Rez!

Sam

I've been aware of this since the game girl advance thing but never got to try it out till now. I'm floored; its doesn't seem like something that came out 7 or 8 years ago.
here's the thing though: when I'm playing I feel like I'm intuitive grasping something except I can't quite stay in the trance. Any tips on how to enjoy it more fully?

NerfThatMan

Headphones always helped me, as well as being in a dark room and sitting in a vertical, yet comfortable position parallel (vertically) to my screen.

The_Scarab

Too many trance vibrator jokes. Just too many.

Vincent Grayson

Sam wrote: »

I've been aware of this since the game girl advance thing but never got to try it out till now. I'm floored; its doesn't seem like something that came out 7 or 8 years ago.
here's the thing though: when I'm playing I feel like I'm intuitive grasping something except I can't quite stay in the trance. Any tips on how to enjoy it more fully?

Drugs.

Barring that, a quality surround setup and a dark room.

Raiden333

It mind sound like a silly subtle thing, but if you start nodding your head and tapping your toes with the beat, it really helps, especially when you need to keep up a constant 8 shot rhythm, like against bosses.

Bogart

I think it was the fourth boss that ended up making it pretty much my favourite game ever. And then the whole of level five. Up till then it was obvious that this was a great game and that the music, visuals and rhythmical feedback of the controller combined in a way I'd never seen before, but that boss just sealed it.

desperaterobots

I downloaded the demo on XBLA and, yeah, having trouble seeing what everyone has been yappin' about. Is the demo a poor representation of the whole game?

Drunk_caterpillar

I remember that I had heard about Rez way back when, and decided that it was the thing for me. I bought it from Play-Asia the next day along with a vibrator pack, then played it from start to finish in one night. The way I enjoyed it was by myself, at night, with a well configured and loud stereo system hooked up in a room with fantastic acoustics. My favourite playthrough since then was on a digital projector in a movie theatre with a certified Dolby sound system, all set up for a crowd. I went through the whole game, start to finish, while they enjoyed the music and visuals. It was epic.

P.S. The cover art I made for myself.

Vincent Grayson

desperaterobots wrote: »

I downloaded the demo on XBLA and, yeah, having trouble seeing what everyone has been yappin' about. Is the demo a poor representation of the whole game?

The first level is probably the weakest, in terms of the visuals, the music, and the actual level/boss.

Level 5 (the final one) is probably one of the best levels ever, seriously.

Viscountalpha

The_Scarab wrote: »

Too many trance vibrator jokes. Just too many.

I think those jokes are worn out, much like any trance vibrator out there now

So horrible, I couldn't resist though

desperaterobots

So how long is the game? The demo reminded me of a more repetitive, lower-fi, more baffling version of that dragon oorta dreamcast game (is that what it was called?)

Funguy McAids

I want to play Rez again so bad.

I live in China and there are sellers of "PS2 gamez" everywhere, but their cardboard boxes never seem to contain Rez.

I have looked so many times only to bet let down and cry a little in disappointment.

Funguy McAids

Viscountalpha wrote: »

The_Scarab wrote: »

Too many trance vibrator jokes. Just too many.

I think those jokes are worn out, much like any trance vibrator out there now

So horrible, I couldn't resist though

Sometimes trance vibrators are worn in!

Bogart

desperaterobots wrote: »

So how long is the game? The demo reminded me of a more repetitive, lower-fi, more baffling version of that dragon oorta dreamcast game (is that what it was called?)

Five levels. One extra bonus level, a boss rush mode, a direct assault mode (all five levels in a continuous playthrough) and a hi-score mode. The length of the game is really in how many times you replay the levels, which will depend on how much you enjoyed them in the first place. YMMV.

I think Rez's length was the subject of a PA comic ages ago where Gabe states that 'ok, it only lasted an hour, but it was the best hour of my life'.

Vincent Grayson

desperaterobots wrote: »

So how long is the game? The demo reminded me of a more repetitive, lower-fi, more baffling version of that dragon oorta dreamcast game (is that what it was called?)

Takes about an hour give or take to play through from start to finish. In the various times I've owned the game, I've probably invested over 100 hours in it though...it really just never gets old.

SteevL

I loved this game on the PS2, so it's little surprise that it was one of the first XBLA games I bought when I got my 360 in June. I've been slowly working on getting all the achievements. All I have left to do is Trance Hacker and Power Breaker.

I like playing level 4 with my cat in the room. When I get to the boss, there's this sampled guitar sound that starts playing about 1/3rd into it which puts her in super-alert mode. She starts looking all around the room for the sound's origin.

desperaterobots wrote: »

So how long is the game? The demo reminded me of a more repetitive, lower-fi, more baffling version of that dragon oorta dreamcast game (is that what it was called?)

Yeah, the full game is pretty short. I'd say if you didn't get into it based on the first level, you probably wouldn't like the rest of the game either. It's not for everyone.

PatboyX

This game always reminds me of Vib-Ribbon (I think.)
A game I have only ever seen video of. Will I ever have the chance to play it?

edit: I guess there is a flash version

http://www.vib-ribbon.com/#

Wait maybe not. I don't know what the hell is going on on this site.

LewieP

Love.


Love this game.

Lunker

I used to think the whole Trance Vibrator thing was nonsense, or some kind of wacky "lol japan" kind of thing, but in the XBLA version you have the option of setting other controllers as trance vibrators, so I decided to give it a shot. I was wearing a hoodie, so I placed the second controller in the hood along my back. It makes the game roughly three times as cool, and the game's pretty fuckin' cool in the first place. Any add-on controllers have different vibration patterns than the controller you're playing with, so imagine stereo force feedback—it's heavenly.

I don't have a good 5.1 setup at my house so I vastly prefer playing with headphones. Dim the lights, grab a second controller, slap on some headphones and you'll lose yourself for an hour or so. I think my fastest time for Direct Assault (running through the game beginning to end, no interruptions) is maybe 48 minutes, but since I've played it dozens of times over it's lasted me quite a long time.

desperaterobots wrote:

I downloaded the demo on XBLA and, yeah, having trouble seeing what everyone has been yappin' about. Is the demo a poor representation of the whole game?

I think if it hasn't hooked you by the first level, you probably might not dig the game, but it seriously does get better with each level. Area 5 is about the length of the first four areas combined and is just ... ethereal to behold.

It's not a game for everyone, but I gush about it every chance I get.

Step back and look at the game as a musical and mathematical composition. Everything revolves around "8," and that's the most you can lock onto at once. Enemy waves spawn in twos, fours and eights. Most enemies require an even number of shots to take down, so two enemies together with four lock-on's each make 8 total. If you have one enemy that requires 8 shots to take down, locking on all 8 at once and then firing will sound a lot different than if you lock-on quickly and then fire eight different times. Eight is two bars of 4/4 trance music, thumping bass on the downbeats and hi-hats snapping quickly. I love diving through the game and trying to seek out these patterns, or just screwing with them to see how things sound different each time.

I could go on and on about why I love it, but ... well, here's a wankerous article I wrote for a website way back when on why I love Rez so much:

To really get down to the game's core, understand that the game was codenamed "K-Project," inspired by the works of Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky and the concept of synesthesia. To paraphrase, synesthesia is the blending of senses -- the ability to hear colors or see sounds. With that in mind, the reason Rez is so mindblowing is because it takes that concept and writes it large, using the strength of video gaming as a medium -- namely, interactivity -- to craft an experience that gives you a tightly knit mass of interwoven senses. It's difficult to isolate what makes the game the way it is, because the entire point is that everything is connected.

Every single action you take has an aural counterpart, quantized and locked to the constant backbeat driving you forward. The tap of a button to lock-on is a high-hat cymbal; dragging across enemies, more high-hat strikes; and the release, a sequence of synth hits that match up perfectly to the rhythm. But you control it all: All of the sounds change based on the level and evolution form you're in, meaning that there's a different sonic tapestry at every moment and for every time you sit down to play the game.

Trance is the perfect musical genre to tie this game's experience to, because the key to trance is layering. It's repetitive, monotonous and driving ... after a while, the simple backbeat settles under your skin and you're barely conscious of it. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... the continual thump of a bass kicker rattling your ear. But then extra layers of rhythm start falling into place -- a snare snap every two measures on the fourth beat, cymbal hits on the 2 and the 4, a sparse set of synthesizer chords looping in constant cycles. You follow one line of sound while staying dimly aware of all the other lines, and your mind flips back and forth between layers at any point. Eventually, you have a massive hydra of sound with all these little heads of lines intertwining.

Shorthand: It's about evolution.

In the game, each area is loosely split into 10 individual subsections, and at the end of each zone you fire on a swirling-cube key to open and unlock the next subsection. At the beginning of the level, the background beat is sparse and minimal, but as you progress through each subsection, the backbeat swells and grows -- the slow burn of musical buildup that's the hallmark of trance music -- until you've made it to the level's boss and the full backing track is surging around you. Each transition to the next subsection is met with a drum build and percussive release, too, so you can sense the forward motion of the music. Even the game's enemies adhere to musical themes: Trance (and most music in general) is based on a 4/4 pattern, meaning four beats per measure ("cycle") of sound. And as you float through the computer mainframe, enemies often come in waves of 2, 4 or 8 -- numbers that psychologically fit well within the four-beat structure of sound. You subconsciously begin searching out those number patterns within the enemy waves, a game within a game.

And Rez's wireframe, Tron-like visuals pulsate with the beat of the music and grow grander and more elaborate as you pass through each of the area's subsections. You start with a sparse, blank canvas and end up with an elaborately detailed replica of an Egyptian temple -- and you watch it all grow from nothing and take shape right in front of you as your thumping avatar careens through space.

Shorthand: Also about evolution.

And Rez is also one of the few games that could warrant an entire paragraph for its use of force feedback! Rumble is crucial to the entire experience: the various motors in the PS2 Dualshock spin to amazing degrees here, and it's amazing how much variety can come from the controller. By the end of a level, you feel the heavy thumping of the bass drum in your hand with each downbeat, you sense the left-right alternation of a kicker swaying side to side -- and then the sudden numbness of no rumble at all when the beat drops and the level ends. The tactile experience merges with the audio experience and the visual experience to swirl everything together to the point where you can't tell what's what. You end up feeling the audio and hearing the sights ... which is kind of the point.

I've mentioned a few times that the storyline and mechanics of the game are pretty forgettable, but the general plot pushes the player in the general area of what the game is supposed to invoke: a sense of awakening. Growth. Evolution. (To put it in shorthand.) Everything from the slow buildup of the music to the gradually increasing thumps in your hand to the undulating, climbing visuals -- and the capstone of it all, the epic fifth area, where (and this is only mildly spoileriffic) you literally witness a fly-by recap of the entire evolution cycle of life on Earth. At the end, after you've fought in the final boss encounter to slowly restore the female AI's human-like form, piece by piece, an ultimate climax, the culmination of all of the game's difficulty, sights and sounds screaming past you as you stand firm amid the chaos and hammer away at the final target --

Resolution comes. It pours down from the sky in bright, major chords. An explosive, triumphant celebration -- a resolution, like the tension of a sustained V chord brought down to the I. The rumbling in your hands cuts short, the flickering of the screen caves to streaming white light and the constant, unwavering, driving backbeat suddenly drops out, leaving you to soar.

It's this emotional, sensory experience that thrills me every single time I play through the game. And it's this visceral journey that reminds me why I game in the first place. /L

DarkPrimus

PatboyX wrote: »

This game always reminds me of Vib-Ribbon (I think.)
A game I have only ever seen video of. Will I ever have the chance to play it?

The game was never released in the United States.

NickTheNewbie

I got the ps2 version of this game for my 18th birthday, shortly after it came out.

AlphaTwo

Bought this game late in PS2 at a Microplay for $70 dollars, then bought it first day on XBLA.

This game doesn't necessery need the 5.1, IMO, but it REQUIRES and DEMANDS cranking it up, and with the subwoofer cranked up too.

Strifer

I had a chance to play the original DC version, and it is mindblowing how awesome this game is. I guess I will have to finally buy that 360 for Rez HD.

projectmayhem

I enjoyed it

Bought it for 20, sold it for 80, got it again on live for like 10. Well done to me.

desc

I think you can pretty much determine whether this is the game for you based on a simple, one-question quiz.

1. Do you like drugs?

A. Yes.

B. No.


Check your results here:

A = buy the game.
B = don't buy the game.

LewieP

Not true, my straight edge (at the time) friend loves it.

Lunker

LewieP wrote: »

Not true, my straight edge (at the time) friend loves it.

The whole drug angle is a bit played out; I'm 100 percent clean and I love the game.

That said, a friend of mine watched me play about 20 minutes of Trance Mission on the PS2 version and afterward told me that was the highest he had ever gotten without any outside assistance.

Strifer wrote:

I had a chance to play the original DC version, and it is mindblowing how awesome this game is. I guess I will have to finally buy that 360 for Rez HD.

I don't know if Rez HD by itself is worth it* but the whole of XBLA is pretty fucking solid. And if you are a Rez fan the game is inarguably the definitive version: Beautiful clean widescreen 720p graphics, 5.1 sound, additional audio/visual filters you can put on the game at any point (sepia toning, bloom, etc.), being able to use up to three extra controllers as trance vibrators, and you even have the original untouched un-HD version of Rez as an option, if you ever choose to go back to it.



*It probably is.

Strifer

Lunker wrote: »

Strifer wrote:

I had a chance to play the original DC version, and it is mindblowing how awesome this game is. I guess I will have to finally buy that 360 for Rez HD.

I don't know if Rez HD by itself is worth it* but the whole of XBLA is pretty fucking solid. And if you are a Rez fan the game is inarguably the definitive version: Beautiful clean widescreen 720p graphics, 5.1 sound, additional audio/visual filters you can put on the game at any point (sepia toning, bloom, etc.), being able to use up to three extra controllers as trance vibrators, and you even have the original untouched un-HD version of Rez as an option, if you ever choose to go back to it.



*It probably is.

Lately, I've been an arcade junkie. I'd be willing to drop money on 360 for XBLA, though I have a hard time justifying retail games since they're so expensive.

There is a shooter called Hell Sinker. If you love gaming, you should play this game - it's either the best thing about shmups or the new best thing about shmups. It's mindblowing how much thought went into this game.

Arikado

I never got to really play Rez before buying it from XBLA, mainly due to the lack of a Dreamcast and such.

I totally don't regret buying Rez HD though. Looked great on my CRT tv and looks even better now that I have an HDTV.

RandomEngy

Get Rez HD and turn the sound way up. Having a giant projected screen helps too.

Though if you simply don't like the music, this is not the game for you.

RainbowDespair

My only problem with Rez HD is that the last level is so much better than all of the other levels combined. Honestly, I thought levels 1-4 were pretty average, but level 5 is one of the best gaming experiences of all time.

The game is still totally worth it for that one awesome level though.

Renzo

RezHD is probably the best version. The game isn't ALL about the visuals, but a crisper image doesn't hurt things.

To stay in the trance easier, here's what works for me. Make sure you're sitting down on something comfortable. I have a recliner, and I recline the hell out of it and make sure my head is supported. Use as many extra controllers as possible and surround yourself with them. Chest, arms, stomach, legs, crotch, whatever works for you. Turn off the lights, turn up the sound or use headphones, and enjoy.

Viscountalpha

RainbowDespair wrote: »

My only problem with Rez HD is that the last level is so much better than all of the other levels combined. Honestly, I thought levels 1-4 were pretty average, but level 5 is one of the best gaming experiences of all time.

The game is still totally worth it for that one awesome level though.

The last level drives me kind of nuts though "Fear is the mind killer" gets really old, really quickly. Yes, I know its a dune reference and I'm pretty certain frank herbert had a bit too much spice melange if you know what I mean.
(the spice must flowww)

This game keeps bringing me back though. There is nothing else out there like rez.

Local H Jay

rez is really great sober, like listening to the beatles for the first time


rez is fucking awesome when intoxicated, like watching alice in wonderland after shooting pcp into your eyeballs.

UnbreakableVow

Rez is a great-looking game, and great-sounding.

Playing the game, however, is simply not that much fun.

Viscountalpha

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Rez is a great-looking game, and great-sounding.

Playing the game, however, is simply not that much fun.

It might of been a different experience if it wasn't on the rails. Maybe make it more like a ghost in the shell hack-in where your not instantly forced to take the analyzation cubes.

Farout Foolio

desc wrote: »

I think you can pretty much determine whether this is the game for you based on a simple, one-question quiz.

1. Do you like drugs?

A. Yes.

B. No.


Check your results here:

A = buy the game.
B = buy the game.

FTFY

Man, I haven't played this in forever!!
Being a smelly, unwashed non-xbox owner, I have been shuffling
this mortal coil searching for a ps2 copy. Thinking about ebay at this point.

DeathPrawn

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Rez is a great-looking game, and great-sounding.

Playing the game, however, is simply not that much fun.

I wouldn't consider Rez a "game" that you "play". It's more akin to an interactive art piece, like something you'd see in a contemporary art museum, that just happens to include elements of the on-rails shooter genre.

UnbreakableVow

DeathPrawn wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Rez is a great-looking game, and great-sounding.

Playing the game, however, is simply not that much fun.

(Needless "games as art" masturbation)

No, it's a fucking game. Sorry.

RainbowDespair

If you want a good rail shooter, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Star Fox 64, or Sin & Punishment are all vastly superior options, but as an experience, Rez HD is fantastic.

Lunker

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

DeathPrawn wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Rez is a great-looking game, and great-sounding.

Playing the game, however, is simply not that much fun.

(Needless "games as art" masturbation)

No, it's a fucking game. Sorry.

I think any game that includes an invincible god mode as one of the main menu options ("Just to chill out and enjoy the view," or however the game describes it) and the really wacky endless Trance Mission shows that it's not really about "beating the game."

Regardless, I love playing the game—for its game mechanics just as much as for the Needless Games As Art Masturbation you dislike. There's a lot of scoring mechanic tricks that I totally didn't even know about until the XBLA version, which lets you toggle an option to show how many points each shot of yours is worth. Taking down one enemy is 1x10 points, locking on to two enemies at once and firing is worth 2x20 points, and so on. And if you like the music, I can't see how playing the game isn't fun—you're controlling the music, and you feel it thump back and forth in your hands.