If there is one game that was never fully realized when it was originally released, it’s Rez. The PS2 classic came out back in 2001, but despite it being an excellent game, it was always held back. Rez Infinite feels like the full realization of Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s music arcade game. A fever dream of music violence inside of a computer that can now be enjoyed in the medium it should always have been utilizing: virtual reality.
The story is vague, even as you fly through digitized scene after scene, killing enemies and progressing through a landscape of rhythmic oscillation and weaponized music. Traversing through the vast space, different types of enemies with their own attack patterns will appear around you, and it is your job to shoot them down and take out the final boss of each of the five areas in the game. With Rez Infinite, the act of shooting down enemies and flying through these areas from the original game has never been more fun and intuitive.
In the original game (if you do not have a VR headset, Rez Infinite can still be played like the original) you would use the right analog stick to aim your cursor. However, with the implementation of a VR headset, the game aims by matching the movement of your head. Where you look is where you’ll aim. Already Rez justifies the upgrade to VR by having its control scheme tweaked in the smallest, but most noticeable way. It’s easier to aim, and a lot easier to get high target kill percentages.
What also makes Infinite a far more compelling packaging as a VR project is its use of space around you. You don’t just look one way to take out enemies. There is a need for you to move your head completely around so that you can kill enemies that are behind you. Boss battles are the most frequent use cases for this, but you’ll occasionally find enemies in each stage of an area that will require looking behind and to the side. The downside is that this means there is more chance for PSVR to lose you in the midst of movement. I went through four areas in a row and found myself staring almost 90 degrees to the right of my original position, even when trying to center the game. It happened gradually, but it was still frustrating that there seemed to be no fix other than restarting the game.
But that is only one problem upon a bevy of improvements that stem from adapting the game to virtual reality. As I stated, this is the platform the game has always felt designed for, and there is no better indicator than playing Area X. Exclusive to Rez Infinite, Area X is one of the best experiences you can have in VR. The player can now control their avatar with the left analog stick, as well as speed him up or slow him down, on top of the traditional commands like shooting. You still move between stages in the area, clearing out some enemies before getting the opportunity to move forward.
But Area X soars because it’s not on a linear track. I had full movement and I never felt disoriented. 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. Instead, I felt a freedom that begged the question: where is Rez 2? A full game with many Area X’s would be incredible to experience. It’s not just the freedom, but also the upgraded visuals and an incredible song to match the synthesized chaos. The final boss itself was aesthetically stunning and left me in awe.
The simplicity of Rez‘s game design was one of its charms, and VR has only made it simpler to play. It’s an almost perfect game that only ever gets held back by PSVR itself. At one point, I considered playing through the game the way I used to – without VR. I couldn’t do it. Without virtual reality, the game feels like a relic of its time. But the added level of immersion makes Rez Infinite the game to show off the potential of virtual reality and makes a strong case for the platform’s abilities to astound.