"It's all the Rage!"
But before I get anybody worked up about this game being one of my personal favorite shooters of last year, let me clarify that this game didn't have any serious competition in the first place. There were only a few games that I liked last year that were FPS's, and this is the only one that really succeeds in what it attempts. It's a straight-forward shooter with an intricate linear design that displays some ground-breaking visuals that come very close to being the best of last year. This is something that is usually "in" when it comes to making big-budget shooters for the masses of players that buy games because of advertising and most developer's thoughts about all gamers being dumb. Rage is one of the few games released this generation that actually takes advantage of the way it was designed. Basically what I'm saying is that its linearity is definitely its biggest strength.
Let me explain myself to those who are reading this who have a knot in their panties after reading the last sentence of the paragraph before this one. Linearity is something that has been misused over this generation of gaming, and results in the experience being overly simple, and almost insultingly lacking in any real interest in what the player feels. Playing Rage reminded me that there was once a time where linear games could definitely prove to be better games than ones that are more open-ended, and it's for one simple reason: the game is actually thought out. Most every area that you visit in this game has had more effort put into it than you might expect if you were just watching from the side while your friend hates on the game for the soul purpose of its straight-forwardness. When analyzing this game, I definitely felt like there was a lot of care and attention put into the amount of key design ideas that I'd expect no less from a company of this magnitude (Id).
Firstly, there are the creatable items. You collect assorted materials through-out the levels that you play, and with time and resources, you find new items to craft. I've found that every single item in this game works in ways that can help you a lot in harder areas. For example, the Wing-Sticks act as a boomerang that can take one of your opponent's heads off, and it might even come back to you. In many instances you will be out of ammo and in need of a quick-use item to get you out of a sticky situation, and the Wing-sticks are there for you to make your enemies either stumble, or just die in general. There are also the typical healing items, grenades, turrets, and other assorted items that you can freely place on a hot-key that's always at your disposal. Thanks to the variety in enemy types, not only will your items be bounced around on the usage scale, but they will still all be important. I've very rarely seen this trait in FPS's, as most of what will be useful to you will be certain guns that you've taken a liking to, like in typical FPS's like Battlefield 3, or Modern Warfare 3. Rage has a full arsenal of weapons and items for you to use and strategize with, and most of it will be useful at one point or another because the game is designed with all of your weapons in mind.
Weapon wise, Rage feels about as complete as an FPS could get. One might feel that the overall arsenal that you are given is pretty generic, but if you look closely (like with your items), you'll find that yet again you are using every single one of your guns constantly. It's one thing for the guns to feel satisfying while killing something (which this game also does), but when it works so well with the overall layout of the game, it's hard not to admire what a good job Id did with making everything useful. The game was made with both close-quarters and far distances in mind, which is why the game gives you a generous amount of weapons to use for all situations. You could stick with one gun, but that would mean running out of ammo faster, which this game gives in small doses. You're expected to know what to do with your guns, and if you are 17 and older like the M rating on the box says you should be, then you should have no problem with a little bit of problem solving.
Like the items, the various ammo types in Rage all help in their own ways. While there is a common case of just re-skinning bullets and making them more powerful just for the sake of calling it "variety", there are an even amount of instances where the different ammo is actually different. The crossbow is the perfect example of this: in addition to your basic bolts, you get electric bolts which help a lot in soaked areas, mind control bolts which help with larger groups of enemies, and so on. If all the weapons had been made with this type of variety, then I could go as far as to say that this is the most flavorfully delicious (did I really just type that) shooting I've seen in a game in quite a while.
Next, there are the numerous amounts of enemies that you face in the game. Like any good game, as you go through there is an expected difficulty ramp to over-come, and that has also been an element that has been absent from shooters for some time now. Playing this game on harder difficulties, it feels like the challenge is still legitimately fair in all aspects, with enemies being the biggest factor of fairness. When going through the game, enemies become harder and harder, and it almost feels like a struggle for life just trying to fight off one heavy trooper with a machine gun. The enemies are designed with all your weapons in mind, and thanks to the smart behavior of these enemies, your reflexes and thinking are going to definitely be tested. This game isn't REALLY hard, but it does offer a good challenge regardless, and it's matched by the amount of unknown player choice that you have.
It's linear, and I think it's one of the finest designs I've seen in a while. But how do the open world segments hold up? Well, they hold up about as well as one would expect from wide open spaces with little activity. One of my biggest gripes with any open world game is there being a lack of any real substance to the openness. While Rage does try and remedy this with constant car-battles and a different assortment of collectibles, it feels like its only real purpose is to make a racing mechanic. I like the racing in this game, but I don't like having to travel through the same bouts of terrain to find myself in a place I've already been in over and over again. What could've been done to fix this? Well, the added substance would've been nice. I'm not saying randomly generated quests are going to make me like it anymore, but a few more areas with more of that same great level design would've definitely been nice.
Going back to the subject of racing in this game, I absolutely enjoyed vehicle combat and competition in this game. Having a different assortment of races that all have entertainment value while being able to upgrade your vehicle at the same time provides an addictive nature that is kind of hard for any other kart racer to match. It's fleshed out to the point where it could've been a game in itself, but one with little substance, seeing as how customization isn't as expansive as one would expect. You can feel the differences when you buy new parts, but the problem is that there aren't that many parts to choose from. Regardless of this, I can't really find any problems with this element. It's fun, it's addictive, and it offers something beyond just repeatedly shooting some guy with an assortment of well-designed weapons.
In between all the shooting and racing in the game, you can invest a lot of time into what various towns offer as well. Throughout the game you get a steady stream of new towns to explore, and new side-quests to take part in. For the most part, side-quests are relatively simple, offering little more than you standing from a vantage point while you protect people. While these missions aren't bad, it makes me with that these had been like the other side-quests in this game. I'm talking about the various quests that ask you to go back into the Wasteland for a certain item. In most cases, I absolutely hate the idea of doing nothing but fetching an item for somebody (especially if it's alcohol, like this game brilliantly made it be in one instance), but thanks to the sheer joy that I got from just shooting bad-guys while being able to play as freely as I want, it makes them far more worthwhile, as opposed to just standing in one spot with a sniper-rifle.
When you're not taking place in various side-quests, you can peruse any town freely, looking for vendors and mini-games to partake in. The first town in this game, Wellspring, offers a wealth of different little games to play, with money being the key motivation in playing. You never really dry out as far as money goes, but if you want to make sure that you're playing with the best of equipment, it's almost hard not to take a look at them. All of them have an urban atheistic that matches the dry, post-apocalyptic world, and they can be strangely addictive at times. "Tombstones" is one of the simplest mini-games that I've ever played, but I feel like I've stocked hours into it. The card-game in this game acts as sort of a tweaked version of any typical card-game you might find at your local Wal-Mart, and can be equally as addictive if you've invested time into searching for more cards that are scattered through-out the world. These mini-games are mostly there for the sake of making towns seem busy, and they succeed. It was fun looking for new mini-games to play when I made the transition to the new town, and it was even more fun when I finally got to playing them.
It's almost hard to talk about the story at this point, seeing as how I pretty much skipped over it just to make my point about how well made this game is, but I do find it necessary to mention it still. Plot and direction are things that have been sorely missing from most FPS's these days, and Rage doesn't make any attempt at making a comprehensive one. It's hard to find any reason to care about anything that is going on in the game, mainly because it offers little in the ways of motivation. You start out as a soldier who comes out of a long, cryogenic sleep that is taken in by a man named Dan Hagar. From there, you complete a few tasks, get new weapons, and that's about it. Not only did I find every single character in this game pretty much useless, but I also found that if they had been useful anyways, there would be nothing they could do to help the story in this game, because there basically isn't one to help in the first place.
There is absolutely no plot within the game in the beginning and middle, but what plot they do try to get across in the end feels rushed. I'm fine with a game that has little plot and a lot of action, but it makes me grumpy that the only thing that I really care about in this post-apocalyptic is whether or not I'm having fun or not, which I'm almost always having, but I digress. The characters themselves have some decent dialogue, and some pretty good voice-actors too, but it all feels like an all-together useless effort to give the game so resemblance of an actual story. Any resemblance of plot it pretty much dismissed, making the story in Rage in most regards, a total waste of effort.
With this being my only real big complaint towards the game, let's get to something that most everybody can agree on: the visuals. This is one of the prettiest games that I've ever seen, ever. The amount of detail in the textures and scenery in this game is down-right insane, and it just wows me every time I boot up the game. With the only real eye-sore being the pop-up and texture loading, seeing this game go 60 frames per second is something that you don't get very often. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic settings, and this game does that theme incredible justice too. Characters, weapons, and towns give this game a distinct feeling that is coupled with some of the neatest items and upgrades you can get in any game on the market right now. Obviously, a lot of care and attention went into the making of this games constant visual fidelity, and it's one of the most heart-felt efforts I've seen from a shooter in quite a while.
When talking about visual quality, sound is something that'll inevitably come up. While I can say that this isn't the best game in any category as far as sound goes, it exceeds in every category that it attempts. Weapons sound awesome, with explosions and slicing effects being something that will stick with your ears for a while. The music in the game, while awkwardly mixed to loop, is still pretty good, if a little bit generic. What I really dig with this game is the overall atmosphere and tone that you experience everywhere. It's definitely a post-apocalyptic world, and it shows through the constant droning of music one would hear in limbo. At times, that game can almost be scary (almost), and it's mostly thanks to the tension that one could feel with the overall feeling that this game creates. It's not as memorable as the Fallout games, but in its own rights, the game creates a mood the fits the theme perfectly.
People will definitely remember this game for its visuals, but I feel that the rest of this game deserves more attention than what people are giving it. Looking back, this is one of the funnest games that I've played in a while. While its non-existent story and other problems hold it back from being one of the best games of last year, I feel that everybody should give this game a shot. Id has made one hell of a gem with Rage, and it's something that will definitely stay in collection from now until I decide to move onto the next generation of consoles. In my mind, this game still deserves to be all the rage, whether it is because of its soul, or because of its design accomplishments. Kudos, Id; while people might be losing faith in you, I still believe that you haven't missed a step.
Review by Cal Burkhart