It certainly takes a lot of guts for a game developer to walk onto an established console platform for the first time and leave behind their iconic franchises to try something new. But id Software is not an ordinary company, especially when it comes to first person shooters. They invented the modern genre with Wolfenstein and created it’s landmark with Doom. id believe they know the genre inside and out, and clearly aren’t afraid to showcase themselves with a brand new IP in their first game for this generation of consoles.
You can certainly sense id’s history in Rage. The game feels like something of a throwback to the days of Doom in a first-person market that seems to have found a niche in ultra-realistic military shooters such as Battlefield and Call of Duty. Rage is gritty, visceral, artistic, original and intense. id haven’t concerned themselves with realism, and strategic shooting is merely an option. Rage’s goal is to create a unique setting, give you cool and powerful weapons and let you loose in brutal, intense fire fights.
The notion that Rage is original may take gamers by surprise. I mean, another post-apocalyptic world? Really? But there truly is something incomparable about the world in Rage. For the most part it shuns the black comedy that has become the trend in recent games like Borderlands and adopts a paranoid, pessimistic tone. The characters, story, and artwork provide a sense of desperation, of oppression. You’re told early on that Rage is a dark and dangerous world and that sense carries with you until the credits roll. But this isn’t Half Life. There isn’t the same despair or drive to rally against this dystopia. The societies in Rage are just trying to get by. They largely accept their world, because it’s the only one they’ve ever known.
You spend the first half of the game just trying to survive and figure out your place in the world. You’re called upon by people in need of your ‘special abilities’ and offered valuable items in return. Clear out these bandits that attacked us, and I’ll give you a new gun. Need my recipe for medical supplies? I’ll give it to you in return for this favour. This is how society operates, and you begin to settle into a comfortable rhythm, all the while finding out more about the world with a growing sense that you’re being pulled into a fate you can’t avoid.
The story and other elements, when broken down, have disappointing flaws. But the game just feels right. The dungeons are incredibly atmospheric. Rage looks beautiful, and each place has it’s own vibrant, unique feel thanks to id’s new multi-texture engine, id Tech 5. The enemies change up frequently, with mini-boss battles or heavy armoured enemies thrown in just enough to keep you on your toes. You’re never overwhelmed, but you can never relax. You never really know what’s in the next room or where they’ll come from. You die relatively quickly, but are given a revive tool with a timed recharge if you make a mistake. The combat is tense and in-your-face, only easing up to let you catch your breath before the next wave around the corner. At one point, traversing a dead city full of mutants, Rage takes on a feel very reminiscent of Doom, and it shines brightly in this moment.
Ammo is plentiful, and your guns are varied, but the dungeons can be an expedition and you’ll want to manage your ammo just in case there’s a powerful enemy in the next room. The mechanics are smooth and polished, and guns feel like they should in a post-apocalypse. They have the wear, tear and kickback to feel well-used and almost affectionately homely. The upgrades and new ammo types give every gun multiple purposes. You may even find a once discarded gun become your favourite with a new upgrade. Pistol: Useless, right? But grab yourself a monoscope and some high-calibre rounds and it can blast away enemies in a few shots from across the room. If the guns aren’t enough, feel free to throw out a wingstick (a bladed boomerang) to take an enemy’s head off, or throw out a roaming sentry for a helping hand. Or how about a remote control car with a bomb attached? The choice is yours to be as tactical or as straight-up brutal as you want. Throughout, you feel like a badass in grave and viscious situations, and few games make blowing your way through a dungeon as satisfying.
The other elements of Rage won’t blow you away, but they’re interesting enough to keep things fresh. The car mechanics are fluid, simple, and work. Races are accessible, pick-up-and-play stuff and travelling by car usually involves a quick fight or two. Journey’s never last longer than a few minutes, anyway, but they’re there if you want to explore a bit. The same for the gambling mini-game. It’s simple and quick, and you won’t be addicted to it, but it’s there to mix things up. The best minigame is the trading card game. The 54 cards are scattered throughout the world, hidden every now and then underneath a table or around a corner, and it’s satisfying to build an unbeatable deck over the course of the game. The game itself is surprisingly fun, relying on a fine balance of luck and strategy. And practically speaking, it’s a great way to make some quick bucks to load up on ammo before setting off for your next mission.
There are some distinct flaws. Rage is an easy game. I’m pretty bad at shooters, but I played through it on hard and only died twice. The autosave feature is used rarely, so if you ever do die, you can end up being backtracked 20 minutes. Unless, of course, you save frequently, which disrupts the flow of the game. Enemy types really only split into 3, and all have a repetitive tactic. Mutants will have you whip out a shotgun. Bandits all have distinct styles of attack, which is refreshing, but ultimately are all taken care of in the same way. The Authority are supposed to be dangerous and high-tech, but their combat style is straight forward shooting and they’re easily dealt with. Rage also feels the need to re-use dungeons, constantly asking you return to an area you just cleared and do it backwards. Throughout, Rage is flirting with losing the sense of unfamiliarity which is its main hook.
Unfortunately, Rage doesn’t boast the story to match its strong setting. You’re more or less given an antagonist and told that they want you dead, and that’s about it. The quests start to seem a bit pointless when you stop getting new items and take up a cause which doesn’t seem to go anywhere, leaving you to do things mostly for the sake of doing them. Eventually, you end up with The Resistance. But your time interacting with them is disappointingly short and offers little new information. You’ll end up embarking on a mission that’s supposed to be the turning point for The Resistance. It’s clearly the final mission, and the game really hypes it up. You start hearing about how no one has ever returned, that no one knows what’s there, only that there’s probably something big. If you explore the town beforehand, you hear people make quiet remarks about something being 60 feet tall, then falling quiet as you approach. You’re even given a big new powerful gun. Awesome!
So you fight your way through the area and the game just…ends. The new enemy type was a loose modification on an already existing one, and you already knew about them if you’d played the card game anyway. Hell, the last area isn’t even that long, or that hard. I made my way through it with a turret and a shotgun full of pop rockets. There’s no narrative resolution offered either. id were clearly trying to set up Rage 2, but it lacks the hook to make you want to know what happens next. Instead, you’re left with a story that cuts off and a huge feeling of disappointment. The most memorable boss battle, and the best moments, happen right in the middle of the game. There feels like there’s a story here, but id hasn’t been able to tell it.
Rage is a roller-coaster without that large, iconic drop at the end. It’s not smart. It’s memorable, adrenaline pumping action. It stands out in the crowd. It brings the old shooter into the modern age with a few interesting twists. There’s something awesome about that, even if it lacks a breathtaking ending.
Pros
- Incredible atmosphere
- Guns feel great
- Weapon variety
Cons
- Easy
- Story is light
- Poor ending
7/10
A good purchase once the price drops.
