CLASSIC GAMING
REZ
Developer:  UGA/SEGA
Publisher:  SEGA
Year:  2002
Genre:  Shoot-em up
System:  Dreamcast/PS2
Many of us remember SEGA for their legendary mascot Sonic the Hedgehog, that blue bolt of hyperactive "coolness" the company always tried to maintain, almost as a way to prove they were "with it" or something.  But another thing SEGA should be remembered for (and sadly are lesser known for) is their originality.
Out of all the major videogame developers in the world, SEGA, until their dissolution into a smaller company below Nintendo's command, became quite good at using their formulative imaginations into making not just a few series of popular games, but actually attempting at making more original ideas.  Ever since their existence, they've had many an excellent gem of a game either published or developed by them.  One such game, which they created themselves, was REZ.


Story - Nobody really goes into this game for the story, but I might as well explain the point of the game's existence since it probably deserves it.  It's set in the future, when the world has become so massively overpopulated that the rapidly expanding network of society has become crippled by the rising rates of crime and is now on the verge of meltdown.  A new system, Project K, is created to resolve this.  At the core of this supersystem is an artificial intelligence centre, named Eden.
Eden is the most advanced A.I mankind has ever created, with the ability to process vast amounts of information simultaneously, and to use such information to form its own uniquely advanced independent thoughts, up to the point that people believe Eden has developed its own degree of conscience.  At this point, some of you may be thinking about HAL, SHODAN or GLaDOS and might be palming your faces in the thought of another misanthropic supercomputer given the reign of the world.  But it's a bit different than that.

Eden soon became confused when the flow of information being sent to it began to increase in volume and speed, starting to question the meaning of its own existence and the consequences of its actions.  Finding itself surrounded by everlasting paradoxes, and soon realising the power of autonomy which it possessed, Eden decided to shut itself down.  Your mission, as a nameless A.I (or perhaps a hacker controlling a small piece of rogue A.I) is to travel into the cyberspace of Project K and reawaken Eden by gaining access to each area of its layer levelled system, destroying any viruses and firewalls you encounter.


Gameplay - The gameplay is evenly balanced with graphics and sound to allow an experience using three of your senses (touch, sight and hearing).  You have a square reticule which you hold down the shoot button and then sweep over enemy viruses and firewalls, before letting go to shoot off a series of missiles (which are unlimited) to destroy them.
You can shoot off 8 missiles at a time before you let go and aim again.  To progress through the game and unlock more areas, you must find a small rainbow-coloured glass cube (yes it DOES sound gay but just ignore that), which is the network opening that appears within a level, so shoot it once to release it from its security guard (the password protector), and then shoot it eight more times to progress into another deeper section of the area.  Each area has up to ten "levels" which you must progress through to unlock another area.

Regardless of how many levels you manage to unlock, you then face the main firewall, the "boss" of the area, which require a little bit of tactic dealing with by alternating of shooting down missiles aimed at you as well as hitting the boss.  You are not invincible, and viruses can shoot missiles at you to destroy you.  As an A.I, you have five levels of evolution, which range from a single sphere, to a human-looking shape that becomes more and more complex by levelling up, until you reach the fifth level as something like a neutron.  If you are damaged while in your most basic state, then you are destroyed and its game over.  You level up by aiming at blue items that level up a bar, collecting enough to evolve into the next state.
You also have an overdrive option, by collecting red items which then allow you to automatically eradicate all enemies on the screen for a short amount of time, which is good for when you're outnumbered.
Another excellent thing of the game, is the sheer amount of unlockable things, involving playing the game in radically different colour schemes, extra lost levels, time attack and boss mode, which allows a good amount of replay time for those who aren't photosensitive or easily suffer from epilepsies.


Graphics - The second of the third most important things in the game, is the sight, the visual experience.  The levels are based off of historical time periods that give you an overwhelming sense of wonder.  When you destroy enemies, you are rewarded with an interesting swirl of colours to enhance your experience a little, almost like you're diving into a painting in progress with each splatter of colour being something from an artist's paintbrush (which was inspired by the modern Russian artist Kandinsky, as SEGA have said).
When you play this, it feels different every time yet it is really all the same, progressing through an area and shooting enemies down with each one giving a colourful explosion before your eyes.  Of course, since this is the most vivid feature of the game, it is also prone to put people who have photoepileptic seizures more at risk.  So make sure you are not more prone to it than others if you wanna play this game.  if you are, then don't try it for the sake of your health.  We all piss over those warnings in the manuals but this game has the means to do it.  But then, it IS an awesome game, so go ahead and lemme know how you go if you're not frothing.

Music/Sound - I made a mistake.  THIS part is the most vivid feature of the game.  Every area has its own overlaying soundtrack (each one a real piece of techno/electronic by a real musician), which at first is very simple.  But as you progress into the next level after level, the music becomes more and more complex and complete, enhancing the audial experience while playing.  Another great feature, is that every enemy you destroy makes a small sound sounding similar to the music, allowing you to almost make a remix of the music by a good sense of rhythm and timing by shooting of enemies.
Not only that, but every evolutionary form you have has its own noise when shooting missiles, which if you play it right, can create a wonderfully rich experience by the varying levels of sounds and rhythm.  Even if you have no rhythm or musical talent, the game is still fun to play as there is some automatic input on the timing of the sounds with the music.  The only downside, is that since the music is central to the experience of the game, deaf gamers won't enjoy it so much as nothing but a game of pretty colours and near-addictive shooting.  Might as well try anyway and if any deaf gamers out there like it, lemme know how it went.


This was a game that was meant to be defined as synaesthetic (meaning the confusion of senses in the brain when you hear colours or touch sounds, which is a real medical condition), and it is the closest videogame out there that has managed to do so.  A game that enriches experience of the ears and eyes together into a sweetening blend of imagery that is still enjoyable to play.  The only way you cannot enjoy this game, is that you are either fully deaf, blind (but then I don't think blind people could enjoy ANY videogame but I'd be happy to be proven wrong) or you suffer from photosensitive epilepsy.

Fun and Innovation - 4
Replayability - 5
Gameplay - 3
Presentation - 4

Trance Vibrator FTW.

Yikes.....

The powerbox fucking machine, If I remember correctly.