Last week put a focus on the soundtrack from Jet Grind Radio, which channeled the style and format of a mixed tape for inspiration, and at first glance this week’s game seems to take a page from the same book, but is actually fundamentally different in its execution with Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s seminal rhythm-shooter hybrid, Rez.
When looking at Jet Grind and Rez within a comparative capacity, you’ll notice both employ licensed music throughout gameplay in addition to how each manage to seamlessly blend their respective audio and visual aesthetics into a cohesive whole. Despite sharing some of the same core game design philosophies, the final products don’t have much in common. Jet Grind placed an emphasis on goal-oriented objectives and exploration, where as Rez is what would qualify as a “high concept” game that seems quite deliberate in making the player keenly aware of this fact.
Upon releasing Rez, and especially when justifying the trans-vibrator attachment, game director Tetsuya Mizuguchi made it clear that the game design and peripherals were designed with inducing a state of synesthesia in mind. Synesthesia, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is the state in which you start to utilize different senses to experience a given situation, ie, seeing sounds or hearing colors. There are typical game conventions that can be seen throughout (health, bombs, aiming), but the only real goal in Rez is to finish; simplicity through design perfected.
"Rez is an experience, a fusion of light, vibration and sound completely immersed in synesthesia." - Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Essential to creating the intended experience is the direct interaction between the player and the music, which is created through the game’s unique shooting mechanic. Similar to on-rail shooters like Panzer Dragoon, Rez fixes the player perspective but allows free aiming of a reticule to shoot oncoming obstacles and enemies. Unlike other games in the genre, Rez puts a limit to the number of projectiles that can be shot in one go, where in you hold down the fire button and can assign up to eight shots per combo. Once the fire button is released, your shots land in rhythmic accordance with the song playing in the background, further adding to the player created soundscape. This added rhythmic component to the shooting adds extra incentive to learn enemy positions and attack patterns for maximum combos, as well as dramatically different sounding music.
The music heard throughout each of the five core levels all fall somewhere in the nebulous trance genre. It would be a misnomer to pigeon hole the soundtrack as trance because of the way each play through is dynamic and variable. Although it is kind of lessening the impact of what Rez achieves through it’s ambitious design, when you boil it down to it’s core, the game acts like an interactive synthesizer by giving the player direct control of a number of samples to be unleashed at their discretion. The tracks are few in number, but each is deliberately tailored for its respective level, with Fear by Adam Freeland (Area 5) easily the most impressive and immediately engrossing.
The best part of Rez? You can go and buy it right now on XBLA or, as I would personally recommend, as part of the Qubed Q? Entertainment collection.
The Wall of Sound Playlist
Protocol Rain – Mist
Fear (Rez Edit) – Adam Freeland
Popularity: unranked [?]
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