“Fear is the mind killer.”

I have to wonder what it must be like in Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s (creator of Rez and Rez HD) day to day life. Does he hum little notes and beats as he brushes his teeth and mimic cymbals crashing when he spits? One might think so when you look at his track record of game development. The majority of his games having a strong musical theme makes evident that music is more than just a passion of his. It’s a part of him.

The original Rez was one of his earliest well-known and well-received game projects originally released for Dreamcast and Playstation 2 and Rez HD is an updated HD widescreen version of the original with 5.1 surround sound and customizable in-game color schemes and sound effects.

Also included are a few Xbox 360 Live features such as achievements, online leaderboards and shareable, savable replays. It is worth noting that although a non-HD mode is included, my non-HD television had no problem playing HD mode in a letterboxed format.

Rez HD is styled graphically with intentionally simplistic vector and flat-shaded graphics used to render its 3D environments. If you recall the classic arcade games BattleZone or Tempest, try imagining expansive yet slightly more graphically enhanced environments and objects. Now add a bit of artistic heart, intentionally inspired by painter Wassily Kandinsky, and you have a pretty good idea of the look of Rez HD and it’s cyberpunk cyberspace atmosphere.

There is a simple beauty that comes about from the culmination of the various primitive polygons, lines, colors and very rare textures that will bring about a nostologic feel to many older gamers and at least a slick pseudo-futuristic vibe that even younger gamers may appreciate, even if they aren’t quite sure why. Each of the 5 main stages have their own unique visual theme, level layout, enemies and bosses (not to mention soundtrack as I will mention later in this review).

The story of Rez HD is fairly straightforward at first with the concept of hacking into a futuristic “supernetwork” known as the K-Project in order to keep a valuable AI named Eden from shutting herself down due to her being overwhelmed by a constant stream of information being fed to her. Without spoiling anything, I feel it safe to say that players will find themselves being intrigued by an unexpected depth to the eventual progression of the storyline and it’s conclusion.

Even after completing the game one may still be a bit confused but careful analysis can lead to some surprisingly interesting conclusions. That said, it should be understood that the storyline is not extremely complex or detailed, at least as I understand it, but considering the rather arcade-like gameplay the story depth that is to be found is quite welcome.

This leads me to the gameplay which is essentially a rather straightforward on-rails shooter. Anyone familiar with the Panzer Dragoon games should know what to expect although Rez HD is somewhat more simple. You have no control over your avatar’s movement even slightly, while hacking the K-Project, and your only defense against incoming attacks is attacking enemy viruses first or attacking their actual attacks.

You have one main weapon that allows you to lock on up to 8 targets at once and unleash your attack as you let go. Power-ups can be attained to boost the strength of you avatar effectively acting as your health as well as overdrive power-ups that allow you to fire an onslaught of guided attacks on all visible enemies. While rather simple, the gameplay’s complexity is somewhat elevated by fairly well-designed levels, enemy spawnings, and boss battles.

As I mentioned before, music is a big part of Mizuguchi’s games and Rez was one of his first well-known examples of his love of making music through gameplay. Possibly Rez HD’s most notable (no pun intended) aspect is the fact that many in-game actions have a specific note, beat or sound sample that corresponds to the overall slowly-developing beat of each stage of the game.

Each stage has it’s own musical track with unique samples and notes and you essentially compose the stages soundtrack as you lock on to enemies, attack, hack and so on. It’s a great feel to be partway into a stage, have a nice beat kick in and launch attack after attack all the while being rewarded with custom music timed specifically to your actions.

The game also allows you to have not only the player’s controller but several other 360 controllers vibrate along with the in-game action as well. While some may make immature jokes about such a concept, I do not believe it to be intended as they may think.

While I don’t necessarily agree with the hype I’ve heard others spout about Rez HD, I do believe it is a great game worth owning especially for the price you can get it on Xbox Live Arcade. I imagine it’d also be a great game to fire up at a party. While it may not be two player, you and your friends can take turns supplying your get-together with not only music but a little visual ambiance as well.

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