The ‘Original’ Spectacle of Visuals and Music

Short, but Sweet

An Experience Worthy of Experiencing

Rez Infinite is the first game to ever make me consider buying a VR headset. Whether that’s praise for the game or a burn for VR, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it’s great even without it. However, it’s probably fair to say that the newly crafted Unreal-Engine-based portion (Area X) that was added in this release is the thing I’d most want to experience with that fully 3D perspective. While both the original game and Area X are great, the original game and its extra modes make up the bulk of what is generally fairly limited overall gameplay.Ok, so maybe Rez wasn’t the first game to embrace the idea of gameplay that combined visuals and music, but it certainly did it in unique way that even today has few comparative titles. At its core it’s a simple rail shooter that has you moving a cursor around the screen to lock on to enemies and their weak points (up to eight at a time) and firing off projectiles to take them out. The thing that set it apart from similarly designed arcade rail shooters was a powerful onslaught of colors and designs in a sort of graffiti style as you flew by. This combined with the seemingly magical way that your shots would synchronize with the game’s purpose-made soundtrack to make an experience that was completely unlike anything out there at the time on the Dreamcast or Playstation 2.After the initial re-release of the game in HD on the Xbox 360, it finally came to PC with the addition of the aforementioned “Area X” added. This version has all of the original gameplay with higher resolutions and 3D audio. Area X uses the some of the same mechanics from the original game such as locking on to enemies with a cursor to fire off shots, but differs by removing the rails and allowing the player to move forward and backward at will while steering and aiming the character. This presents a very distinct feel in the gameplay (that is hampered by the odd default controls) which gives a clear impression that you are playing something new, but still feels well within the Rez universe. On top of that, the massive leap in visuals and the addition of heavily layered backing songs made for some downright jaw dropping moments of visual and auditory grandeur.Since the core game of Rez has only five main levels, it’s possible, if not probable, that you will finish the main part of the game in under a couple of hours. In addition, much of the game was very easy, especially when using the mouse as your controls as I don’t believe it was designed for such dexterity. It can feel particularly disappointing given the $25 base price tag. However, Rez does have a number of challenge-based unlocks and some additional items that you can do after beating the game. It even has high score options for each level that you can compare with other players and your friends on the scoreboard. The difficulty does also ramp up toward the end (perhaps to its detriment) as the last level is much longer when including the final boss fight with its many stages. I’ve read that this may be a result of the game’s hidden dynamic difficulty system, but since it’s hidden I can’t really say if anything was actually different.It’s difficult to describe Rez Infinite as anything more or less than just a raw “experience.” For all that I got out of it playing on my regular ol’ 2D monitor, I believe I’d get ten times more trying it out in VR. Just sitting a few feet from my screen with my headphones on, I was still completely engrossed in the visuals and the musical interaction – even without a (probably awkward) secondary controller to make use of the game’s “Trance Vibrator” functionality that is supposed to vibrate with the beat of the music. I can only imagine how intense the full experience would be in VR. Yet, without even seeing it in VR, I have to recommend this based solely on what I *could* do, and to me it seemed well worth it from start to finish. But without a doubt if you have the VR equipment available, this is a must-buy to make use of that investment. I will say that the price does seem a bit high for the amount of content even including the extra stuff and replayability though, so I also suggest getting Rez Infinite on sale since it’s already coming down in price fairly regularly.If you'd like to see more of my reviews, check out my curator page here: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28346672-Endyo-Gaming/