REZ was one of those games I really wished I would of picked up back when it was released on the Dreamcast and the PS2 a couple of years ago. After all, the start of my music career began with being a DJ and as I forged my craft with many different dance genre’s, REZ would of fit in feeling the rhythm of dance music even more.

The game name itself was inspired by a famous Underworld track called REZ and borrows the same audiovisual format that Underworld used in its music videos and kicks it up a notch.

Story wise the game doesn’t provide you with much. Your a hacker that dives into a renegade computer system and using the power of synthesis and synchronization you fight your way through layer and layer of system information. As you progress through a stage layer, so does the music; either adding in an additional music melody or another drum pattern. Destroying enemies and shooting at them also provides another element of music and all these things combined allow you to experience the full effect of the music.

The added visual HD boost and Dolby 5.1 Surround sound vastly improve upon the original game and when the game is turned up you can really feel yourself getting entranced by the beats and visuals. Game play is easy to pick up and even those who can’t keep a rhythm to save their lives will be able to play the game without a problem. In fact, it may even teach you how to keep rhythm. My first time through I was able to get to the Stage 3 end boss and almost defeated it, getting about 40 achievement points in the process.

REZ comes with several game modes including the regular, Score Attack, Direct Assault, Lost and Trance Mission mode. You can even select the Boss Rush mode and fight it out with all the main AI’s in one sitting. My only gripe about this game is that its music is really starting to show its age with some of its tracks, though sometimes you have to expect that in dance music; older tracks just don’t sound as fresh as they use to. If you can appreciate how long ago the tracks were released though, you’ll be alright.

Do you like vibration? (Ummm…hehe) REZ gives you the option to turn all your other 360 controllers into a trance vibrators (A extra accessory included in the original version of REZ) While it really didn’t add any to the experience to me, it really freaked out my cats.

So is REZ deserving of its legendary status? To me it definitely is because of my music background and the easy but fun and addictive game play. I can see how some people might not enjoy this game, folks who don’t appreciate electronic music will be turned off almost instantly. For those of you who are curious enough to try it out, the free trial really does an awesome job of demonstrating what REZ is. If your not enthused by the end of the demo then you’ll know you won’t need to spend the MS points.

REZ in my opinion gets a well deserved 4.5 out of 5 stars.