Rez for the Playstation 2 and XBox

I have noticed a significant difference between the games of today and the games of yesteryear. The lack of creativity stands out the most, with minor exceptions such as Little Big Planet and, er, Little Big Planet 2 due out next year. By the way, when I say yesteryear, I am referring also to the Playstation 2. Nothing touches the supreme variety of the games on Playstation 2, nothing.

I mean, look at Ico. Okami. Amplitude (now the Rock Band franchise) and Frequency. Just a couple off the top of my head. Oh, well there is one more. Its called Rez.

Rez is, in all fairness, an acquired taste. It struck out to the people who wanted to engage themselves in not really a game, but an experience. This experience is called Synesthesia. The visuals are one thing, but the sound is absolutely integral to the whole thing. For one who is musically minded, this game suited me right down to the ground.

When I first saw it, I did think “Oh mighty, what the hell is this?”. It doesn’t take long to get drawn in due its simplistic controls and visually stunning effects, and once your in – addiction kicks in.

Allow me to explain the game in short – you are a computer virus killer who goes into a big supercomputer called Project K which is about to cave in on itself if the virus is not killed. You press X to lock onto targets, release X to kill. You can perform multiple kills in one shot, and collect power ups to evolve into further levels. Big boss at the end of each level, even bigger boss at the end. Pretty simple. It first came out on the PS2 and Dreamcast, with an HD version out on the XBox some years after.

For a game to still give me shivers down my spine every time I play it, this really has stood the test of time. I would even go as far to say as this is one of my all time favourites.

Now, you may expect me at this stage to say “So where are all the original games nowadays?”. Well, I was almost going to do that. And I’d be right in asking that question. However, there is a sequel to Rez on its way, called Child of Eden. Taking advantage of the Playstation Move controller, this should be one hell of a game. Keep an eye out next March for it!

Image taken from here – a message to the owner of this site, I hope it was ok to use this, there aren’t many image search results I could find on the game!