There are many cult favorite games out there, none so perhaps more than Rez – a short-lived on-rail shooter from back in the day that not many people got to experience due to a shortened shelf life and low production. A copy of the original Rez would probably cost you a good penny on a site like Ebay, but as long as you've got Xbox Live you can now own the game and drink the electric kool-aid and experience the cult love too for a much lower price. The real question is, however, should you even fork that money over to begin with.

The story of Rez HD (Rez from now on) is the story of…well…it's really hard to define when there obviously seems to be something going on, but yet what that is isn't exactly known. Rez seems to be the story of a hacker using some program to crack a computer system of some sort, as you fly through and disable the security measures in place. Of course, that might not be the story at all, but that is what it seems like. You see, Rez isn't so much about one exact thing, but rather the experience of all the sights and sounds brought together.

Rez plays like an old-school on-rail shooter, where you focus more on the shooting aspect than the moving and flying around; so if you see a missile coming at you, you'll need to use your shooting skills more so than your dodging skills (as you can't really dodge anything anyways). As you fly about the world, you'll use a square reticule to lock-on to enemies, and then with the release of the A-button you'll release homing missiles that go out and attack whatever they are locked on to. Besides your lock-on missiles, you've also got an overdrive system that lets you go crazy, unleashing a wave of attacks for a short time for when the action gets too hot and heavy for you.

Each world consists of about ten different subsections, which you move through by killing the enemies on the screen – ranging from bird type rectangular squares to giant tank looking things and Yin/Yang symbols – and then finding the box floating around that you need to shoot so many times so you can move forward. As you shoot and kill things, you'll grab items to level-up your character, making it so they transform into different forms in the process. Generally, if you only play straight from the beginning, you get two hits and then you're dead and it's a Game Over for you; however, as your character levels up into different forms, you gain an extra hit you can take before you die.

And really, when it comes to Rez…that's it! You've got four main worlds (a hidden fifth) and though there is some difficulty, the game isn't all that hard for the most part. The biggest problem in terms of difficulty is the fact that, though the graphics are stylish and very trippy, with all the particle blocks and beams shooting around, it is sometimes hard to tell what is going on, and knowing when a bullet or missile might be heading your way. A game should be hard because it was designed that way and not because of something like environmental blending. Beyond that difficulty, the rest of the game's difficulty comes from completing everything 100% if you feel so inclined to do so.

Beyond the normal way Rez HD is meant to be played, you'll also be able to play the game so that there isn't any Game Over screen, play score attack modes to get rankings on the leaderboards, and you'll even be able to play the original game and how it looked without the HD improvements.

Graphically the game is more about style than substance, as the graphics aren't amazing or next-gen really at all, but the funkadelic colors and the different swirling lights and background images passing by are really cool to behold. In terms of audio the game still remains fresh and great, featuring pulse pounding techno beats that only become fuller and better in time with your fired off missiles; the aural experience is really amazing.

In the end, Rez HD is a very good game, but perhaps one not so deserving of its cult status, as the game isn't terribly hard and the game is over long before you want it to be (sure, you can extend game time by going for Achievements and leaderboard scores, but for those who don't care about that they'll find no extra enjoyment or game time in those modes). If you've got the points to blow, go ahead and get Rez HD, otherwise you're almost certainly better off leaving the game to the videogame history books.

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