Rage Review

**Smore ninja** · October 23rd, 2011

From famed developer id Software, creating the first person shooter genre itself, here arrives Rage. I am a grand fan of most of id’s works and the shareware version of Doom occupied many hours of my childhood, so I have high expectations of Rage. Rage is, after all, an old timers attempt to show that they still have what it takes to keep up with the kids and that they have learned some new tricks along the way. This post-apocalyptic adventure that id has presented can give the youngins a run for their money while its tricks are mighty impressive.

The gameplay can be broken into two styles: fast-paced shooting and fast-paced driving. The shooter segment is, to reiterate, fast paced and hectic. Rage has a shooter system of the Aim-Down-Sights style, while not in the same style of some of the shooters that made id famous; it is tweaked to its own style. Most shooters allow you to pull the trigger and shoot while transitioning your gun from hip fire to aiming down sight, Rage only lets you fire your gun from the hip or looking down the sights exclusively, so plan your attacks accordingly. This makes hip firing more usable while making aimed fired more cumbersome. That isn’t to say that aiming down the sights is useless, but you do need to be more active in thinking about when it's appropriate to aim down your sights as in some cases you don’t have that extra second to aim and fire. This makes combat that much more intense. Bringing something new to the table is instant-use items. These items range in function from support, to aggressive, or defensive. These items have to be assigned to a directional on the d-pad for you to select them and press the left bumper for you to use them. Some examples of instant use items are: bandages (which will instantly give you full health instead of waiting for the health regen to kick in), grenades, and the various engineering goods you can make. The last new trick that Rage includes is a defibrillator, commonly seen in video games for one person to bring another back to life. The defibrillator can be used to revive yourself, just as usual. While most games require another person to use the defibrillator, in Rage you don't need another person because the defibrillator is inside you; you can revive yourself when you die. When you die, you play a mini-game. When you complete the mini-game, all nearby enemies receive damage and you gain some health back base on your performance in the mini-game. After reviving yourself, you have to wait for the defibrillator to recharge, making the game a bit more challenging.

The driving part of Rage is just as great as shooting. To put it simply, it's a wasteland style Mario Kart. While you don’t always have to be racing around, there are epic vehicle battles to be had. I don’t spend much time driving in video games, but the driving in Rage is very easy to pick up. The handbrake will slow you down very quickly to help you make sharp turns and the boost will give you a sudden increase in speed. Driving is based around mastering these two features of your car. You will also get weapons for your wasteland transportation; they are really easy to use and automatically lock onto enemies. All you need to do is keep up. There is one final trick in your arsenal while in your automotive death machine: instant-use items. Similar to using instant-use items on foot, you select them with the d-pad and activate their effects using the left bumper. These effects range from shields (which make you invulnerable from all attacks for a limited time), to hover guards (which will follow you around and attack all enemies in their range).

One thing I noticed right away was how amazing Rage looks, even for a console title. The graphics blew me away almost instantly and they greatly contribute to giving each aspect of Rage personality. For a wasteland, Rage is very scenic with great landscapes to admire. Within the first few moments of the game I was already enjoying the first vista that Rage presented. Rage also has fantastic animations, not just for characters that are talking to you, but also enemies. The enemies in Rage are animated in such a way that each of the various bandit clans you encounter seem to have a different personality. What is particularly exceptional is how the enemies are animated when they die. They will clutch limbs as they fall over, not just drop like rag dolls. In some cases you can see an enemy struggle to continue attacking despite the fact that their mortal time is coming to an end.

Rage has a large arsenal of great new toys for you to try out, as well as different ammunition types for every weapon to keep them multifunctional. Some of the instant-use items are just plain fun to use, one being highly marketed is the Wingstick. To put it simply, it is a boomerang that has smart-technology. This weapon is just so satisfying to use that the only reason why I don’t want to use one is because I am out of Wingsticks to throw. The RC bomb car, most comparable to the RC-XD from Call of Duty: Black Ops, drives almost exactly like a regular vehicle but with slightly less control. The most sadistic and cruel part of your arsenal are your mind-control darts; when you hit a human target, you can control them for a limited amount of time. When the time expires, or when you get hit (as in your character, not your victim), the victim explodes. There are several more toys, but it'd be better for you to experience them by actually playing the game.

Rage has two portions of the game: a single player mode and multiplayer mode. Multiplayer has two distinct game types and the single player is spread over two disks. Since the number two has been appearing quite often, I'm not sure if they're hinting at a sequel, but that could just be a coincidence. The single player story mode is a great experience, but it does have some short-comings. One thing that it does really well is introduce several of its fun new toys in a manner that is more helpful and learning, typically with a best case scenario just around the corner. For example, when you get the electric bolts for your crossbow, you will stumble upon a few enemies standing in a puddle of water. Rage’s story mode also has a good general feel to it. Since the story mode is split onto two separate disks, they both have a supporting theme. The first gives you the feel of a wasteland cowboy, and the second is that of an underground rebel.

The multiplayer has two different game modes: one co-op and one versus. The co-op mode is called Legend of the Wasteland. It’s a fun concept of an old man telling tales surrounding the exploits of you and your partner. You hear this man introduce the tale to you and your partner during the loading screen, then you get to run off and complete the objective which you need to accomplish. One change in Legend of the Wasteland is that instead of waiting for your defibrillator to fully recharge, you have two charges to use whenever you like. You can also opt to wait for your partner to run to you and revive you by means of hitting you with an electric stick. For the most part, maps from single player are recycled, but at the same time they're restructured which keeps the co-op mode interesting. The versus game modes are focused on driving and are just as easy to pick up as regular driving. The typical objective is to race around a track to accomplish something before the enemies do. It’s crazy, intense, and all in all good fun.

While Rage has done exceptionally well in many areas, it still has a few flaws. The lack of a shooter versus game type is one; while it wasn’t greatly needed, it would have been a fun addition. In the story mode, you encounter a giant behemoth mutant beast. While intimidating at first, you don’t really feel threatened by it until you are forced into fighting it when you pick up the weapon needed to kill it. A better way to handle this scenario would have been to have the beast actively chase you, making it much more satisfying to fight the monster. There is also no way to be stealthy in Rage, despite having weapons designed for a stealthy approach. The reason for this seems to be that the paths are far too linear. While a linear approach isn’t a bad thing, it does ruin any attempt at stealth. The last issue that I had was the ending. I won't spoil any of the details, but in my opinion the ending could have used some more work.

Don’t let the previous paragraph deceive you; I have enjoyed playing every second of Rage. It offers many great gameplay tricks, fantastic environments, and great animations. Overall, Rage provides a fantastic game experience, made by the creators of the genre, which I was very happy to play and review.

Overall Rating:
9/10