Rez

For the Xbox 360 game, see Rez HD.

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Rez
System(s): Sega Dreamcast, PlayStation 2
Publisher: Sega Corporation (JP), Sega of America (US), Sega Europe (EU)
Developer: United Game Artists
Supporting companies: Wave Master (audio)
Distributor: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (Europe)
Peripherals supported: Dreamcast VGA Box, Jump Pack, Visual Memory Unit Trans Vibrator
Genre: Midnight High Shooting (ミッドナイトハイシューティング), Shooting
Number of players: 1
Official in-game languages: 日本語 English Français Deutsch Español Italiano
Release Date RRP Code JP 2001-11-22 ¥6,800 (7,140)6,800e HDR-0178 EU 2002-01-11 MK-51192-50 DE 2002-01-10 MK-51192-50 ES 2002-01-11 MK-51192-50 FR 2002-01-29 MK-51192-50 UK 2002-01-11 £29.9929.99 MK-51192-50 JP 2001-11-22 ¥6,800 (7,140)6,800 (7,140) SLPM-62101 JP (Special Package) 2001-11-22 ¥8,800 (9,240)8800e SLPM-62100 JP (The Best) 2003-07-10 ¥3,000 (3,150)3,000 (3,150) SLPM-74006 US 2002-01-07 SLUS-20344 EU 2002-02-22 SCES-50501 EU (Promo) 2002 SCES-50501 DE 2002-02-22 €119.00119.00 SCES-50501 ES 2002-02-22 SCES-50501 FR 2002-02-22 SCES-50501 UK 2002-02-22 SCES-50501 IT 2002 SCES-50501

Rez (レズ) is a rail shoot-'em-up video game developed by United Game Artists and initially released by Sega simultaneously for the Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 in 2001. It was conceptualized and produced by Tetsuya Mizuguchi and built by many former members of the disbanded Team Andromeda, the Sega development team behind the Panzer Dragoon series.

Mizuguchi's company, Q Entertainment, released a high definition version, Rez HD to the Xbox Live Arcade service in 2008.

Story

The game is set in futuristic computer "super network" called the K-project where much of the data flow is controlled by an AI named Eden. Eden has become overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge gathered on the network after a virus infects her, causing her to doubt her existence and enter a shutdown sequence, which would create catastrophic problems everywhere should she be able to complete this. The player plays the protagonist virus, Swayzak (the same that infected Eden earlier), invading Eden's mainframe and battling the mainframe's defense systems to reveal the true being at Eden's core.

The K-Project name and much of the game's visual and synesthesia inspiration comes from the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, whose name is mentioned at the very end of the game credits, whereas the Rez name was inspired by the Underworld track of the same name.

Gameplay

Rez is a rail shooter in which the player takes control of an onscreen avatar traveling along a predetermined path through the computer network. The player cannot affect his or her movement in any way. The player targets foes by holding a "lock-on" button while moving an aiming reticule over up to 8 enemies. Once the "lock-on" button is released, Swayzak fires shots that home in on each target. Failure to hit an enemy or projectile in time may cause a collision, which reduces Swayzak's current evolution level by one and changes his avatar's form. The game is over if Swayzak is hit while at his lowest possible level. At higher evolution levels, the avatar appears as a humanoid figure, while it appears as a simple sphere at the lowest level.

Some enemies drop power-up items when destroyed. Two different items enhance Swayzak's avatar by increasing his "evolution bar" by one and three points respectively. Another item enables Swayzak to trigger an "Overdrive", which releases a continuous shower of shots at all enemies on the screen for a short period of time. In some game modes, score bonus items also appear periodically.

The game consists of five main areas. The first four are divided into ten sub-sections and conclude with a boss battle. The final area contains a larger number of sections and a boss rush, in which the player must fight variations of the bosses from the first four areas. Swayzak then goes on to the network's core to restart Eden in a final boss battle.

The final area features a variable difficulty scale, depending on the player's performance in the first four areas. According to Sega, this system was employed to make the game more accessible to casual players, while also making it more challenging for experienced players, thus potentially increasing its replay value. In addition, completing all five levels unlocks alternate gameplay modes, color schemes and secret areas.

Unlike most games, Rez contains almost no sound effects or spoken dialogue. Instead, the game is set to trance music, which plays in the background and gradually evolves as Swayzak moves among sections. The music is enhanced by musical effects (such as trills and drums) generated by the player's actions, enemies and surroundings. Player actions are usually locked to the rhythm of the music, such that shots and hits against enemies occur exactly on each beat (as opposed to occurring in real time). Graphical elements such as the polygons that make up Swayzak's avatar, as well as background elements, also "beat" in time with the music. In reference to these coordinated effects, Sega focused its marketing of Rez primarily on the game's qualities of "synesthesia", the association of different senses and stimuli with one another.

History

The game is notable for replacing the typical sound effects found in most rail shooter games with electronic music, with sounds and melodies created by the player as they target and destroy foes in the game, leading to a form of synesthesia, enhanced by an optional Trance Vibrator peripheral made by ASCII. Although Rez was critically acclaimed, it did not get much commercial attention, particularly in the United States where a Dreamcast port failed to surface. Working titles for the game were K-Project, Project Eden, and Vibes, and before it was given a proper name, The Sound Project.

Versions

On the Dreamcast, Rez runs at a full 640x480 resolution at 30FPS, while on the PlayStation 2, the game opts for an interlaced mode, doubling its frame rate at the expense of graphical fidelity.

Both versions have been superseded since the rights moved from Sega; the 2008 Xbox 360 release of Rez HD brought the game up to 720p with a 60FPS target, and the 2016 PlayStation 4 release of Rez Infinite brought the visuals to 4K with virtual reality headset support. A 2017 PC conversion of Infinite supports up to 16K resolutions at higher frame rates, among various other graphical options.

Production credits

Main article: Rez/Production credits.

Magazine articles

Main article: Rez/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

PlayStation 2 version

PDF

SCEE press release

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #151: "February 2002" (2002-01-08)

Print advert in MAN!AC (DE) #2002-04: "04/2002" (2002-03-06)

CZ print advert

Artwork

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  US cover

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Gallery

Official photographs

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Physical scans

Dreamcast version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score 100% Consoles (FR) PAL 40 576 Konzol (HU) 90 Bonus (YU) 93 Dreamcast Magazine (UK) PAL 82 Dorimaga (JP) NTSC-J 90 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 77 PSX Extreme (PL) NTSC-U 87

	80
Based on 7 reviews

Rez

Dreamcast, JP
Cover
Disc Manual

Dreamcast, EU
Cover
Disc File:Rez-DC-EU-Manual.pdf Manual

PlayStation 2 version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

{{{{{icon}}}|L}}
Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 100% Consoles (FR) PAL 40 Consoles + (FR) 88 Edge (UK) 90 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 78 GamesMaster (UK) PAL 64 GMR (US) NTSC-U 80 Hyper (AU) PAL 80 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 77 PlayStation 2 Official Magazine - UK (UK) PAL 90 Playbox (FR) 70 Play (DE) 73 Players (DE) PAL 81 Play (US) NTSC-U 80 PlayZone (DE) PAL 75 PSM2 (UK) PAL 66 Power Unlimited (NL) 85 Silicon Mag (US) NTSC-U 77 Xgen (CZ) 90

	77
Based on 18 reviews

Rez

PlayStation 2, JP
Cover
Disc

PlayStation 2, JP (Trance Vibrator 同梱版/Special Package)
Cover

PlayStation 2, JP (PS2 the Best)
Cover
Disc

PlayStation 2, US
Cover
Disc Manual

PlayStation 2, EU (Promo)
Disc

PlayStation 2, EU
Cover
Disc

PlayStation 2, UK
Cover
Disc

PlayStation 2, FR
Cover
Disc

PlayStation 2, DE
Cover
Disc

PlayStation 2, ES
Cover
Disc

PlayStation 2, IT
Cover
Disc

Technical information

Main article: Rez/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 a8d2e814 MD5 ca4217f3fa0aaf1ce1fa858df4b8c3f2 SHA-1 9cb874374363bfb54c5338c995575e46dd9d6d39	230,785,296		CD-ROM (EU)	SCES-50501 (V1.03)
✔	CRC32 d9684381 MD5 e12971a834314ea440c8723c6bec7aa3 SHA-1 d2998963c25c6a6b723f9385604f53df3ea017fc	230,773,536		CD-ROM (JP)	SLPM-62101 (V1.01)
?	CRC32 0ba84ce3 MD5 847cabd84fb8230e4578472de356e935 SHA-1 328f0db861b39b7c56b793818032a9dd850edb63	230,773,536		CD-ROM (JP)	SLPM-74006 (V1.01)
?	CRC32 76b51326 MD5 d0f7adbe1245c5d0ec6f68b4d785d845 SHA-1 f6ac65761e9d8c8c9eb9d3377ff53719557ae346	230,785,296		CD-ROM (US)	SLUS-20344 (V1.01)
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1		2001-09-30	CD-R				Page

External links

• Sega of Japan catalogue pages (Japanese): Dreamcast, PlayStation 2
• Rez on PlayStation.com: JP, JP (PS2 the Best), JP (Special Package), US