ast week, when Microsoft and Q Entertainment revealed that they would be bringing the cult classic PS2/Dreamcast title Rez to Xbox Live Arcade, there seemed to be quite a divide among the fan base. Some were happy because they’d finally get to play this extremely hard to find game, while others were disappointed because they were hoping game creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi would finally be creating a sequel. However, the result is Rez HD, and while the game is strictly a port, in our playtest of the alpha version of the game we believe Rez HD could end up being the definitive version of the game that should please both the dedicated Rez fans and newcomers to the series.

Rez HD is being developed by a new development house made up of ex-Lost Planet developers called HexaDrive. HexaDrive is responsible for the programming and graphics, and Q Entertainment is handling the rest. As Mizuguchi-san explained in our demonstration, nothing has been added or subtracted gameplay-wise from the original game. However, with the title landing on the Xbox 360, Rez HD will feature high-definition graphics, widescreen support, and a remastered soundtrack in 5.1 surround. With the original focusing on a stylistic vector graphical style and a thumptastic trance soundtrack, the addition of cleaned-up visuals and an even better overall aural experience is quite welcomed.

For those who have never played Rez, on paper the gameplay experience can be simply explained as an on-rails music sensory shooter. You are a hacker traversing a futuristic supernetwork that’s AI, known as Eden, is getting shut down. By blasting away at viruses and other nasties that are clogging up the network, it’s your mission to reboot the system and bring Eden back to life. While players don’t have the ability to control the avatar’s movement, you control the targeting reticule. Players lock onto enemies with the press of a button, and once locked on, fire shots by releasing it. Up to eight enemies can be locked onto at a time. Some enemies can be destroyed with one shot, while others take multiple shots. When things get too frantic, you can also launch overdrives that you collect through out the game, which temporarily wipe out all enemies on screen. Boss battles are quite involved and take a few intense minutes to disperse.

Rez consists of five levels that contain 10 sections and a boss battle. While the main game doesn’t take all that long to complete (most can complete it within an hour), there are a number of modes and unlockables that keep players coming back for more. Everything from the original version will make a return, and the fact that Rez HD will also include online leaderboards makes the package even sweeter.

Considering the original versions suffered from jaggies, the new high-definition graphics of Rez HD really help give the game a clean, sharpened look. While the team still has to add the 5.1 support to the audio, Mizuguchi-san promises that players will be able to hear and sense where the enemies are with positional audio cues. Even in its early audio state, Rez HD sounded just as good – if not better than the original.

However, the alpha version we played was plagued by a big problem with the controls. In its current form, the analog controls were oversensitive and took quite a bit of work to keep the targeting reticule from over shooting the target. There were also some minor game lags, but Mizuguchi is quite aware of these issues and promises they will be cleaned up before Rez HD is released in Q1 2008. Considering the teams have only had seven months of development time to get the game to this state, we’re quite optimistic about the final product.

All said and done, though, Rez HD is still a port. Considering the main game can be beat in an hour, we’re hoping Q Entertainment/Microsoft will keep the price point low. Something around 800 – 1200 Microsoft points would be quite acceptable in our opinion. With Rez fetching about $35 - $40 on eBay at the moment, $10 isn’t too much to ask for such a unique, albeit short, sensory experience. Who knows – if it’s popular enough, maybe Mizuguchi-san will realize it’s time to bring a sequel to this fan favorite.