Rez was a long time in development, with a high-faluting concept as a pseudo-choreographed rhythmic shooting game with abstract graphics and gameplay that intrinsically shapes and changes the soundtrack and level design. The game itself doesn't exactly match up to the concept, and in some ways is the better for it.

What is actually offered is Tron, Omega Boost & Panzer Dragoon go Clubbing. It's basically a linear floating 3-D shoot-em-up set inside a computer, with the rhythm and timing of the game tied into an Electronica soundtrack. You can move your character around the screen of oncoming foes, and move your crosshair locking onto enemies and letting go to fire at them all. The graphics themselves lean a lot toward the vector and wire-frame styles from earlier 3D games, but a lot more complex and fluid.

You play as the avatar for a computer hacker searching through a network server, trying to stop a malevolent program from running. The detail in the environment starts off simple at the beginning of a level, progressively getting more and more detailed as you find and open network gateways. As you go through each gate your character can see more and more of the file (the level) and so the level gets increasingly more complex, with more safeguards and protecting programs, portrayed in the game as different enemy types, ranging from tiny winged creatures made of triangles to massive spaceships. The more of the file you unlock, the harder the level gets but the more frequent the power-ups get. There are blue orbs that give you more power when a certain number are collected and red orbs that act as a smart bomb. In traditional style, at the end of the level you reach the boss. The boss fights are very impressive and usually multi-sectioned, involving massive fortresses which slowly crumble, shape-shifting spaceships with shields used as whipping tendrils and the obligatory giant, spinning reactor.

Your character starts off as a floating man made out of blocks, but when enough blue orbs are collected, its shape becomes more refined and evolved, going up in stages until it becomes a very impressive being. Each upgraded state offers more fire-power and will make life much easier, or as the game progresses, survivable. Conversely, every time you get hit, it devolves into less and less complex geometric shapes until it disappears and its game over. This system can be likened to that in Vib Ribbon, and you end up trying not to get your character damaged and collect more blue orbs just to see what the new evolved character will look like. If you play the levels sequentially all in a row (it's possible to play them individually once unlocked), the form your character was in in the last level will continue over into the next level, making it possible to evolve your character much further.

The sound and music is an integral part of the game. Your character pulses (and vibrates if your controlled supports it) and the level pace progresses in time with the music. Also, all the sound effects of firing and explosions are electronic noises, notes and crashes that add to the overall soundtrack. You can attempt to make these go in exact time with the music or not, but often by doing this you can better avoid and destroy enemies, such is the amazing choreography designed for the game. Each level has its own track, the complexity of which builds up with the level as explained before. As you go through a network gate the music builds up faster and faster with a crescendo before booming into the next, more intricate arrangement of the song, uplifting you and psyching you up for the next onslaught. These touches are magnificent and really immerse you into the game, the experience of the music reacting the way it does is almost like being at a club. The music ranges from ambient, triphop, trance, oldskool, drum and bass, big-beat, electropunk, industrial, basically every form of thumping dance music there is. Think Underworld (who did a song called Rez!), Orbital, Ministry and Cream.

In terms of longevity, don't believe the reviews that say it is very short. If you only play the first 4 levels and 'complete' the game, it seems to be over. But once you've done that, extra levels, modes, music, arrangements and evolution forms are unlocked, some by completion of other levels, some by certain skill goals being met and some on time release. Rez has a stack-load of replay value for those who get into it and play it properly. With regard to the game on different systems, it's really no different on the Dreamcast or PS2, it just uses the strengths of each console. The Dreamcast version has smoother, better looking graphics than the PS2 version, which plays faster, through its higher frame-rates.

A shoot-em-up that's a real experience for the senses. An adrenaline rush from start to finish, a real must buy for any action junkie, no matter if you don't like any type of dance music, you'll learn to love it through Rez.

Reviewed for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).