Play Rez
Author of this post: Amy Jones | About Blog Authors »
On my personal scale video game art and the impressiveness of its implementation are easily rated. I’ll tell you now that it is a personal scale—not anything based in numbers or calculations and yet I believe it is relevant. The scale is not based on intrinsic artistic value because I do not believe my own evaluation to be the ultimate assessment of artistic worth. I’m pretty simple: the artistic value of a game is better judged by how many people I show the game to because I think that they will be impressed by it. This goes for double points when I start to share games with people who don’t care about video games one iota.
This all came about by downloading and playing Rez recently. I’ve shown my mother different Zeldas, demonstrated Rez for hippie coworkers from Whole Foods and inflicted roommates with Katamari. Yes, when I get excited about a game in general, but about the art of a game specifically then I start to share it with the world. (Luckily my husband finds my excitement endearing and not irritating. I am a very lucky woman.) Art in a game compared with stylization and game mechanic can be a very powerful combination and the fact that a team of workers can coordinate the orchestration is not only a fact, but pretty impressive.
In that sort of ‘train of thought’ if you consider the whole of video games an art form then you’d take the example of ‘The Thinker’ and instead of one individual creating it… well, imagine how it would come about if it was made by 120 people and the effect it might have on the final piece of work. I think it must become a huge challenge to adhere to/maintain an artistic vision while working in development- but every now and again it occurs. One such title, which will forever haunt me with its memorable levels, beautiful styling and overall art direction, is the aforementioned: Rez.
This beloved title came from Sega and was created by United Game Artists and is in part the game child of Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Lumines, Meteos and Every Extended Extra). The first time I saw Rez it was at an acquaintance’s house in college. We were all hanging out and playing cards and there was one guy there pretty much ignoring everyone else (it’s what he was good at) and playing his Dreamcast. It was the premier console at the time but was just beginning to fade and certain titles were becoming more difficult to find. Rez just happened to be one of them.
You have to laugh (ok, at least smirk) at my well-intentioned conversation that went something like this:
Me: “Hey, what are you playing? I really like the music…”
Him: “It’s called Rez.”
Me: “Yeah? It’s on the Dreamcast?”
Him: “Uh, yeah. You won’t be able to find it though. It’s also on the Playstation 2 but they are really rare. I called my guy a Circuit City to find a copy. I got the last one so you’re out of luck.”
Me: “That’s great. Thanks.”
Despite being irritating he was, of course, correct. After a short shelf life Rez became impossible to find with the exception of Ebay and disappeared almost entirely from retail outlets. I was so impressed with the stylistic and unique interpretation of a rail shooter I thought about it over the next few months and mentioned to a friend of mine who would go to Japan quite frequently that I would love a copy of the game. He was always going to TGS on business, had/has a huge heart and was compassionate to my being stuck on the wrong side of the United States, at least in terms of import games. So to my surprise and fantastic luck I wound up with the special package Japanese version of Rez and a Sakura Pink Japanese PS2 to play it on.
And so began my experience with the video game implementation of synesthesia or “sensation” — a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one cognitive pathway leads to simultaneous and involuntary experiences in a cognitive pathway. Rez attempts to fire up own neurons by combining sight, touch, and auditory senses through its design. Achieving synesthesia is a pretty lofty goal for a game and if Rez falls any bit short of actually giving a synesthesic experience it makes up for it in an amazing feat of art direction.
As for the nuts and bolts, I’ve already stated Rez is a rail shooter that in and of itself… well, that’s not a new concept. You have no control over your movement, you get power ups and fight bosses. The reason an artist should pick up Rez relies on how developers immerse players in the world of Eden with the visual and audio depth of seemingly simplistic levels. The entire game is set to trance music that is intertwined seamlessly with sound effects taken from the music itself. The resulting effect is akin to creating your own beats and results in unique music that progresses with the level/action of the game. Another connecting gesture is reflected again in the cultural theme of each level (Indian, Sumerian, Chinese, etc). Stylistically you really get a feel for each distinct area of the game and the unrivaled experience it creates through art direction.
There’s a very good reason why Rez stands out from the crowd and that is because it takes a solid design, pairs it with stimulating visuals and sounds and then tells a compelling and simple story:
“The game is set in futuristic computer “supernetwork” called the K-project where much of the data flow is controlled by an AI named Eden. Eden has become overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge gathered on the network, causing her to doubt her existence and enter a shutdown sequence, which would create catastrophic problems everywhere should she be able to complete this. The player plays the protagonist hacker, logging into the K-project system to reboot Eden while destroying any viruses or firewalls that happen to inhibit progress, and analyzing other sub-areas of the network to gain access to Eden’s location.”
-wikipedia
All the mandatory women’s studies classes I took in college aside—I really like rescuing the princess. In fact, it’s an age-old story I really enjoy. So what if it’s a digitized motherboard maiden who needs help? I’m just fine with hacking my way to her rescue through a beautiful tangle of immersive graphics amidst explosions of sound and color. Rez is one of the earlier games that incorporates dynamic difficulty so the game automatically adjusts its setting to the skill of the player- so no matter how good you are at shooters you can enjoy this game. I would like to think that art directors and designers alike were so proud of the experience that they created that they enabled players to complete the game at their own level and enjoy it. I’ve not seen too many other games accomplish this feat so seamlessly aside from Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune.
At its heart Rez is a completely solid game—in a marriage of artistic direction and design- that was created to play in sequence or casually as your mood dictates. One of the joys of owning Rez is its replayability. (I may have played through it about 20 times myself but I am something of a score perfectionist.) In the essence of the art itself it is always visually gorgeous and relaxing to watch the ‘landscape’. There is even a built in ‘travel mode’ which allows you to enjoy the visuals without worrying about trivial things like your score or dying… or any other negative consequences of not paying strict attention to your game.
So, you see, there’s really no reason for you to not try the demo. Even if you’re just looking to waste a few minutes, I can promise you that it’ll be a stimulating art experience that may change your outlook on how complex art ideals can be incorporated into a very basic game concept. Luckily you don’t have to import it as earlier this year Rez was released on the 360 Arcade for download. This GDC award winning title is now available to the masses again. Lucky us—it’s even in HD but that’s not what makes it a good investment in your arcade collection.
This is a game you simply own for the art of it.
