Hacker

The Hacker (also known as Swayzak) is the protagonist of Rez. He is a virus that infects Eden and K-Project is at risk of being shut down. He later goes back to reboot Eden in order to reveal the true being at her core. The Hacker is equipped with the Lock-On Laser, as well as the power of Overdrive.

Swayzak has seven forms that can be achieved through downloading Progress and Bonus Nodes. If hit by a projectile, he immediately downgrades to the form below.

Child of Eden
Some people suspect the Hacker to be the powerful Virus that attacked Lumi. The reason why he did it is theorized to be as part of a self-proclaimed espionage mission (in the Rez fanon, the Hacker is usually portrayed as a sarcastic, fourth wall breaking character.)

Rez
In attempt to bring mass attention to him and prove he is all powerful, the Hacker carries out one of his most diabolical plans yet: infecting the super A.I. at the center of the K-Project computer network, Eden. Doing so, however, results in Eden doubting her existence and purpose and ultimately shutting down, as she finds she cannot cope with humanity or the paradoxes which surround her. The Hacker is mortified and undergoes a change of heart as he sets out to reboot Eden, battling the K-Project mainframe's defense systems along the way, so he can reveal the true being at her core. After being freed, Eden thanks the Hacker and rewards him by cleansing him, which makes him a good program. She later sends him on a mission into the K-Project's Lost Area to retrieve some forgotten information and invites him to Area X so they can experience the beauty of life together. The Hacker eventually realizes his true purpose, too, as he tasks himself with the Trance Mission.

Personality
The Hacker infects Eden to prove he is powerful, but later regrets it as his actions led to Eden's shutdown. This means the Hacker is egoistical but with a morality. The Hacker's personality actually a bit similar to Rez from the Gex series. So the Hacker is a snarky braggart who has a penchant for breaking the fourth wall and at times can be a pastiche of old comic book villains, like the Silver Age Sinestro. The Hacker is also pretty well-versed in pop culture, occasionally spouting a reference or two. However, he does have his limits, and is mortified when Eden threatens to shut down, meaning he's good inside. And because of his heart of gold, Eden cleanses him and he turns into a good program; however during the events of Tetris Effect, the Hacker returns to hacking into systems, but it is unknown if the system belonged to a criminal organization or not, though. Another thing to note about The Hacker is when he gets particularly excited, he often tends to glitch out.

Trivia

 * Form one of the Hacker is the appearance used for promotional imagery for Rez.
 * A bonus form of the Hacker is a Morolian from Space Channel 5: Part 2 (sound effects for which can be found in the files of this game if you hack it), possibly as a homage as they were made by the same creator, Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
 * There's several different interpretations of what happens to the Hacker at the end of Rez; but the one gone with on this wiki is that Eden cleanses him to become a good program after being rescued.
 * The name Swayzak is unofficial and comes from the Toonami block on Cartoon Network. A virus character by the name of Swayzak, from a 2002 event called Trapped in Hyperspace, made a cameo in Toonami's review of Rez. A confused fan edited Wikipedia and the Rez wikis thinking he was actually canon in the Rez universe, which led to several reviewers including the name in their reviews of Rez Infinite. It is too late now to correct their mistakes, so Swayzak is a nickname of sorts.
 * There is another Sega character with this nickname. The Sega Saturn commercials in the US included three where the PlayStation and Nintendo got bashed by a deep, robotic voice (Phil LaMarr) resembling the Toonami character Swayzak's voice when he appeared in the Trapped in Hyperspace event (in the Rez review, he had a higher pitched, British accented voice reminiscent of that of Sinestro from Injustice: Gods Among Us) so the voice in the Sega Saturn commercials has been dubbed "Swayzak" by Sega fans who are also Toonami fans.
 * Even though he restarts Eden, fans suspect the Hacker is a generally malign character due to where his nickname came from. However, if we are to go with the good program theory above, this is not the case.
 * This wiki's storyline for Tetris Effect sees Swayzak infect a variety of computer systems, so it is possible he couldn't resist having fun like he used to once in a while. However, it could be a mission he received from Eden to fight the amount of crime in the world.