Product Description

Rez, the action shooter brought to you by Tetsuya Mizuguchi (the talent behind Space Channel 5 and Sega Rally), is a fast-moving, wire-frame adventure backed by industrial beats. The story of Rez takes you deep into the world's computer network, which has recently been updated to handle the overload of information brought by the rapid expansion of the information age. The core of the new network is known as Eden, an extremely advanced artificial intelligence. But problems begin when Eden becomes self-aware and suffers a breakdown. You must take control of the network while you maniacally search for Eden to bring it back online. The network was built to keep intruders out at all costs, so you'll have to fight off enemies from all sides. To reach the system's core, you'll need to shoot your way through each area and take out its specific firewall (boss) to wipe out that part of the system. By hacking the system, you'll alter the visual output and even take over the music, creating your own rhythms and eye-candy as you dig deeper into the dream-like cyber world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21667 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Sega
• Released on: 2002-01-11
• Platform: Sega Dreamcast

Amazon.co.uk Review
Rez is a stylish blend of the film Tron and the arcade classic Space Harrier. Your character continually flies forward while being attacked by a barrage of enemies that can be despatched by targeting them and unleashing guided laser beams. Each explosion triggers a sound--destroy a chain of up to eight and the resulting notes blend seamlessly with the background music. The sedate pace soon picks up, making the game a constant riot of light and sound.

Graphically, Rez is gorgeous. Wire-frame cities, valleys and pyramids rise up as you pass and colours melt all over the screen as you dispose of your opponents. End of level bosses are ingeniously designed and jaw-dropping. Blue power-ups can help evolve your character from the simple humanoid you begin with to various more sophisticated forms--too many hits though and you regress to a basic spheroid shape. Red power ups fill up your overdrive gauge (smart-bomb to you and me), which will eliminate everything on screen. Another nice touch is added by the synchronisation of the thumping techno beats of the soundtrack with the rumbling of the controller.

Rez isn't going to be to everyone's taste: it may be too abstract and the action may be too relaxed for some. There are only five levels but you can unlock a myriad of different modes, views and colours to enhance a game that despite being short is certainly not short of replay value. It is as superb to watch as it is to play. --Jonathan Winter

Manufacturer's Description
Rez is the first game of its kind, a unique shooting title that blends exhilarating quickfire gameplay with mesmerising graphics and the most inventive use of sound in a video game ever. Fly through cyberspace and become hypnotised by an intoxicating mix of shooting action, musical creation and spellbinding graphics, as you venture to the core of Eden, a vast computer system with a conscience. Destroy the viruses and firewalls that inhabit the sub-systems to discover the truth behind the birth of humanity. Witness the evolution of your character as you progress deeper into the complex mainframe, in an unforgettable and entrancing experience from Sega.

Customer Reviews

This game is amazing, you should believed the hype...
... had there been any! But the DC is pretty much a forgotten console nowadays, which is a shame because it still kicks booty.

The game is not particularly easy, the levels themselves are but the bosses are quite tricky even with the Overdrive bombs.

As has been mentioned before you have 8 lock-on lasers and a number of Overdrive bombs which last about 5 seconds and will destroy all targets that appear on screen during this time (very much like Panzer Dragoon - an old game on the Saturn). Save them for the bosses or if you're going for that 100% shot down percentage during a tricky bit.

The whole game reminds me of Tron, the style and graphics ooze class, they might be very minimalist with barely shaded in vector graphics for the most part (hence the reference to Tron) but they ooze class. Your character and the entire level all throb and vibrate to the beat of the music track playing and you can add your own melody by locking onto enemies and destroying them.

The character you control in the game is a projection of a hacker trying to find an AI program called Eden that shut itself down when it became self-aware, this character developes as the game progresses through picking up bonus items dropped by shot enemies. Blue items to evolve your character, red to get more Overdrive bombs.

You character can take 6 forms, the lowest (level zero) being a throbbing disco ball, I've never seen level five as the highest I got was level four which is a bloke sitting inside a globe, which throbs. Basically the higher your characters level the more hits it can take before it's game over.

No continues in this game!

I'd recommend level 2 as this character strikes a pose before every level. :)

The music is excellent, sort of mellow-ish trance for the most part and excellent pumping beats when the situation calls for them.

This game is class, no doubts about it. You won't be disappointed if you buy it.

A small piece of genius
This game is incredible, there is little other way to describe it.

The music is some of the best on any video game, but unlike most music it isnt merely an audio track being played back, its dynamically changed as you play, the template for the music is set, but the beat noticably changes when you replay levels and do better/worse, or jus play around shooting the enemies in different ways/quantities.

Anyone who played the Panzer Dragoon games will be well used to the control system. Basically it is just a case of holding the 'A' button and moving the target over an enemy to lock-on, then releasing the button to launch a missile. You can have up to 8 simultaneous lock-on's, this may sound simplistic but you will appreciate the simplicity of it when trying to shoot the hordes of enemies and trying to get a 100% shoot down ratio for the level.

The graphics on this game are fantastic, it is constructed of wire frame, flat shaded polygons and cel-shaded polygons all in vibrant neon colours, if none of that made sense to you basically its Tron on a major dose of some mind warping drug, the entire level pulses with the beat of the music, the music is controlled by the game and as such all are interlinked and just draw you into the game.

If you have difficulty getting hold of this game for DC, firstly try sega-europe's official game store, they are the best source, if not then get the PS2 version, there's no difference in the versions, though im told the PS2 version looks slightly rougher on some occasions due to lack of hardware anti-aliasing (shame on you sony).

This is an awesome game and the DC version is likely to become something of a collectors piece due to Sega not printing that many copies for the UK (and no release at all in US, meaning you can sell this title for ALOT of cash on US auction sites)

TRON the videogame
As an old school gamer from the days of Vector graphics, this is the best thing ever. There are times when it clicks and you can understand just what the Japanese developers UGA were trying to achieve. You play a hacker traversing the depths of cyberspace, infiltrating firewalls (bosses) and destroying viruses. The extended end boss sequence where you get to free Eden is incredibly beautiful. It may sound bizarre but if you've read Neuromancer you'll know where this game is coming from. It's the perfect combination of colour movement and sound. The nearest gaming equivalent is T2K on the Jaguar.
Sadly, this will be one of the last DC games to be released in the UK but it's also one of the best. The PS2 version is supposed to be slicker but I've no complaints with DC Rez. If anything it's testament to how competent the DC hardware is and how it can still provide state of the art gaming, even in its death throws.