An incredible experience. The music, the gameplay and the visuals all come together to offer a playthrough like no other. Even if you dont like the game, at least you will walk out hacing discovered its soundtrack.
Rez is a very deceiving game, for the aesthetic alone you can believe that is a relaxing and easy game, then you play it and learn how chaotic and intense it is, which can let to a lot of frustrations (Specially for the vague tutorials), but then you try again and is not so bad, specially because if you know what to do, there's a lot of "Threats" that you can simply ignore. So at the end of the day this game lives or dies for your patience/interest in the concept, and that's why I can understand this being a masterpiece to some, while being nothing more than a frustrating and pretentious experience to others. For me? It was fun, but I don't plan to play it again haha
sooo fucking good dude like actually near perfect. super funky in every way. pure funk. i eish so badly my first experience with rez was while being high. such perfect balance in both difficulty and audiovisual it really is just One Of Those Games
i made damn sure this was my first VR game and boy what a first impression. i was thinking ''this must be the chemical you get before you die'' yeah honestly felt like my brain was warped into this. too bad i bought it on my cousins VR otherwise i wouldve beaten it a while ago. cant play standard rez without the headset now lmao
I'm not one to call a game perfect, there's always something that could be improved to make it just right. But Rez is perfect.
It accomplishes what it set out to do. It's an art piece, an audio and visual spectacle, a skillful shooter. It was all of these things when it came out 20 years ago and Infinite adds more. It's somehow like this game was made for VR, before VR was anywhere near what it is today. And Area X is something to behold.
All of that aside, the core five areas of Rez are unforgettable, weaving you through a story that says so much while barely saying anything at all. All while providing a rhythmic on rails shooter that's all killer and no filler.
I could go on singing this games praises for eternity, and I'm sure I will, but it's best experienced yourself. Find some headphones, dim the lights, grab your controller.
Welcome to Synaesthesia.
It accomplishes what it set out to do. It's an art piece, an audio and visual spectacle, a skillful shooter. It was all of these things when it came out 20 years ago and Infinite adds more. It's somehow like this game was made for VR, before VR was anywhere near what it is today. And Area X is something to behold.
All of that aside, the core five areas of Rez are unforgettable, weaving you through a story that says so much while barely saying anything at all. All while providing a rhythmic on rails shooter that's all killer and no filler.
I could go on singing this games praises for eternity, and I'm sure I will, but it's best experienced yourself. Find some headphones, dim the lights, grab your controller.
Welcome to Synaesthesia.
holy fuck augh all three of my videogame interacting senses just exploded everywhere and it felt so good i can see the vision of synesthesia (vr version is insanely good)
whoa
Basically Rez with VR and a really cool level that expands on the primary idea pretty well, in between the original and Child Of Eden, also this game hasn't even aged, so take that
Rez has always been an impossibly beautiful experience, but it's reached heights previously unheard of in VR. A transcendent way to play one of the greatest video games of all time.
The way this game has enemies that are just non-antagonistic is wild. And the way it messes with perspective having big enemies in the background and small enemies in the foreground and rewarding shooting things far away is such an inverse on the rail shooter mentality of things being far away being harder to hit and not a threat.
That and just the mere act of interpreting the shapes as antagonistic is flexing a brain muscle nothing else in the entire world has ever done.
I also played this high, the way God intended, so I don't even know what I'm talking about right now.
That and just the mere act of interpreting the shapes as antagonistic is flexing a brain muscle nothing else in the entire world has ever done.
I also played this high, the way God intended, so I don't even know what I'm talking about right now.
this felt built for VR, kinda hard to believe it wasn't meant to be experienced this way
either way, good game
either way, good game
feel like I just snorted all the drugs at once
This HD remake of the PS2/DC classic Rez breathes some new life into a very old gem, however the update only harms its own image due to simple design mistakes and the enhancements that only highlight those mistakes further.
The PS2 controller made targeting slow and the game was intentionally timed to the slow pace at which you could target enemies. This meant the sound fx and visuals tied to targeting and shooting were all in sync with the music - that's at the core of the Rez experience. However the massively improved VR controls make targeting and shooting VERY fast. As a result all the sound effects and visuals play at once in a cacophony, the enemies die, and then you have a long 4 - 8 beat stretch of nothing as the backing track plods along, waiting for new enemies to spawn.
What makes this worse is that the graphic updates end up being largely absent. Enemies filled the middle ground of the scene, captured your attention, and were the source of many particles, effects, the music, and animation - but since they all die quickly you're often left staring at the sky box with nothing happening. Then looking around in VR during these wait periods you can see how empty and simple the levels are because the HD parts are in the effects not the environments.
This all becomes especially noticeable in Area 5 when you demolish a mini boss and you're left sitting for 2-3 minutes floating through a desolate low-poly void with half the song missing. It feels like the game is broken. They should either have put a limit on the speed at which you can lock-on to enemies (matching to the BPM of the track), added more enemies to match the faster pace of this version, or filled the spaces with stuff to interact with so you can trigger the SFX/VFX where the music and visual upgrades are hiding.
No new player is going to know that the game is -meant- to be synced to the music and even if they try it is entirely out of sync with itself. This aspect demolishes the intended audio/visual experience which is the point of the entire game. It's very sad to consider how stunning Child of Eden was when it took advantage of the expanded memory, gpu, and peripherals it had available, and it goes to show how much potential has been squandered here. This would have been obvious if it had been properly play tested.
To add salt to the wound, Area X (the new VR part of the game made for Infinite) failed to work on my Quest 2. I couldn't target anything so I just couldn't play that at all (I hear it's basically just 1 extra 15 min level anyway). Truly disappointing in every way.
The PS2 controller made targeting slow and the game was intentionally timed to the slow pace at which you could target enemies. This meant the sound fx and visuals tied to targeting and shooting were all in sync with the music - that's at the core of the Rez experience. However the massively improved VR controls make targeting and shooting VERY fast. As a result all the sound effects and visuals play at once in a cacophony, the enemies die, and then you have a long 4 - 8 beat stretch of nothing as the backing track plods along, waiting for new enemies to spawn.
What makes this worse is that the graphic updates end up being largely absent. Enemies filled the middle ground of the scene, captured your attention, and were the source of many particles, effects, the music, and animation - but since they all die quickly you're often left staring at the sky box with nothing happening. Then looking around in VR during these wait periods you can see how empty and simple the levels are because the HD parts are in the effects not the environments.
This all becomes especially noticeable in Area 5 when you demolish a mini boss and you're left sitting for 2-3 minutes floating through a desolate low-poly void with half the song missing. It feels like the game is broken. They should either have put a limit on the speed at which you can lock-on to enemies (matching to the BPM of the track), added more enemies to match the faster pace of this version, or filled the spaces with stuff to interact with so you can trigger the SFX/VFX where the music and visual upgrades are hiding.
No new player is going to know that the game is -meant- to be synced to the music and even if they try it is entirely out of sync with itself. This aspect demolishes the intended audio/visual experience which is the point of the entire game. It's very sad to consider how stunning Child of Eden was when it took advantage of the expanded memory, gpu, and peripherals it had available, and it goes to show how much potential has been squandered here. This would have been obvious if it had been properly play tested.
To add salt to the wound, Area X (the new VR part of the game made for Infinite) failed to work on my Quest 2. I couldn't target anything so I just couldn't play that at all (I hear it's basically just 1 extra 15 min level anyway). Truly disappointing in every way.
not my type of game but I can see the appeal, I didn't play this in VR so it could also be very different in VR, but yea on KBM I didn't enjoy it. Still try it though, could be your cup o' tea, not mine though.
Rez is one of the only games that one can truly say was made ahead of it's time, and that's mainly due to the fact that every new piece of technology the game is ported to makes it that much better. Seriously, having played the game back on the PS2 playing this with a VR headset is a genuine transcendental experience. It's like how this game was always designed to be played.
The thing is, it WASN'T designed to be played that way though. Tetsuya "The Miz" Mizuguchi, as cool as he is, probably didn't see the rise of consumer grade headsets decades after his game released, and if he did base his design on somehow knowing that he would've been insane (that would be like packaging a vibrator with your game...). It DOES however speak to the absolute Rock Solid strength of his unified design ethos here. Taking Synesthesia as the main point of where every design choice flows from, you can see this in every aspect of how the games plays. You flow through the levels, vibing to the pulsing electronic music as you hover your cursor effortlessly over enemies that you dispatch with equal ease as you release a button. The visuals and music throb and pound and almost ache with every action you take or don't take, because it's actually like jazz you see, only if a supercomputer tripping on LSD was the rest of the ensemble and it was still perfectly comping your solo.
The stages are great enough but the boss battles are the highlights of the show and easily showcase every design decision at their best, with Stage 4's being the best of the bunch. Rock Is Sponge blasting, the drums absolutely hammering as you fly down a twisting hallway while that shifting mass of cubes flies, and then runs, past you is unforgettable. Area 5 as a whole, also, deserves special mention for it's pitch perfect ending to the game, which somehow latches on basically the entire plot and some theming to the game and wraps it up in some absolutely incredible music and visuals that makes it all work. If you actually play that level perfectly and are in The Zone and you do not come out Transformed (or at least somewhat emotionally effected), I don't know what to say to you.
The simple fact that Area X exists proves how forward thinking the design of Rez initially was all those years ago. Here's a completely new level made just for Infinite, that took everything "The Miz" and his friends learned in the interim time and it absolutely shows. Perfectly tuned for VR but still incredible without it, Area X is a minor miracle with lush visuals and music that is in every way an evolution of Rez. Rez on it's own was good enough, but the addition of Area X in Infinite simply solidifies this as one of the best video games of all time (in my humble opinion, of course).
The thing is, it WASN'T designed to be played that way though. Tetsuya "The Miz" Mizuguchi, as cool as he is, probably didn't see the rise of consumer grade headsets decades after his game released, and if he did base his design on somehow knowing that he would've been insane (that would be like packaging a vibrator with your game...). It DOES however speak to the absolute Rock Solid strength of his unified design ethos here. Taking Synesthesia as the main point of where every design choice flows from, you can see this in every aspect of how the games plays. You flow through the levels, vibing to the pulsing electronic music as you hover your cursor effortlessly over enemies that you dispatch with equal ease as you release a button. The visuals and music throb and pound and almost ache with every action you take or don't take, because it's actually like jazz you see, only if a supercomputer tripping on LSD was the rest of the ensemble and it was still perfectly comping your solo.
The stages are great enough but the boss battles are the highlights of the show and easily showcase every design decision at their best, with Stage 4's being the best of the bunch. Rock Is Sponge blasting, the drums absolutely hammering as you fly down a twisting hallway while that shifting mass of cubes flies, and then runs, past you is unforgettable. Area 5 as a whole, also, deserves special mention for it's pitch perfect ending to the game, which somehow latches on basically the entire plot and some theming to the game and wraps it up in some absolutely incredible music and visuals that makes it all work. If you actually play that level perfectly and are in The Zone and you do not come out Transformed (or at least somewhat emotionally effected), I don't know what to say to you.
The simple fact that Area X exists proves how forward thinking the design of Rez initially was all those years ago. Here's a completely new level made just for Infinite, that took everything "The Miz" and his friends learned in the interim time and it absolutely shows. Perfectly tuned for VR but still incredible without it, Area X is a minor miracle with lush visuals and music that is in every way an evolution of Rez. Rez on it's own was good enough, but the addition of Area X in Infinite simply solidifies this as one of the best video games of all time (in my humble opinion, of course).
I’m not much for an on-rail shooter, but this one has the pedigree that made it worth a try. It wasn’t enough to change my taste, though I had fun for its brief runtime.
That was fun.
So I had learned a dev that worked on Panzer Dragoon (1995) had worked on this, and that this was a 3d shooter aswell by Sega so I checked out because of course I would from learning all that and yeah it's a good game.
Sure I didn't get the good ending but Area 5 is pretty damn hard so maybe next time.
So I had learned a dev that worked on Panzer Dragoon (1995) had worked on this, and that this was a 3d shooter aswell by Sega so I checked out because of course I would from learning all that and yeah it's a good game.
Sure I didn't get the good ending but Area 5 is pretty damn hard so maybe next time.
WHERE IS MY DIGITAL INTERCONNECTED FUTURE!?
they've done well in keeping the original trip and Area X separated because i can't for the life of me figure out what they were trying to do with the latter; "baby sensorial videos" type beat.
if you want a more successful attempt at "Rez goes pop", go play Child of Eden (however you can). if you want to see these devs accomplish a coherent vision with particle effects, check out Tetris Effect.
if you want a more successful attempt at "Rez goes pop", go play Child of Eden (however you can). if you want to see these devs accomplish a coherent vision with particle effects, check out Tetris Effect.
y2k on drugs
Area X might be the most beautiful thing i've ever seen
Area X might be the most beautiful thing i've ever seen
Rez Infinite is a profoundly beautiful game with some weird issues that took away from the overall experience. I love looking and hearing it. The weird turn of the millennium minimalist art style is arresting and instantly iconic. I especially enjoyed Act 1, 3 and 5. The initial level was great because it was the first time that I ever saw Rez, the third because it was the like moving through the inside of The Matrix and the final level because it was a real departure from the other acts with how bleak and strange it all was. There is also a huge scope to Rez that was really appreciated. The levels seem to stretch out infinitely from every direction and a lot of the enemies are huge. But the real showstoppers - as they should be - are the bosses. You shoot at gargantuan techno monstrosities that can take up the entire screen. It was very impressive and actually unexpected.
I also love the music. Now I have played a lot of Tetris Effect so I kind of know what style Mizuguchi goes for but Rez has a harder, more IDM edge to it that I really appreciated. And the way it combines with the graphics to create this wild pulsating synesthesia-esque experience.
Area X is everything I just described and then some. Sure it is one level so it makes sense that the developers would pore everything into it but boy, playing that was something else. The visuals take a real bump up in fidelity and particle effects to the point where it can be a bit difficult to discern what the hell is going on, but it wasn't a problem. The music as well is fantastic, with the final moments feeling almost transcendental. An excellent and worthwhile addition to an already very cool and stylish game.
I've spent all this time on the style and graphics because, quite frankly, the gameplay isn't a highlight. If you have played Panzar Dragoon then it is like that albeit easier. You move your cursor over enemies and shoot them before they shoot you, or shoot their bullets. If you chain your shots well enough, I think, you get upgrades that allow you to take more hits and/or wipe the screen of enemies. It is serviceable and using a mouse makes it a breeze.
My one issue with the game is that there are some weirdly quiet moments that made me think there was an issue with it. Every time you finish a level, it goes dead silent as your score pops up and it showcases what you've unlocked. For a game filled with amazing music, it is super jarring. But other than that, I can't really fault the game. Sure it is short but much longer and it would get boring.
I hope they get a chance to make Rez 2.
I also love the music. Now I have played a lot of Tetris Effect so I kind of know what style Mizuguchi goes for but Rez has a harder, more IDM edge to it that I really appreciated. And the way it combines with the graphics to create this wild pulsating synesthesia-esque experience.
Area X is everything I just described and then some. Sure it is one level so it makes sense that the developers would pore everything into it but boy, playing that was something else. The visuals take a real bump up in fidelity and particle effects to the point where it can be a bit difficult to discern what the hell is going on, but it wasn't a problem. The music as well is fantastic, with the final moments feeling almost transcendental. An excellent and worthwhile addition to an already very cool and stylish game.
I've spent all this time on the style and graphics because, quite frankly, the gameplay isn't a highlight. If you have played Panzar Dragoon then it is like that albeit easier. You move your cursor over enemies and shoot them before they shoot you, or shoot their bullets. If you chain your shots well enough, I think, you get upgrades that allow you to take more hits and/or wipe the screen of enemies. It is serviceable and using a mouse makes it a breeze.
My one issue with the game is that there are some weirdly quiet moments that made me think there was an issue with it. Every time you finish a level, it goes dead silent as your score pops up and it showcases what you've unlocked. For a game filled with amazing music, it is super jarring. But other than that, I can't really fault the game. Sure it is short but much longer and it would get boring.
I hope they get a chance to make Rez 2.
Rez features an AI, Eden, who was created to fix civilization. However, instead of taking over and becoming a despotic God, it became overwhelmed and sheltered itself from the many paradoxes of humanity. The player's job is to save Eden and help it learn to accept its role for humanity. Rarely is the technology in a piece of sci-fi media benevolent, let alone mentally vulnerable. What makes this setup so intriguing is that the power still remains with the humans (or whatever is remaining of them). Humanity has a long history of pushing its problems onto whatever lowest common denominator is easiest to exploit. In Rez's world, it must have gotten so bad that it became easier to develop a supercomputer that can pretend to be a human than to face their problems. But emulating humanity means emulating its flaws.
The cyberspace traveled crashes architectural influences from all time and space together to create a fitting depiction of what the sum total of human history would look like if crammed into a single program. Likewise, the enemy types are similarly influenced by the actual look of human viruses and bacteria, adding a further level of humanity to the sickness Eden feels. The wireframe geometry evokes comparisons to works like 1982's Tron. The primitive recreation of familiar images give the player an insight into how Eden perceives the world. Furthermore, the player model evolves from a non-descript orb with few polygons into a smoothed out, humanoid seated in the Lotus position, showing that this story is not just about the rebirth of Eden, but of the evolution and transcendence of man.
Most discussion about Rez is fittingly about the game's use of quantized sound and synesthesia. Rez is undoubtedly an experience first and a game second, but this also contributes to the faceless protagonist's progression in relation to the player. The game is beautiful, but it took the duration of the first level for me to become in sync with with the audio-visual presentation. Though, when I achieved that state, I became in tune with how the music, visuals, and gameplay respond to each other, blurring sensory lines.
Overall, Rez is about ascension; ascending from fear, from life, and ascending from extinction. Director Tetsuya Mizuguchi raised himself to the status of auteur with his examination on technological and biological evolution through the lens of artificial intelligence. Eden breaks down when it is overwhelmed with information and the only way for it to ascend along with the player is when they are both in sensory synchronicity with each other, with the world and with the fate of all life.
The cyberspace traveled crashes architectural influences from all time and space together to create a fitting depiction of what the sum total of human history would look like if crammed into a single program. Likewise, the enemy types are similarly influenced by the actual look of human viruses and bacteria, adding a further level of humanity to the sickness Eden feels. The wireframe geometry evokes comparisons to works like 1982's Tron. The primitive recreation of familiar images give the player an insight into how Eden perceives the world. Furthermore, the player model evolves from a non-descript orb with few polygons into a smoothed out, humanoid seated in the Lotus position, showing that this story is not just about the rebirth of Eden, but of the evolution and transcendence of man.
Most discussion about Rez is fittingly about the game's use of quantized sound and synesthesia. Rez is undoubtedly an experience first and a game second, but this also contributes to the faceless protagonist's progression in relation to the player. The game is beautiful, but it took the duration of the first level for me to become in sync with with the audio-visual presentation. Though, when I achieved that state, I became in tune with how the music, visuals, and gameplay respond to each other, blurring sensory lines.
Overall, Rez is about ascension; ascending from fear, from life, and ascending from extinction. Director Tetsuya Mizuguchi raised himself to the status of auteur with his examination on technological and biological evolution through the lens of artificial intelligence. Eden breaks down when it is overwhelmed with information and the only way for it to ascend along with the player is when they are both in sensory synchronicity with each other, with the world and with the fate of all life.
Y porque no le puedo dar más.
This one's pretty hard to describe, but oh well.
A very unique shooter. Cool music, cool visuals, and I love the concept for the plot even though it is pretty barebones. I don't have the patience to get the best ending (I've got ending 2 and I'm satisfied with that), since the game has a pretty high, but fair, difficulty.
The boss sections were my favorite part of the game, they play and look awesome, especially the area 4 boss.
I had lots of fun, it's a great way to spend an evening, and I'm sure someone with more patience than me could get tons hours worth of fun from this, thanks to the score system and arcadey nature of the game.
However, the game just feels mind blowing to play, due to aesthetics, music, and atmosphere, and there really is no proper way to explain what makes it so unique. If you're curious, I think you should give it a shot.
Wasn't a huge fan of Area X and didn't beat that.
A very unique shooter. Cool music, cool visuals, and I love the concept for the plot even though it is pretty barebones. I don't have the patience to get the best ending (I've got ending 2 and I'm satisfied with that), since the game has a pretty high, but fair, difficulty.
The boss sections were my favorite part of the game, they play and look awesome, especially the area 4 boss.
I had lots of fun, it's a great way to spend an evening, and I'm sure someone with more patience than me could get tons hours worth of fun from this, thanks to the score system and arcadey nature of the game.
However, the game just feels mind blowing to play, due to aesthetics, music, and atmosphere, and there really is no proper way to explain what makes it so unique. If you're curious, I think you should give it a shot.
Wasn't a huge fan of Area X and didn't beat that.
Despite the frustrations I had with this game's sharp difficulty spike and checkpoint system (or lack thereof), I couldn't help but fall in love with this weird-ass, Dreamcast-ass, Y2K-ass game. Somehow both aged surprisingly gracefully and is a major product of its time. The Area X segment was also utterly sublime, and I want an entire game just like that yesterday, please and thank you.
The Lost Area can burn in hell, though.
The Lost Area can burn in hell, though.
can't believe I slept on this until now
This is the definitive way to play Rez, VR-enabled or otherwise. Rez is already a banger game that pushes the boundaries of the unification of video games and music in a stylish and fun way, so to basically have an HD version of that game with all the bells and whistles that it entails is very cool.
The real upgrade comes from the VR support, as Rez itself is already a rather trippy and immersive game so to have it completely surround your senses feels like an extension of the original vision. Only one minor problem hinders the experience for me: i can't really play this for long periods of time without feeling really bad. Rez is a pretty fast moving rail shooter, and it does spin around pretty frequently at times, so I usually can't play more than one level at a time before calling it quits for the day. Doesn't help that the aiming is most precise with the quick head tracking so you are constantly moving your head around in an already moving environment, it does me in real good.
This game also includes the new Area X mode which is a neat short bonus level that has a ton of the visual upgrades you'd expect from Rez on a modern platform. It's more free-moving though, likely to let the player control the pace in VR to not get super sick, but I still didn't feel that good playing it since turning around basically spins you in place with your head already sideways. blegh.
Overall I legally cannot hate it because it's rez but honestly I think playing this on a nice 4K OLED could be a bit more comfortable and cool than playing in VR.
The real upgrade comes from the VR support, as Rez itself is already a rather trippy and immersive game so to have it completely surround your senses feels like an extension of the original vision. Only one minor problem hinders the experience for me: i can't really play this for long periods of time without feeling really bad. Rez is a pretty fast moving rail shooter, and it does spin around pretty frequently at times, so I usually can't play more than one level at a time before calling it quits for the day. Doesn't help that the aiming is most precise with the quick head tracking so you are constantly moving your head around in an already moving environment, it does me in real good.
This game also includes the new Area X mode which is a neat short bonus level that has a ton of the visual upgrades you'd expect from Rez on a modern platform. It's more free-moving though, likely to let the player control the pace in VR to not get super sick, but I still didn't feel that good playing it since turning around basically spins you in place with your head already sideways. blegh.
Overall I legally cannot hate it because it's rez but honestly I think playing this on a nice 4K OLED could be a bit more comfortable and cool than playing in VR.
while i think Rez Infinite is a perfectly well made score attack game that i overall enjoyed, i also have a host of issues with it that i think will prevent me from replaying it in the future
i quite strongly dislike the aesthetic first of all, it's got like a computery wire-framey thing going on and it's incredibly boring on my opinion, none of the background elements stick out and all the enemies are just kinda shapes with an eye with like other shapes attached to them, they don't really have like a clear identity to me
this goes for the bosses as well like i can't really tell what they're supposed to be nor do i really care, i do quite like the guy that like turns himself into different stuff made out of blocks like a snake and a big robot guy but even this idea feels a little played out
the music generally was also quite weak or in some cases just straight up annoying, like the stage 2 boss which is very whiny or the stage 4 boss that sounds like a load of monkeys fixing cars like it's soooooo full of itself omg like academy award search party over here
it is cool that shooting stuff like adds to the song though it does make it feel more satisfying
the gameplay is generally quite solid but it also feels a little limiting, i haven't played the Panzer Dragoon games yet but i've watched a friend play through them and are familiar with how they work, and apparently a lot of people who worked on those games also worked on Rez and this is a sort of spiritual successor to those games
in Panzer Dragoon you're able to make quick 90° turns and this adds another layer of challenge as you need to be more aware of threats coming from all sides, making for more dynamic and engaging play
Rez has camera changes too but rather than putting the onus on the player to execute them they happen automatically, which is not only far less interesting to me, but in places where you have a full range of motion, usually in boss fights, you have to make these slowwwww sweeping turns behind you when the guy you're shooting at suddenly zips behind you, which is one of those things that just doesn't feel good
this rears it's head especially in the stage new to Rez Infinite, Area X, which is far more open which makes navigation feel even more clunky and tank-like, though they did add a useful option to move backwards as well which helps, i assume it feels much better in VR which it seems clearly designed for but normal mode is kinda rough, it also has a weird issue where you have to tap A again to start aiming at stuff again every time a new section starts, where normally just keeping A held down is enough, which was mildly annoying and also killed my family
as well as being able to turn quickly, Panzer Dragoon also had a minimap to help keep track of threats coming from all sides but Rez has no such thing so the only way to check for stuff off camera is just to slowly turn around like a dork, probably opening yourself up to more danger in the meantime
the challenge of the game is also like in this weird place where sometimes it's incredibly easy and it feels like nothing is fighting back, to suddenly a million tiny pieces of shit are right in front of you and you don't know how they got there and you take like seven hits and die instantly which is infuriating
i keep harping on about the bosses but i really don't like them like what are they even doing especially the first two like the first one periodically will just shoot at nothing like an idiot and the second one has this stupid attack where he just keeps making these walls that come for you really slowly and you have to shoot four bits on them and it's like the easiest shit in the world but he just keeps doing it, they improve a bit after that but even then they still feel like they take too long and are too repetitive without enough really going on in them, with some very awkward streches of just nothing happening
i've also had the stage 4 boss like weirdly rubber-band to me and instantly doing damage without any of the wind-up because i was like beating him too quickly or something
a lot of the stages don't really stand apart from one another for me but i think the final area is fantastic, it has a distinct look, really cool music in the background that keeps building and keeps getting cooler, and even a little story going on about the universe or something that i admittedly didn't really care about but it's well told since it's just a couple of sentences each in the transitions between sections with like a cool background change
the stage also demonstrates how to do a boss rush well by having the rematches be much shorter than their first encounters, but also having new attack patterns and movement, so they still resemble their first forms but they feel like new fights, rather than being boring padding like boss rushes usually are
the final boss is a bit dull though and getting interrupted to watch an unskippable cutscene of a woman being rebuilt over and over throughout it, even in score attack mode, feels like needless pomp and circumstance and a case of mixed up priorities, the story just struck me as one of those things that wants to be all up in your face looking like it's saying something really deep but not actually saying anything at all, but it's possible i could be being close minded about it though but either way it failed to engage me personally, and feels a bit at odds with an hour long rail shooter you're meant to replay a bunch
this review is just a collection of stuff i've written at like 3am which is just things i was thinking about while playing the game and i fear i sound overly negative and whiny, but i really did enjoy myself, building the highest combos you can and memorising enemy patterns is inherently satisfying to me, even in the more uneventful sections there's always some stuff to shoot so i was never like bored bored
i liked the game enough to get all the achievements and spent a good deal of time in score attack mode just trying to perfect the first couple of levels, this along with some cute extra modes and unlockables mean there's enough hear to keep me occupied for hundreds of hours probably, but unfortunately, all those little issues i brought up really added up for me over time and i could start to tell that i'd had my fill
i had my fun, but my hyperfixation lies elsewhere
i quite strongly dislike the aesthetic first of all, it's got like a computery wire-framey thing going on and it's incredibly boring on my opinion, none of the background elements stick out and all the enemies are just kinda shapes with an eye with like other shapes attached to them, they don't really have like a clear identity to me
this goes for the bosses as well like i can't really tell what they're supposed to be nor do i really care, i do quite like the guy that like turns himself into different stuff made out of blocks like a snake and a big robot guy but even this idea feels a little played out
the music generally was also quite weak or in some cases just straight up annoying, like the stage 2 boss which is very whiny or the stage 4 boss that sounds like a load of monkeys fixing cars like it's soooooo full of itself omg like academy award search party over here
it is cool that shooting stuff like adds to the song though it does make it feel more satisfying
the gameplay is generally quite solid but it also feels a little limiting, i haven't played the Panzer Dragoon games yet but i've watched a friend play through them and are familiar with how they work, and apparently a lot of people who worked on those games also worked on Rez and this is a sort of spiritual successor to those games
in Panzer Dragoon you're able to make quick 90° turns and this adds another layer of challenge as you need to be more aware of threats coming from all sides, making for more dynamic and engaging play
Rez has camera changes too but rather than putting the onus on the player to execute them they happen automatically, which is not only far less interesting to me, but in places where you have a full range of motion, usually in boss fights, you have to make these slowwwww sweeping turns behind you when the guy you're shooting at suddenly zips behind you, which is one of those things that just doesn't feel good
this rears it's head especially in the stage new to Rez Infinite, Area X, which is far more open which makes navigation feel even more clunky and tank-like, though they did add a useful option to move backwards as well which helps, i assume it feels much better in VR which it seems clearly designed for but normal mode is kinda rough, it also has a weird issue where you have to tap A again to start aiming at stuff again every time a new section starts, where normally just keeping A held down is enough, which was mildly annoying and also killed my family
as well as being able to turn quickly, Panzer Dragoon also had a minimap to help keep track of threats coming from all sides but Rez has no such thing so the only way to check for stuff off camera is just to slowly turn around like a dork, probably opening yourself up to more danger in the meantime
the challenge of the game is also like in this weird place where sometimes it's incredibly easy and it feels like nothing is fighting back, to suddenly a million tiny pieces of shit are right in front of you and you don't know how they got there and you take like seven hits and die instantly which is infuriating
i keep harping on about the bosses but i really don't like them like what are they even doing especially the first two like the first one periodically will just shoot at nothing like an idiot and the second one has this stupid attack where he just keeps making these walls that come for you really slowly and you have to shoot four bits on them and it's like the easiest shit in the world but he just keeps doing it, they improve a bit after that but even then they still feel like they take too long and are too repetitive without enough really going on in them, with some very awkward streches of just nothing happening
i've also had the stage 4 boss like weirdly rubber-band to me and instantly doing damage without any of the wind-up because i was like beating him too quickly or something
a lot of the stages don't really stand apart from one another for me but i think the final area is fantastic, it has a distinct look, really cool music in the background that keeps building and keeps getting cooler, and even a little story going on about the universe or something that i admittedly didn't really care about but it's well told since it's just a couple of sentences each in the transitions between sections with like a cool background change
the stage also demonstrates how to do a boss rush well by having the rematches be much shorter than their first encounters, but also having new attack patterns and movement, so they still resemble their first forms but they feel like new fights, rather than being boring padding like boss rushes usually are
the final boss is a bit dull though and getting interrupted to watch an unskippable cutscene of a woman being rebuilt over and over throughout it, even in score attack mode, feels like needless pomp and circumstance and a case of mixed up priorities, the story just struck me as one of those things that wants to be all up in your face looking like it's saying something really deep but not actually saying anything at all, but it's possible i could be being close minded about it though but either way it failed to engage me personally, and feels a bit at odds with an hour long rail shooter you're meant to replay a bunch
this review is just a collection of stuff i've written at like 3am which is just things i was thinking about while playing the game and i fear i sound overly negative and whiny, but i really did enjoy myself, building the highest combos you can and memorising enemy patterns is inherently satisfying to me, even in the more uneventful sections there's always some stuff to shoot so i was never like bored bored
i liked the game enough to get all the achievements and spent a good deal of time in score attack mode just trying to perfect the first couple of levels, this along with some cute extra modes and unlockables mean there's enough hear to keep me occupied for hundreds of hours probably, but unfortunately, all those little issues i brought up really added up for me over time and i could start to tell that i'd had my fill
i had my fun, but my hyperfixation lies elsewhere
This review contains spoilers
Top 3 VR experiences I'll ever have. Aiming with my head feels faster and more natural than controller.
The vibe is unreal.
This game rules. I have fun every time I replay it.
A true Arcade classic.
The final level is such a banger- a shame it bleeds into the final boss fight immediately after. I end up playing through area 5 and just quitting to menu right as the boss rush finale starts on replays. Area X is such a great addition and surprise. This goes beyond what a simple "HD remaster" usually brings.
The vibe is unreal.
This game rules. I have fun every time I replay it.
A true Arcade classic.
The final level is such a banger- a shame it bleeds into the final boss fight immediately after. I end up playing through area 5 and just quitting to menu right as the boss rush finale starts on replays. Area X is such a great addition and surprise. This goes beyond what a simple "HD remaster" usually brings.
I find it hard to believe that this game is as fantastic and fun to play as it is for how incredibly simple it is to play. For how abstract it's presentation is, it still manages to pull you in so successfully and completely that I didn't realize I was on the last stage of the game until I finished it.
Rez Infinite is a game that managed to impress me more and more as it went along, with every stage and boss fight somehow being even better than the previous in ways I can't honestly understand, but I know that all of it is damn good and this is definitely something everyone should play.
Rez Infinite is a game that managed to impress me more and more as it went along, with every stage and boss fight somehow being even better than the previous in ways I can't honestly understand, but I know that all of it is damn good and this is definitely something everyone should play.