The Chambers 20th Century English Dictionary offers nothing as far as a description of the word 'synesthesia' is concerned. So, in order to find out what exactly this phrase, found on the back of Rez's box, means, we are going to have to do the next best thing. As every message board poster knows, the next best thing is a little thing called... Google. Off we go. And, after trying all of the little (and, ultimately, useless) options that Google affords us... ah. We get a raft of Rez fansites and a variety of tracklistings for little-known music albums (mostly from backwater bands hailing from the American Midwest). But it also shows us something marginally more interesting: science. Lots of science, but SPECIAL science. See, what we find is massive amounts (pages and pages... I'm not joking here) of unreadable jargon. If you're at ALL interested (and you probably won't be) then do a Google search, as I did. What it all boils down to is synesthesia being the study of how, when one of your senses is stimulated, there is a limited stimulation of all the others.
So... where do we go now, armed with our newly-discovered yet fantastically useless information? Well, in the interests of writing this review (honestly... the things I do for you people) I decided to do a little... ah... extra-curricular research for you. And came up with a name to add to our scientific research - Wassily Kandinsky, apparently one of the first advocators of the artistic branch of the theory referred to as synesthesia - in essence, the idea of ALL artforms being brought together in a reality which exists for no other reason than to assault every one of your senses simultaneously. Suddenly, it all comes together - Rez's in-development codename: Project K and, yes, the final screen. "Dedicated to Kandinsky" the game screams at us. And, after experiencing the marvel that is Rez, you are left with the suspicion that Kandinsky himself, had he been alive, would have been honoured to be associated with what is one of the most staggeringly enjoyable gaming experiences in recent memory.
So, that's our background today, and involves a little bit of science, social studies and History of Art - never let it be said that gaming (or, at least, PALGN) isn't educational. Superb. Anyhow... onto the game.
The concept of Rez is rather abstract. To wit: you are a hacker, attempting to gain access to the mainframe of an artificial intelligence known as 'eden'. Eden is currently inactive, having been overloaded with so much information that the computer program began to doubt its own existence and thus shut itself down. In order to reach the core of eden - 'Project K' - you need to hack through a selection of viri and firewalls, which take the in-game form of enemies that need to be shot down and bosses respectively. This action takes place largely over five stages, within which you are treated to cyberspace as visualised by 'The System' which you are attempting to beat. Most of this information is forthcoming from the manual; there is no in-game 'story' to speak of. That is in no way a criticism - the Rez experience makes you aware of what's happening, even though it is never expressly commented on.
Some have said that the actual gameplay of Rez should take a back seat to what is commonly referred to as 'The Experience' (capitalisation required there, folks), but more of that later. Conversely, many would disagree; particularly those who have put anything approaching a decent amount of time into mastering the system. The shooting procedure is, at first glance, nothing but a bog-standard, over-simplified version of the Panzer Dragoon standard of on-rails shooting. This isn't entirely fair, as veterans of the in-game 'score challenge' will bear witness to - basically you can lock on to anything up to 8 enemies at once by holding down the 'fire' button - then you release it and homing lasers fire into what you've locked onto. The trick comes in the score multiplier. When locking on to multiple enemies, your score for one set of shots is calculated by multiplying the scores of things killed by the number of lockons. However, if you DESTROY an enemy, the number of points received increases exponentially. For instance, if something takes 10 hits to destroy, locking on 8 times, and killing it with a 2 on the next lockon is MUCH WORSE than hitting it twice and destroying with the last of eight locked-on shots. This is just one of the many subtle nuances that become apparent throughout your experience with this game.
Touch, Hearing, Sight, Taste and Smell are the 'five senses' that you will so often hear referred to. Rez manages to construct an experience that becomes a hugely enjoyable onslaught on the first three of these - touch, hearing and sight. One gets the feeling that, had the technology been up to it, Mizuguchi-san and his team would not have faltered from implementing the latter two as part of their in-game synesthesia.
Sight - The quest for realism in games is a hotly debated topic and, thankfully, one that has been completely and utterly ignored in Rez. The entire game is based around a wireframe - your character is a simple personification of an online presence which evolves over time and can take one of seven different forms, depending on its level of evolution. And that's basically it - in terms of aesthetic, Rez very much harks back to the old days of Elite et al on the BBC. Having said that, however, I'm trying to think of a better way to say it (unfortunately this appears NOT to be forthcoming) - Rez isn't just a 128bit update of the old wireframe games, built for an age in which that was the only way to 'do' in-game 3D, so don't even begin to entertain the prospect that it is. No, because what Rez does is so much better. Admittedly, on the first level of each area, the aesthetic is disamingly simple; just a few lines to show you that you ARE in a 3D environment and a few enemies. But, every so often, by 'destroying the network openings' that pop up, you proceed to the next level within your area. Amongst other things, this adds another visual level to the graphics, until by the end you are flying through a stunningly accurate version of whichever ancient civilisation the area you are in happens to be based on (Ancient Egypt, the Incas, Imperial India and the age-old Japanese dynasties). And, after negotiating all ten levels (not strictly necessary; you CAN complete an area on the first level but it's not recommended) you come face to face with the area boss (or firewall), and each of Rez's four main bossfights are some of the most memorable in gaming history.
Sound - Ah. You'd expect this to be one of Rez's strongpoints (after all, the creators do refer to it as a 'music shooting game'), and it really doesn't disappoint. Let me get this down right away - Rez has what is probably the most accomplished videogame soundtrack around at the moment; if you need any evidence, consider that this game single-handedly converted me to the wonders of trance music - all this gushing hyperbole about the sound comes from someone who detested the musical genre in question in the pre-Rez days (or, as I like to refer to that period, the 'Dark Ages'). Basically, each level has musical backing of one track from such Japanese trancemasters as Ken Ishii and JOUJOUKA, with Adam Freeland's 'Fear' providing the epic backing for Area 5. As with the graphics, the ten levels within each area contain an increasing amount of detail in the music; an extra 'layer' if you will, and this is pulled off admirably, from nothing more than a thumping bass beat in the first level to a milieu of sound as the area reaches its amazing climax. In addition to this, everything you do in each area is given a sound; there's a sound for hitting one enemy with a lockon, and a sound for hitting two enemies, all the way up to a sound for hitting eight enemies in a single lockon. When put all together in practise, this means that your actions have a direct affect on the soundtrack of the game, and the realisation of this is amazing. One of the main arguments there is for arguing that the PS2 version is superior to the Dreamcast version is that Rez on Sony's machine boasts surround sound, and for a game to which the music is so integral this matters; the PlayStation 2 version hooked up to a top of the range sound system is simply unbeatable.
Touch - Another reason why the PlayStation 2 version of Rez is said to be better than the Dreamcast version is that, with the Dual Shock controller, everyone who buys Rez can be assured of getting vibration - this is where the 'touch' facet of synesthasia comes into play, and it really heightens the experience as your controller thumps along with the bass of whichever track your current area is set to - with this extra feature it's pretty much impossible for ANY gamer with even the tiniest shred of rhythm in their body to resist tapping their foot along with the beat. Furthermore, if you can track one down, in Japan the PlayStation 2 version of the game was released with what is known as a 'trance vibrator' - basically a piece of hardware which you... ah... sit on. I'm assured that the experience is rewarding and unique; something which can always be said for anything that immerses you more fully into the world of Rez.
x + y + z = SYNESTHASIA!
It's all very well pointing out the individual aspects of what makes Rez such a great game, but it misses a vital point: that the different facets of this game are designed to work in harmony, all pushing together for a common cause, as it were. And, in this respect, it works. Design, sound and vibration link perfectly into one another; after playing this game for a while, you don't really consciously separate out the different ideas contained within but, rather, everything comes together and you are left with Rez; the essence of artistic synesthasia.
I can say, if you want, that this game runs at a rock-solid 60 frames per second and has a 60Hz option. Both of these are true - both, you might say, important. But that really doesn't mean anything; before I experienced the PS2 offering of this game, I played the Dreamcast version which runs at only 30FPS but... it doesn't seem to matter, and I mean that with all my heart - Rez transcends such meaningless numbers and comparisons. After all - no one cut down M.C.Escher's work because it has a limited colour palette, did they? If this information will get you to buy the game, then, fine. 60Hz options and solid 60FPS gaming abound within this package. But, as well as that, you get one of the most startlingly original titles to appear on the PlayStation 2 to date. I could wax lyrical about this game for days; it really is that good - so good that it deserves to put United Game Artists on the map as one of Sega's premier developers. Am I making myself clear? You owe it to yourself to buy this game.
After all, you can cry and wail and curse about the death of Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast all you want, but it must be said that the premature ending to their 128-bit offering has allowed the gaming industry a substantial injection of quality in the form of previously under-played ports to the 'big 3'. And nowhere is this value more apparent than in one of the last (and greatest) games ever made for the Dreamcast – Rez.
Rez official website
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