I worked in IT Management for fifteen years. While I know that the best systems will often times work within constraints instead of against them, the system of Rez does both. Rez is a rail shooter set in an abstract cyber world, and a system that uses minimalistic visuals, limited gameplay elements, and musical integration as the base for an experience that is far more immersive and enjoyable due to these constraints than in spite of them.
You’re moving through a geometric world of abstraction shooting at objects (obstacles) and enemies, using a system that allows you to select targets and destroy them. Your experience is synchronised to an electronic music soundtrack. The overall feel of the game is almost meditative, as if the actual act of playing is the same thing as meditating. It’s impossible to believe that this game could be successful. Yet it is.
What Rez Really Is
Rez is a rail shooter where you fly through an abstract cyberspace and destroy obstacles and enemies. The visual layout of each level progresses from very basic and geometric to more complex and colourful. Each area of the game has its own look and feel, and its own distinct audio. The gameplay is very simple but the experience is very absorbing.
Locking onto multiple enemy objects prior to firing increases the impact of your shots. Additionally, as you time your attacks to match the music (the game doesn’t require you to do this but it certainly encourages it), you’ll find that creating rhythmic patterns of attack is much more satisfying. The game is designed so that players are encouraged to play along with the music.
Visually, Rez is also very minimalist. Lines are clean. Colours are primary. Shapes are geometric. The game does not attempt to be anything other than abstract and purposeful. As you move forward through the game, the environments become progressively more detailed and colourful. By the end of the last level, you are immersed in a riot of colour and pattern, yet it is not random — it is intentionally planned visual progression.
Why Synaesthetic Game Design Matters
One thing that Rez shows us, and most games miss entirely, is that game design can utilise music as a fundamental mechanism, not simply as a soundtrack. The music in Rez is not providing background for the actions happening in the game — the music IS the action. You are responding to the rhythm of the music, creating patterns of attack, and working with the composer to produce an experience.
This is a profoundly innovative approach to game design. Since Rez came out, few games have approached this level of music based integration into the game itself.
The flat learning curve is by design, as Rez is not about the challenges presented in the game — it is about experiencing the system itself. When you play Rez, you are not trying to win; you are trying to experience the journey. Failure is not punished in the game; you simply continue playing. Although you can technically lose, the game continues regardless of your loss, which eliminates the mechanical danger of losing and enables you to focus solely on the experience.
The Design Philosophy of Fearlessness
What impresses me most about Rez is the complete confidence in the idea behind the game. Rez is an experimental title that was released by a large publisher, on a console that was already beginning to fail. Many studios would have been cautious and taken a conservative approach to their titles. Sega essentially said, “We’re going to release an abstract rail shooter that is primarily a meditation experience,” and executed it flawlessly.
The colour scheme changes with the music. The visual intensity of the game matches the musical intensity. The music by Yoko Shimomura is incredible — not merely good game music but truly good composition that stands on its own as music.
While the Trance Vibrator peripheral that provides tactile feedback may seem silly at first glance, it really enhances the experience. Feeling the game pulsate to the music is a direct application of synaesthetic game design in hardware.
Does Rez Still Work?
Yes. The controls respond well. The visuals are timeless because they are intentionally abstract and therefore avoid having to try to be cutting edge and realistic. The music is good. The experience is absorbing. When you play Rez today, you realise why it was important to push boundaries and take risks.
As I mentioned earlier, the lack of challenge in Rez may frustrate some players but that is the point of the game. This is an experience. How you see the game changes when you understand the design philosophy behind it.
Rez is a relatively short game (likely 60 to 90 minutes) but the density of the experience outweighs the length. You are not bored with Rez. You are immersed in the system from start to finish. The game has no padding and no excessive length.
The Technical Achievement
There is nothing particularly flashy about the technical achievement of Rez. There is no advanced graphics, no new physics. However, Rez does provide a great example of the technology behind the real time synchronisation of visuals and audio, while maintaining a constant frame rate. The particle effects that erupt in rhythmic patterns, timed to the music. The colour shifting that occurs based upon the music’s intensity.
The fact that the visuals are minimalist makes the technical implementation more impressive. The clarity of the design is the result of careful optimisations and deliberate decisions regarding what to show and what to hide.
Why This Matters To Understanding Game Design As Art
Rez proved something that few games had proven before it — that games can be considered as forms of artistic expression that place emphasis on experience over mechanisms. This is not a game that was designed to challenge players or have players progress. It was designed to create a certain type of emotional and sensory experience. In many ways, that is a perfectly legitimate way to design a game, even if it defies many traditional notions of what constitutes a “game”.
Many modern independent games have come to understand this lesson. Games such as Journey, Flower, and AbzĂ» have learned from Rez that games do not necessarily need to be challenging to be engaging. What they need to be is intentional, committed to their vision.
Rez demonstrated this principle at a time when many people still believed that games were little more than exercises in winning.
The Bitterness and Beauty of Rez
In many ways, the story of Rez is bittersweet. This was a game that was released on a console that was clearly failing. The Dreamcast failed, and therefore Rez was unable to reach the audience that it deserved. However, those that did get to experience it were deeply moved by it. Over the years, Rez has developed a cult following because it was uniquely experimental and uniquely successful in its execution.
It seems fittingly ironic that this occurred — that this beautifully experimental game found a loyal following on the hardware of a dying platform. Rez does not need mainstream success to matter; it simply needs to have existed to prove that this style of design is possible.
Conclusion
Rez demonstrates how a fearless, experimental approach to design can create a game that is deeply engaging and enjoyable, regardless of whether that design deviates from traditional game design philosophies. The synaesthetic combination of music and visuals. The minimalism of the visuals that never feels bare. The removal of challenge in favour of pure experience. The complete devotion to its concept.
This is an example of what occurs when a major developer chooses to fund a project that is uniquely artistic and trusts the development team to deliver on that vision. Rez is an example of that potentiality, an example of how games can be considered as art without compromise, and an example of how commercial failure does not equate to artistic failure.
If you have not played Rez, I encourage you to search it out and experience something that is decidedly different. If you are developing games, study how Rez is fully committed to its vision, and delivers on that vision perfectly. That is how you develop something that is distinctly unique and distinctly artistic.
Rating: 9/10 — The Experimental Game that Proved Dreamcast Understood Visionary Design
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John grew up swapping floppy disks and reading Amiga Power cover to cover. Now an IT manager in Manchester, he writes about the glory days of British computer gaming—Sensible Soccer, Speedball 2, and why the Amiga deserved more love than it ever got.
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