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15 years is a long time for something to build a cult following. While Rez impressed critics on its release way back in 2001 for the Dreamcast, its brief runtime and ill fated home (the Dreamcast was discontinued in March 2001) more or less cemented it as a niche title. The game arrived on PS2 at roughly the same time, but Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s game always felt like it belonged on the Dreamcast. It’s fair to say that I liked Rez but I didn’t like Rez. I thought it was… *whispers* okay.
A decade and a half later the game has been ported to various different platforms but is now finally on one that has converted me. I’m now a true believer. Rez Infinite on PlayStation VR is an immense experience that works better than it ought to given its age. With the VR headset on it’s easy to feel like you’re inside Rez’s trippy musical world, and the look to aim system is infinitely more immersive than using an analogue stick.
But had Rez Infinite simply been a VR port of the original game I’d have been a little disappointed. Yes, in VR you are experiencing it like never before, but it’s the same at its core. Infinite’s Area X is an entirely new experience, though, and one that shows where the series has to go in the future.
Rather than put you on rails as you move through each sequence, Area X presents players with a 3D space to move around in. While your head is still used to aim, it doubles up as your player control too, with edge movement coming into play when you hold your gaze at the side of your viewable area. It works surprisingly well and lends the game a feeling of swimming through a strange sea of Space.
If you ever dreamt of a game that combines Ecco the Dolphin’s Dreamcast adventures with a music-based mind trip accompanied by sea creature-aping robots, Area X is that game. The new ability to move around results in some truly incredible moments as monstrously sized creatures cruise by. You’re not seeing through the eyes of Rez, but you most definitely feel like you’re there.
It helps that Area X isn’t simply more of the old style Rez, with the extra mode benefiting from a beautiful new aesthetic. It’s as if the artists painted the new zone using a brush dipped in neon particles and then set every object to explode like a firework once hit with your sonically-powered homing missiles. It is GORGEOUS.
Sadly the new section is over in what seems like the blink of an eye, resulting in much sadness. You can (and will) want to play it all over again and again, but if the Rez team isn’t working on DLC or an entirely new game built around the new engine, well, they should be. Area X is a must-play PlayStation VR experience.
