Rez HD Review (9.5/10)

I wasn't lucky enough to try Rez when it originally hit the SEGA Dreamcast in 2001, at an age where the new Star Wars and Harry Potter Game Boy entries (which looking back were pretty lacklustre) were enough to keep me satisfied in the world of gaming. Never mind, though, since although I'm a little late to the party- only ten years or so- I can wholeheartedly confirm that it's a dazzling technical showpiece that Q Entertainment should be proud of, fully warranting the cult following that has since amassed and getting me in all kinds of excitement for the spiritual Kinect sequel Child of Eden out this Summer. The premise is simple: a virus has infected the global internet network, and as a data avatar it's your job to shoot out all the diseased sections of the network and ultimately save Earth. It's classic stuff for video gaming at time- what really sets it apart from the likes of Halo: Combat Evolved and Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy and other greats released that year is its remarkably innovative game-play. The character you control can go anywhere on the screen as he hurtles (thrust forward continuously) towards his enemies, and all you have to do is move and fire at those adversaries. Sounds like something that gets stale fast, right? Wrong: music is injected skillfully in such a sense that as you manage more and more constant hits, the whimsical beats of the sound-track get faster and form a melody completely aside from the background track and seemingly completely of its own accord yet controlled by your battles. Even in 2010, with Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Halo: Reach, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Battlefield Bad Company 2 all wowing me in the last twelve months, this would have gone down a storm, daring to take a route that no other title did. Back in the early 2000s, however, that was exactly what most titles were trying to do, with barely any sequels released until the middle of the decade as developers strived for innovation. If you get the chance to download this or find the PlayStation 2 version, know that Rez HD is an absolutely essential play, and all I hope is that Child of Eden does the original proud