Rez is a genre breaker. Probably the most basic way I can describe this game is to call is a shooter. Think of it as a really simple version of StarFox. While flying through cyber-space, you shoot at enemies.

That's basically it.

You control your character the way you would E-102r from Sonic Adventure, or Tails/Eggman from Sonic Adventure 2. By holding Down the X Button and moving your cursor over your targets you lock on to them. Releasing the X Button will fire at the targets you have locked onto. It's pretty dang simple.

Collecting blue "Progress Nodes" as you play gives you the ability to evolve. By collecting eight of these levels you up one form. If you're hit by enemy fire, you drop down a level. Get hit while at the bottom form and it's Game Over.

The reason this game is a genre breaker is because it's so hard to compare it to anything else on the market. It's not about the way you play the game, it's not about the way you see it, or the way you hear it. It's the way it brings all of these elements together to bring you an experience unlike anything you've played before.

The graphics are insane. You're flying through wire-frame graphics full of twisting, spinning, flashing, psychedelic colors. The graphics are very interesting and very well-done.

The music is a very heavy focus of this game. It's trance music, and very good trance music at that. The deeper you go into the system, the more intense the techno music gets and the crazier the visuals become. The enviornment flashes colors to the beat of the music, as does the way your character pulses. In fact, the controller rumbles in your hands to the beat at very interesting intensities.

The visuals are crisp and bright.
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The music pulses with almost every element of the gameplay.
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But this game is so much more because of the musical element. You don't just fire at enemies, you fire at them rhythmically. Each enemy killed makes a distinct musical sound and the type of form you've evolved to makes certain sounds when firing at the enemies. What ends up happening is something incredibly unique, you aren't just playing this game - you're making music. The music drives this game forward.

This is why this is such a genre breaker - it's not about any individual element of the game. When the game gets intense - you're soaring through cyberspace, with everything visually pulsing to the trance beat - you're shooting enemies and creating unique music - the controller is vibrating with the music - and you're usually thinking, "holy cow, this is absolutely crazy."

I don't think I've ever played anything like this before. Ever. Sure some elements are there from other things I've played, but never presented altogether in this entertaining way.

The story for this game is really loose. The only way you can really even partially understand what you're doing is by reading the instruction manual. The basic concept is that at the core of this network society lays an advanced A.I. named 'Eden'. It apparently starts questioning the meaning of the system's existence and begins to shut itself down.

Each Area is split into two parts - the "Infiltration Phase" in which you destroy viruses to hack into the system, and the Boss phase where you must destroy the Firewall protecting the Network Core - getting you one step closer to saving Eden.

Bizarre, I know. The good thing is that you really don't need to understand it to enjoy it. In fact, this game doesn't present the story at all. It's not until the last level of the game that you actually get text on the screen doing something with the story. In some ways this is something the game lacks. On the other hand - it keeps you from spending too much time thinking, and more time experiencing the game.

Different forms allow you to fire with different styles of attacks and sounds.
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Rez is incredibly different from anything else out there. The only real problem with this game is that it doesn't feel like a complete game. There are only 5 Areas to play each lasting around 10 minutes long. Beating the game is easy - mastering it is a whole other story. On one level the game is incredibly fun to simply pick up and play, on the other end this game is ridiculously impossible to play perfectly - which is what it seems to encourage. With the five levels they do have, they have many different ways to play them including normal play, score attack, and the ability to play the game from start to finish non-stop. Also included is the "travelling" mode - you're invincible, allowing you to just chill out and enjoy the game without any worries.

Rez was grabbed the number nine spot on the list of "top ten hidden gems of this generation" right behind Killer7 and Alien Hominid.

(did I mention Rez was also just awarded the number one spot on the list of "top ten games to play when you're stoned?" It's times like this I wish I did do drugs)

It seems as though everytime you play through the new mode opened up, you're given more unlockables. For as many times as I've played through the game, I've barely gotten halfway through collecting everything. Some of the unlockable features allows you to change the color style of the game (it reminds me a lot of an iTunes Visualizer sometimes). Even though it's short - it's really incredible - and it keeps you coming back to experience it again, all while trying to become more and more perfect at the game.

The only real gripe I have with the game is that it could use at least one more button to be pressed. Please. It's incredible how much music you can make by simply pressing the X Button, but it would've been nice to have the other buttons make, say, other sound effects. That way you could choose between a couple different sound effect sets per character.

It's too bad this game didn't get more attention. It's incredible. Rez is five years old, but it's amazing. If you've got a PS2, you've got to try this out. It's quite the ride.

Verdict: It's Awesome.