the game live up to the hype? Is it worth the money and most importantly, what does it feel like playing a game with a vibrating controller down your pants? Just a few questions you will get the answers to shortly.

If you break Rez HD down to its simplest elements, it’s an on-rails shooter with incredible music. All you do is point and shoot. This is not to say it is a weakness of the game, however, as it turns out it’s one of Rez’s strongest points.

Taking away your movement worries not only allows the game to continue moving forward at a steady pace, but also allows you to concentrate fully on targeting your foes and absorbing the sound and visuals in an almost comatose state– the perfect state to be in for this game.

Aiming aside, there are only two buttons used in the game: one to fire and one to trigger Overdrive. Holding down the fire button allows you to lock-on to up to 8 targets using the reticule, firing on all of them when you release. Overdrive will cause you to automatically fire on all the targets you can see, but will run out after a few seconds, requiring you to pick up power-ups as you go.

As well as the Overdrive power-up, you also collect power-ups which increase your “evolution bar”. Once the bar is full you will evolve into a new form, only dropping down a form when you hit something, or when something hits you.

There are 5 levels, or Areas in the game, each with its own theme, with the final Area only being unlocked when you have fully completed the four previous ones. Each starts off easy and will ramp up the difficulty as you progress, culminating in an end boss.

There is a story to Rez, surprisingly, but it isn’t pivotal to your appreciation of the game. Essentially, you’re in a suicidal super-computer, trying to get into the core to stop it from killing itself, shooting down any viruses or firewalls getting in your way.

Besides the standard game mode, you can choose Score Attack, where you try to get the highest score for each level, and using XBLA’s league tables it allows you to see where you rank beside your friends. There is also Travel mode, in which you can’t be killed, which is always nice.

Graphically the game feels very unique, with the only other games coming close being Space Giraffe or Tron. Each Area has its own general look and feel, but this isn’t to say they are bland. Psychedelic is definitely a word that comes to mind. As you progress, the whole environment will occasionally completely shift in its appearance, or bend dramatically into a whole new form. Combined with the awesome soundtrack it generates a very engrossing experience.

Music plays a very prevalent role within the game, to the extent that when you fire your weapon the game will play percussion sounds in time with you shooting, and the music. You’re actually adding to the soundtrack as you play. Keeping the same soundtrack from 2002, the hard trance vibes still resonate throughout the game, and for me, bring back some very fond memories. With tracks by artists such as Coldcut and Adam Freeland, the music is not only fitting to the game, but also very enjoyable simply to listen too.

Before I wrap things up, I feel I should add a word or two on the vibration functions of the game. Originally, the game came out with something called the Trance Vibrator, which vibrated in time to the music. Sadly the XBLA version is not compatible with the old Trance Vibrator, but not to worry as you can now set up to 3 other controllers to fill that role. A great idea in principle, but I can’t for the life of me work out where to put the third one. It’s also worth mentioning that even with all 3 vibrating, the results are somewhat weak and, to be honest, not really worth the effort.

Rez HD is a very fun game and will provide several hours of incredibly absorbing gaming experience for any player. Although it won’t give you anything earth-shatteringly different from the original Rez, if you have yet to experience the game, then I would highly recommend spending those 800 MS Points downloading it.

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.