Rez features an AI, Eden, who was created to fix civilization. However, instead of taking over and becoming a despotic God, it became overwhelmed and sheltered itself from the many paradoxes of humanity. The player's job is to save Eden and help it learn to accept its role for humanity. Rarely is the technology in a piece of sci-fi media benevolent, let alone mentally vulnerable. What makes this setup so intriguing is that the power still remains with the humans (or whatever is remaining of them). Humanity has a long history of pushing its problems onto whatever lowest common denominator is easiest to exploit. In Rez's world, it must have gotten so bad that it became easier to develop a supercomputer that can pretend to be a human than to face their problems. But emulating humanity means emulating its flaws.
The cyberspace traveled crashes architectural influences from all time and space together to create a fitting depiction of what the sum total of human history would look like if crammed into a single program. Likewise, the enemy types are similarly influenced by the actual look of human viruses and bacteria, adding a further level of humanity to the sickness Eden feels. The wireframe geometry evokes comparisons to works like 1982's Tron. The primitive recreation of familiar images give the player an insight into how Eden perceives the world. Furthermore, the player model evolves from a non-descript orb with few polygons into a smoothed out, humanoid seated in the Lotus position, showing that this story is not just about the rebirth of Eden, but of the evolution and transcendence of man.
Most discussion about Rez is fittingly about the game's use of quantized sound and synesthesia. Rez is undoubtedly an experience first and a game second, but this also contributes to the faceless protagonist's progression in relation to the player. The game is beautiful, but it took the duration of the first level for me to become in sync with with the audio-visual presentation. Though, when I achieved that state, I became in tune with how the music, visuals, and gameplay respond to each other, blurring sensory lines.
Overall, Rez is about ascension; ascending from fear, from life, and ascending from extinction. Director Tetsuya Mizuguchi raised himself to the status of auteur with his examination on technological and biological evolution through the lens of artificial intelligence. Eden breaks down when it is overwhelmed with information and the only way for it to ascend along with the player is when they are both in sensory synchronicity with each other, with the world and with the fate of all life.
The cyberspace traveled crashes architectural influences from all time and space together to create a fitting depiction of what the sum total of human history would look like if crammed into a single program. Likewise, the enemy types are similarly influenced by the actual look of human viruses and bacteria, adding a further level of humanity to the sickness Eden feels. The wireframe geometry evokes comparisons to works like 1982's Tron. The primitive recreation of familiar images give the player an insight into how Eden perceives the world. Furthermore, the player model evolves from a non-descript orb with few polygons into a smoothed out, humanoid seated in the Lotus position, showing that this story is not just about the rebirth of Eden, but of the evolution and transcendence of man.
Most discussion about Rez is fittingly about the game's use of quantized sound and synesthesia. Rez is undoubtedly an experience first and a game second, but this also contributes to the faceless protagonist's progression in relation to the player. The game is beautiful, but it took the duration of the first level for me to become in sync with with the audio-visual presentation. Though, when I achieved that state, I became in tune with how the music, visuals, and gameplay respond to each other, blurring sensory lines.
Overall, Rez is about ascension; ascending from fear, from life, and ascending from extinction. Director Tetsuya Mizuguchi raised himself to the status of auteur with his examination on technological and biological evolution through the lens of artificial intelligence. Eden breaks down when it is overwhelmed with information and the only way for it to ascend along with the player is when they are both in sensory synchronicity with each other, with the world and with the fate of all life.