Rez Infinite Review – A Virtual Fever Dream

<p>If there is one game that was never fully realized when it was originally released&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Rez<&sol;em>&period; The PS2 classic came out back in 2001&comma; but despite it being an excellent game&comma; it was always held back&period; <em>Rez Infinite <&sol;em>feels like the full realization of Tetsuya Mizuguchi&&num;8217&semi;s music arcade game&period; A fever dream of music violence inside of a computer that can now be enjoyed in the medium it should always have been utilizing&colon; virtual reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story is vague&comma; even as you fly through digitized scene after scene&comma; killing enemies and progressing through a landscape of rhythmic oscillation and weaponized music&period; Traversing through the vast space&comma; different types of enemies with their own attack patterns will appear around you&comma; and it is your job to shoot them down and take out the final boss of each of the five areas in the game&period; With <em>Rez Infinite<&sol;em>&comma; the act of shooting down enemies and flying through these areas from the original game has never been more fun and intuitive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the original game &lpar;if you do not have a VR headset&comma; <em>Rez Infinite <&sol;em>can still be played like the original&rpar; you would use the right analog stick to aim your cursor&period; However&comma; with the implementation of a VR headset&comma; the game aims by matching the movement of your head&period; Where you look is where you&&num;8217&semi;ll aim&period; Already <em>Rez<&sol;em> justifies the upgrade to VR by having its control scheme tweaked in the smallest&comma; but most noticeable way&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s easier to aim&comma; and a lot easier to get high target kill percentages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114768" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114768" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114768 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;29155921&sol;Area4&lowbar;03-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Rez Infinite" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114768" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Rez Infinite<&sol;em>&comma; Enhance Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>What also makes <em>Infinite <&sol;em>a far more compelling packaging as a VR project is its use of space around you&period; You don&&num;8217&semi;t just look one way to take out enemies&period; There is a need for you to move your head completely around so that you can kill enemies that are behind you&period; Boss battles are the most frequent use cases for this&comma; but you&&num;8217&semi;ll occasionally find enemies in each stage of an area that will require looking behind and to the side&period; The downside is that this means there is more chance for PSVR to lose you in the midst of movement&period; I went through four areas in a row and found myself staring almost 90 degrees to the right of my original position&comma; even when trying to center the game&period; It happened gradually&comma; but it was still frustrating that there seemed to be no fix other than restarting the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But that is only one problem upon a bevy of improvements that stem from adapting the game to virtual reality&period; As I stated&comma; this is the platform the game has always felt designed for&comma; and there is no better indicator than playing Area X&period; Exclusive to <em>Rez Infinite<&sol;em>&comma; Area X is one of the best experiences you can have in VR&period; The player can now control their avatar with the left analog stick&comma; as well as speed him up or slow him down&comma; on top of the traditional commands like shooting&period; You still move between stages in the area&comma; clearing out some enemies before getting the opportunity to move forward&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114767" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114767" style&equals;"width&colon; 1000px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114767 size-large" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;29155914&sol;Area1&lowbar;02-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Rez Infinite" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114767" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Rez Infinite<&sol;em>&comma; Enhance Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>But Area X soars because it&&num;8217&semi;s not on a linear track&period; I had full movement and I never felt disoriented&period; It could have easily wound up with my head in a garbage bin as the speed and constant changes in direction from a third-person perspective pushed me towards vomiting&period; Instead&comma; I felt a freedom that begged the question&colon; where is <em>Rez 2<&sol;em>&quest; A full game with many Area X&&num;8217&semi;s would be incredible to experience&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not just the freedom&comma; but also the upgraded visuals and an incredible song to match the synthesized chaos&period; The final boss itself was aesthetically stunning and left me in awe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The simplicity of <em>Rez<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s game design was one of its charms&comma; and VR has only made it simpler to play&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an almost perfect game that only ever gets held back by PSVR itself&period; At one point&comma; I considered playing through the game the way I used to &&num;8211&semi; without VR&period; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t do it&period; Without virtual reality&comma; the game feels like a relic of its time&period; But the added level of immersion makes <em>Rez Infinite <&sol;em>the game to show off the potential of virtual reality and makes a strong case for the platform&&num;8217&semi;s abilities to astound&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PS4 Review Code for <em>Rez Infinite <&sol;em>was provided by Enhance Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;