Dom Robinson reviews

for

Distributed by
Sega

Price: £29.99 Players: 1

Rez is a vector-based graphics game for the Dreamcast and it's at this point in the review where I would tell you what the game's about. However, I don't really think it's about anything in particular (none that makes sense anyway) other than being a unique into-the-screen shoot-em-up that has slight overtones of Galaxians - in that you are shooting down wave after wave of aliens -, I, Robot - in that it's colourful and just plain bizarre, whilst being hugely entertaining - and the arcade game shown in the film, The Last Starfighter. Oh, and of course Tron.

Look at the screenshots and you won't be able to make head or tail of it either. Even the tutorial confused me by describing that to kill one of the alien craft that fly about, or interact in some way with everything else, is to hold down what would be your fire button (A), move the cursor into the right position and let go of (A) to shoot. I feared for this being a pixel-perfect exercise, but far from it. You can let your aim glide all over the place and take out a few baddies at once. While you do this, the techno-bass soundtrack is built around your actions and you find, for example, that your fire button is the hi-hat and the more you press that and the way you move and interact makes the audio experience a fascinating one, especially combined with the visuals.

So, for what seemed originally to be a flashy and hard-to-understand game quickly becomes a blindingly cool game with a high pick-up-and-play factor and is well-recommended for playing in the dark, late at night, with your headphones on loud, unless you hate your neighbours, in which case dispense with the headphones. Anything else I would add to this review in terms of text would be purely superfluous because there's not a lot more I can add, other than to suggest that if you're not sure after seeing it on TV or on a demo disc, then rent it first before buying. The scores at the bottom should speak for themselves. PS. When you pause the game, the ripple effect over the background is bloody amazing.

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2002.