I’d been looking forward to the spiritual successor to Rez for a long time, from when it didn’t exist and was a mere pipe-dream, to when creator Tetsuya Miziguchi said that a sequel was not an impossibility, to E3 last year and our first glimpse of it, and of course, the weeks leading up to it’s release. Boy, was I in for a let-down.
It’s undoubtedly beautiful, and at first I wanted to buy a bigger TV to appreciate it more, but it’s just not as good as Rez. The music isn’t as good, and in this game that is a key part of the experience. No disrespect to Mr. Miziguchi, but his music isn’t great. There’s nothing in Child of Eden that comes close to matching Rock Is Sponge, Buggy Running Beeps… I don’t even dare compare Fear to Child of Eden’s offerings. The several different remixes of Heavenly Star got really fucking boring and irritating towards the end. Let’s hope that Tetsuya is satisfied that he’s finally done the track justice, and he never includes it in another game ever again.
A bit annoying, but stunningly beautiful
I didn’t at all like that there was no character on screen, it really made me feel detached from the action. The big gameplay addition, the Tracer – which fires like a laser powered machine gun – cheapens the experience. It’s bad enough that some enemies can only be defeated by this laser, but my main sticking point with the Tracer is that enemy bullets can only be nullified with it, which basically allows the game to spam a hell of a lot of bullets at you at once. I prefer the purity of the lock-on system from Rez.
That last sentence just about sums the whole thing up to be honest. I prefer the purity of Rez.
I’m not quite done yet, but I will be soon, and probably won’t get a chance to get to the PC after I’m totally done with it. I’ve done the story (lots of nice twists!) and I’m just mopping up the last lot of achievements.