After 15 years, there's finally more Rez. And it's in VR.
Rez Infinite, the (ahem) up-rezzed version of Tetsuya Mizuguchi's cult classic that came to PlayStation 4 last year, is a launch title for PlayStation VR. Don't panic, you can play the entire game outside of VR when it arrives next month. But Rez. In VR. Yes, please.
*Rez, *which Sega released in 2001, is a light and sound show of a shooter. You "paint" enemies with your cursor and unleash a fusillade, which lands to the beat of a trance soundtrack. The action unfolds like a musical score, building from silence to a symphony. The game is short, but so compelling that people still adore it 15 years later.
I've always loved Rez and was excited to play "Area X," a single level that recreates the original games' essential elements. It eschews the vector-style laser lines and hard edges of the original in favor of particle effects, creating something more complex in composition but clean in appearance. The gameplay mirrors the aesthetic. *Rez *had you speeding through tunnel-shaped areas as if on rails, but Area X lets you float freely in a gorgeous 3-D space.
In short: It's more Rez. Finally.
https://youtu.be/KAPyCH4FlwU
"You're free," says Mizuguchi, whose new company Enhance Games is releasing Rez Infinite. He expects newcomers to feel little need to wander through the gamespace, but grow more adventurous in their exploration in time. In VR, moving around is no harder than looking at where you want to go, and pressing controller buttons to accelerate or slow down. "We did many tests," Mizuguchi says of the control scheme. "We were anxious about VR sickness. Rez Infinite should be a feel-good game."
