Rez

by Sega

Product Features

• A fast moving, wire-frame adventure backed by industrial beats.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005ULXM
• Item Weight: 8 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: January 8, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,847 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk

Rez is a stylish blend of the film Tron and the arcade classic Space Harrier. Your character continually flies forward while enemies unleash a barrage of attacks. You can dispatch your enemies 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 colors 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 more-sophisticated forms--too many hits, though, and you regress to a basic spheroid shape. Red power-ups will fill your overdrive gauge (smart bomb to you and me) and will eliminate everything onscreen. Another nice touch is added by the synchronization of the thumping techno beats of the soundtrack with the rumble pack.

Rez won't appeal to everyone's tastes: it may be too abstract and the action may be too relaxed for some. The game offers only five levels, but you can unlock a myriad of different modes, views, and colors to enhance a title that despite being short is certainly not short of replay value. Rez is as superb to watch as it is to play. --Jonathan Winter

Product Description

This is the game Rez for the Playstation 2. This game may not come with the original case and instructions. We stand by our products and offer a 60 day guarantee. If a game does not work within 60 days from the time you receive it we will gladly exchange it for you.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the facts, ma'am., January 15, 2002

By 

D. K. Malone (earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rez (Video Game)

Someone else has already done an extensive review, so I just thought I'd share some interesting trivia and minutiae about Rez...

This game was originally unveiled in May 2001 under the code name "K Project." No explanation of this title was given. Now, upon finishing the game and watching all of the credits roll, finally we learn what the K stands for: "K Project- Dedicated to the creative spirit of Kandinsky." (Something to that effect, anyway.) Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was a painter who is generally regarded as the father of "abstract/modern art." Kandinsky claimed that he heard sound when he saw colors. When senses overlap in this manner, it is called "synaesthesia." Much of Kandinsky's work revolved around this. He often described and titled his own work in musical terms. This is very much the basis of Rez. Sight and sound comingle to form a whole. Rez's tag line is, in fact, "Go to Synaethesia."

Many will note the similarity between the play mechanics of Rez and the first two Panzer Dragoon games; using a cursor to lock on to multiple targets, and then firing at them all simultaneously. Well, there's a very good reason for this similarity: supposedly there are no less than seven former members of Team Andromeda on Rez's staff. Team Andromeda was the developer behind the Panzer Dragoon series.

The entire game is clearly influenced by the 1982 movie Tron. Aside from the obvious visual similarities, (get a load of the 3rd level boss... it's worth millions of our man-years!) both the movie and the game are about someone being sucked into a computer system and fighting their way through it. I'm quite sure that the title "Rez" itself is a direct reference to Tron. If you look up "de-rezz" in a dictionary, you'll find that this word was originally coined by the writer/s of Tron. It's short for "deresolve". When a program was "killed," it was de-rezzed. It was an allusion to an image on a computer monitor losing it's resolution and disappearing. When you play Rez, you'll see exactly why the opposite of "de-rezz" is a perfect title for it.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Open Your Senses....., December 12, 2001

By 

flaviolius (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rez (Video Game)

Once in a while a game comes along that serves a purpose beyond just entertainment. It stands as an example of human creativity, merging with technology to produce a synthetic world that's nothing less than astounding. Rez is an amazing creation that stands apart from other games due to its perfectly created virtual world.

I have the Japanese PS2 import, and it's developed by United Game Artists, a division of Sega. Rez is at its core a simple on-the-rails shooter, in the vein of Panzer Dragoon, Space Harrier, and Omega Boost. You move your character up/down/right/left as the terrain unfolds in front of you. You've got a lock-on firing weapon and an ''overdrive'' (i.e. a smart bomb), and that's it. Simple enough....

...but the setup is where the ordinary stops. Your character is invading a computer to try and stop....something. You dive through wire-framed landscapes, as enemies appear above, below, behind, and in front of you. The environments are beautifully done - they remind me of the classic film Tron, or what William Gibson must have envisioned when writing Neuromancer. They succeed in making you believe you're inside a giant computer. The enemies come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, including giant unfolding flowers and a lightbeam-riding vehicle that resembles the Tron Lightcycle. As you lock-on and destroy them, different power-ups emerge: red nets you an overdrive (you can hold up to four at once) and blue evolves your character into some pretty incredible-looking forms. Travel through the layers successfully and you'll reach a boss - the battles are often long and multi-formed, reminding me of Radiant Silvergun. Beat the boss and you open new areas. The game is a magnificent visual creation, effectively enfolding you in an alien world.

You can't talk about Rez without mentioning the audio. Much has been made of how you contribute to the soundtrack via your actions on-screen, and this feature has been implemented perfectly. The soundtrack to each layer consists of techno/house/ambient beats, and each lock-on, firing, and enemy explosion adds its own note or sound to the musical track. It never sounds muddled or messy, but is a wonderful addition to the gameplay. You can try to create your own song as the landscapes whiz by, or can simply play the game - the extra audio can be as much or as little a feature as you want. I must also mention that some of the tracks are wonderful just by themselves. There is also a Travelling Mode that is cool to just sit back and watch.

Hard-core shooter fans will be disappointed at the game's relative ease, but Rez is much more than just a simple shooter, despite its rails-shooter roots. It delivers an experience that few games deliver - complete immersion in an alternate reality. Rez's synthetic universe will stay with you long after you put down the controller, and you will look forward to your next visit. The visuals are augmented by the audio perfectly, and vice-versa. There are also many secrets to unlock, providing high replay value - and some of the secrets are very rewarding. Rez is only for a single player, but sometimes the best games concentrate on only one. It's the kind of game that can't be defined by a single genre, but ends up being a unique title that every gamer should experience.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Save Her, Who Is Still Trapped In The System, May 1, 2004

By 

Christian H. Kim (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rez (Video Game)

I wrote a review previoiusly for this game, giving 5 STARS despite of its relatively short length, simply because I thoroughly enjoyed it. It has been few years, and I felt like playing it again after midnight; and it's 2:20 right now. Gosh, I just can't help but to come back here again to tell you how incredible, overwhelming, nostalgic, wonderful,... I don't think any of these adjectives does justice for this needless-to-say masterpiece. I consider only two games in my life as something almost divine; Ico and Rez.

The main reason I'm writing this review AGAIN is to warn those who finished game with only first 4 areas. Yes, it's true that you can finish this game and get the ending with 4 areas. However, if you are putting this game away after that, then you are making a big mistake here. I did exactly same thing, putting it away after finishing first 4 areas, which was nevertheless exhilarating experience.

MAKE SURE TO UNLOCK THE LAST AREA, WHICH HAS TO BE THE MOST AWE-INSPIRING PART OF THE GAME, PERIOD.

I know that this game costs alot these days, however, it's worth your money especially for those who want to 'experience', not just to play video games (Dreamcast version is also available). I get soaked with this strange feeling (after finishing all 5 areas straight), which I get time to time when it triggers the human's basic intrinsic questioning of its existence; who am I? where did I come from? Why am I here? Seriously, this is no video game; its existence is beyond that. You can't help but to be immersed into the world of Rez, the world of synesthesia.

save her, who is still trapped in the system.

please.