Gaming and Research: Rez
My prized SEGA Dreamcast copy of Rez 😊
I first had the pleasure of playing and owning this game on the Sega Dreamcast. Rez was one of many great games that launched on the ill fated console. It was a game inspired by a medical condition called Synesthesia.
“A phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers, such as tasting colours or feeling sounds. Some people describe it as having wires crossed in their brain because it activates two or more senses when there's only a reason for one sense to activate.”
More information about the condition can be found at the link above.
At its core, REZ is an on rails shooter. Each level is split into 10 layers (sections) if you take down a special enemy at the end of each section the level and music evolves. if you miss this enemy the game continues but the music and level remains the same unless you eliminate the next special enemy. The game is very old school SEGA. simple mechanics, hard to master. The pursuit of perfection, attain 100% rank on all the areas. There’s 5 areas in total. All with unique music and environments. Most actions in the game go with the beat. Although it doesn’t affect your score if you don’t nail shots on the beat. Most of your actions are automatically beat matched.
So how does this relate to my game Phantom Complex? I’m hoping to make a game that’s as simple as possible to play. Gamers can have a lot of fun trying to get really good at it just for the sake of enjoyment. I don’t see this a lot in games these days. Games have such high budgets today, they simply can’t afford to fail. So creative was lost and a lot of blueprint games emerge. Copying what’s trending at the time. I’ve purposely looked towards SEGA Dreamcast, Sony PS2, Microsoft XBOX and Nintendo Game Cube games for inspiration. For me this was the last time it didn’t matter which console you had. Each one was stacked with cool original games to play. For me Rez was one of them.
I’m currently trying to get 100% again on Rez Infinite on my Meta Quest 2. Got 100% for Rez on the Dreamcast, PS2 and XBOX 360 versions. Rez always seemed like it was designed for VR and it’s cool to play that way. Rez was the Only reason I bought a Meta Quest 2. Could say I’m a bit addicted to this game.