I've been looking forward to RAGE from the second it was announced. I've always been a fan of id Software.
Doom,
Quake, and
Wolfenstein 3d were a few of the first computer games I ever played. The thought of playing a Doom-like game set in a wasteland environment with vehicles and top-notch graphics and gameplay was too much to resist.
I was disappointed when I read the less than stellar game reviews and sadly
RAGE fell off my radar. Fortunately, I spotted a great deal on Amazon ($19 new and free shipping) and I couldnt pass it up.
Herese the skinny:
Story - The story is simple: Earth has been laid to waste after being struck by an asteroid. You play as the sole survivor of a vault that was part of a failed plan to rebuild civilization. The people that survived the impact of the asteroid have divided into factions/tribes with the mutants at one end and The Authority at the other.
The story starts off interesting enough but fails to develop into anything truly exciting or original. By the end of the game it feels like you are just going through the motions and the end comes abruptly and is unsatisfying.
Gameplay -
RAGE is an action-FPS at it's finest. Combat is fun and varied. Enemy AI is very good and keeps you on your toes. The character animation in
RAGE is some of the best and most believable I have seen in a game. Enemies come at you from all directions, jumping from the walls and ceiling and also grab at their limbs when hit.
You have a variety of weapons at your disposal and the ability to craft, upgrade, and use different ammo types. There are also unique weapons like the Wingstick (like a boomerang) and mind-control bolts that let you shoot an enemy and turn them into a walking meat-bomb.
RAGE makes the switch from first-person shooter to driving game seamlessly. Vehicles are easy to control and vehicle combat is a blast. You have the option to compete in races to win tokens to upgrade your vehicle and racing is a good way to switch up the gameplay if you need a break.
Graphics - This game looks awesome!
RAGE uses Megatexture technology, developed by Jon Carmack (id Software), that relies on a single massive texture for an environment. It defaults to a low resolution and as you enter parts of the map it loads in the high res texture. Here is the problem: there is a slight delay when you move your character around. If you are looking right and suddenly look left you can see all the low res textures before the high res textures pop in. This happens very fast but it is noticeable and distracting.
Texture issues aside the wasteland has never looked better. The terrain is where
RAGE really shines. Rocks and hills look very realistic. The NPC characters all look great too.
Sound - Voice acting, music, and sound is excellent. No complaints here.
Clocking in at at eleven hours,
RAGE feels a little on the short side (I did most the side missions too) but all good games seem like they should be longer. I can definitely see doing another playthough and trying out different fighting styles (more stealthy, more gadgets). Eleven hours might not be much but with the addition of co-op and multiplayer there is a lot of potential for additional gameplay.
My biggest disappointment was that I really wanted to get out there and explore but there isn't much out there to find. One of the incentives for buying the game new was access to sewer levels throughout the game and I only found one (there are supposedly nine) and it took me all of ten minutes to clear.
I had a blast with
RAGE. It's not a perfect game but is it a lot of fun.
RAGE's biggest flaw might be that it fell shot of peoples expectations.
We have the right to be a disappointed. The brains that pioneered the
FPS genera put out something new and claimed that it is going to be
unlike anything we had seen and played but what we got was something
that felt like the love-child of
Fallout 3 and
Borderlands.
To sum things up:
The good -
- Awesome graphics
- Gunfights and vehicle combat fun and rewarding
- Lots of weapons and crafting/upgrading options
The bad -
- Texture lag issues
- Short single player campaign
- The wasteland is small and there isn't much reason to explore
RAGE is available for the
PC, PS3, and Xbox 360
*photo from Amazon
