Rez is a one-of-a-kind sensory ride. A synesthetic rail shooter, electronic music built up by every shot and abstract visuals. A timeless art game best enjoyed with headphones on.
Your verdict
Category
Shooter1 player7+
Description
A United Game Artists and Sega psychedelic rail shooter released in 2001 (US, Europe, Japan), a masterpiece by Tetsuya Mizuguchi. The player guides an avatar through a tubular structure in rhythm with techno and trance music, locking onto and shooting targets that merge with the soundtrack. Perfect audiovisual synesthesia. An absolute artistic peak on PS2.
Rez review
MAX
Art direction
★★★★★
"Iconic"
MAX
Music
★★★★★
"Legendary"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
A universe of wireframes, neon and pure shapes pulsing to the rhythm of the music: image and sound become one. This synesthetic abstraction, inherited from digital art, turns the shoot into a hypnotic trance. A rare audacity, this minimalist, vibrant style keeps an intact modernity.
Every shot, every impact turns into a note, fusing action and techno in a heady synaesthetic trance. Carried by electro artists like Adam Freeland and Ken Ishii, the music builds itself under the player's fingers. This fusion of sound and gesture, visionary on release, remains an unmatched cult experience.
Gameplay
"Excellent"
Fun
"From the very first seconds"
Advancing through a wireframe world by shooting targets that each add a note to the music: action and sound fuse into a uniquely hypnotic experience. The rising power of the rhythm, locked to your hits, induces a trance both sensory and exhilarating. Stylised, pulsing and unclassifiable, a musical journey lived as much as it is played.
A cult work by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, an on-rails shooter built as an audiovisual synesthesia experience, unclassifiable and adored. Its niche audience and limited run, especially in PAL, make it a lastingly sought title whose price far exceeds that of ordinary shooters. Its desirability rests on this status as a singular art object as much as on genuine underlying scarcity.
Memorable bosses
Inseparable from the music that swells alongside them, the digital guardians of this synesthetic shooter dissolve to the rhythm of your lock-ons, each shot feeding the pulse of the soundtrack. Their abstract shapes morph into geometric bursts up to a hypnotic finale. The fusion of sound, image and gesture makes these clashes as sensory as they are unforgettable.
A cult cover
Reduced to fluorescent vector lines on black, the abstract artwork conveys the synesthesia at the game's core: a dive where sound becomes light and geometry. The cold, hypnotic minimalism announces a sensory experience more than a mere shooter. Radical and timeless, the cover proudly displays its digital-art daring.
Is Rez still worth playing in 2026?
Released in 2001 on PS2, United Game Artists' project signed Tetsuya Mizuguchi remains a work apart, blending rail shooter and musical synesthesia into a hypnotic experience. Every shot and every target lock generates a sound that melts into an electronic track under permanent construction, turning the action into composition. The vector art direction, abstract and pared down, evokes a journey inside a computer network. The short length is offset by a replay value built on trance. A unique sensory experience, recommended for those curious about bold game design and about the fusion of play and music into a single flow.
