REZ INFINITE
When Tetsuya Mizuguchi originally said that, when he first dreamed up Rez a decade and a half ago, the game in his head took place in a sort of virtual reality, we took it as a good marketing line. Yet to play Rez Infinite is to rather see his point. It is simply perfect for VR, the heightened sense of immersion taking you closer than ever to ‘synaesthesia’, the blend of videogames and music that Mizuguchi has made his career goal. Rez was always best played in a darkened room with the volume up loud, blocking out all other stimulae in order to focus the senses on the action. Well, no longer. Now you need only slip on PS VR to fall right inside this polygonal dreamscape, the techno soundtrack booming from a decent set of headphones directly down your ear canals.
The game itself is better suited to VR than the sticks and buttons around which the original Rez was designed. While you’ll still use a DualShock, for most of the game you’ll only need the q button to shoot enemies (either tapped for a single shot, or held for a burst of up to eight). Lining up targets is as simple as looking at them, the reticule guided by head-tracking. The ‘running man’ boss, a highlight of the original game but also one of its toughest moments, is a good deal more straightforward here, as you twist and turn your head to maintain fire on your foe even as it falls back behind you or switches from side to side.
REACHING X-TACY
Perhaps that makes it all a little easier, but Rez was never a game played for its difficulty. It’s telling, for instance, that the new level created especially for Infinite and virtual reality unlocks automatically after an hour of play. Mizuguchi’s team don’t want anyone to miss out on the undisputed highlight of Rez Infinite – and it’s the right decision. Area X is, simply put, astonishing.
While the 15-year-old polygons of the original game barely tax PS4, Area X is built almost entirely of particles, fizzing in and out of life as you float through the blackness of space, shooting down targets in time to some gorgeous trance music. Unlike the original levels, which are set on rails, here you have full freedom of movement, head-tracking defining your direction of flight while DualShock 4 triggers let you accelerate or brake. Area X is beautiful, and intense, and the climactic boss battle is astounding – to such an extent that it has reduced many who have played it to tears.
I don’t quite go that far, but the sensation is quite unlike anything I’ve experienced in virtual reality, and one that I suspect you’d need substantial chemical assistance to achieve in the real world. Virtual reality exists to take us to new places, and have us feel new things. Few will ever do it better than Rez Infinite.
“AREA X IS BEAUTIFUL, AND INTENSE, AND THE CLIMACTIC BOSS BATTLE’S ASTOUNDING.”