RAGE (8 GPPs)
Alex Dewitt
17/10/2011
Straight to the Point:
A rock solid first person shooter with some loose RPG element’s all wrapped up in a visually stunning post-apocalyptic wasteland.
Rage is the long awaited game from developer id software, the father of the FPS genre. At the start of the game you are awoken in an underground ark 100 years or so after a devastating asteroid has struck the earth. You soon find out the world outside is a not so friendly place…
Things we like
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Visuals – First off, Rage is an awesome looking game. From the vast rocky canyons that greet you as you emerge from your ark to the fantastic looking characters that inhabit the world, the apocalypse has never looked so good. Some dodgy texture pop in takes a little sheen off the overall result but not enough to spoil the experience.
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Gameplay – Forget any major comparisons to Fallout or Borderlands, Rage is a first person shooter at heart, and this is where it’s greatest strength lies. The world may be vast but the majority of the gun battles take place indoors, as you move from room to room dispensing sweet justice. The game controls wonderfully and the guns are satisfying to shoot. There are some nice little RPG elements also such as crafting sentry bots and turret’s from parts you scavenge and being able to upgrade weapons and create multiple ammo types.
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Weapons – The weapons of Rage are it’s true stars. From the classic headache inducing shotgun to a crossbow that fires mind control darts that allow you to take control of an enemy’s body and then detonate them in a shower of red mist. Then there’s the wingstick. Who doesn‘t enjoy lobbing off a mutants head with a bladed boomerang? The guns and ammo types are varied and the different enemy clans you encounter will require you to switch often.
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Enemies – Varied enemies also help keep the action from going stale. There are numerous clans that inhabit the wasteland, all of them having different fighting styles and tactics. The ghost clan for instance are rather acrobatic, often leaping up from a ledge to quickly get close to you. Whereas the Gearheads like to send out their own sentry bots and generally shoot from a distance. The AI is impressive with enemies taking cover, flanking and working together for good effect.
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Vehicles – The addition of vehicles is somewhat the surprise package of the game but when it’s done as well as this it’s hard to criticize. The driving is surprisingly solid and with the ability to add weapons to your ride (which is a must if you are to navigate the wasteland) it is a welcome addition. You can also participate in races in the main towns for the chance to win racing tickets which can be used to upgrade your buggy with different weapons, armour and boosts etc. The vehicle combat is fun although for some it may feel a little tacked on. It has a quirky arcade style that’s like a cross between mad max and Mario karts.
Niggles
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The overall story doesn’t really grab you and serves more as a way to get you from point A to B in a series of fetch and carry missions. While the character models look great they generally don’t have anything interesting to say and it’s ultimately hard to really care about any of the people you meet. The campaign also sags towards the final third of the game while the less said about the ending the better.
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While the main campaign will probably take you a meaty 12 hours or so to complete depending on how much you embrace the vehicular side of things, there’s not a lot in the way of side missions, which consists of a few jobs placed on job boards in the main towns but not much else to distract you from the main story. The wasteland is vast but nowhere near as populated as something like Red Dead Redemption and it would have been nice to have a little more to do out there.
Wish List
Multiplayer comes in the way of “Road Rage” and “Legends of the wasteland“. The former being strictly vehicle combat and the latter being an online co-operative mode. While these are both decent in their own right i was disappointed that they never included a competitive FPS mode as I felt that with all the guns, gadgets and cool environments it would have been great fun. Future DLC maybe?
Conclusion
Rage is a really cool game and one that i enjoyed very much. id software have done what they do best and that’s make a great shooter with stunning visuals. The story and the characters are rather weak however but the addition of vehicle combat and some cool RPG aspects make this game a blast to play through.
