Check out IncredibleGFunk's review of Rage and find out if the game is worth your time and money. Rage released on October 4, 2011 and is available for the X360, PS3, and PC.
It bragged of the best graphics available on consoles. Id Software’s re-entry into the gaming conscious came with Rage, a post apocalyptic shooting, driving combat game. I can tell you right now the graphics look a bit off, and the driving combat gets lame pretty quickly. However, the game runs at 60 frames per second non-stop and the FPS action is fantastic!
Gameplay
The Rage story starts off with a giant asteroid crashing into earth and humankind sending
people into underground 'arks' that would serve as human storage units till the apocalyptic aftermath passes over. Your adventure starts with you being a lone Ark survivor thrust into a rugged post apocalyptic wasteland. You have nano-technology so you're a valuable asset to those in the wasteland. The game steers you towards doing missions in small towns before moving onto a couple bigger cities and the game goes by fast so enjoy it while it lasts. I clocked in about 10 hours, and did allot of side quests, d-l-c, and driving races. The first 7 hours builds momentum really well, but the ending is over in a flash. After a few terribly designed levels towards the finale, you are stunned when you realize it’s all over. After playing through some really memorable interactions in the middle of the game the last few levels were a disappointment for sure. For those expecting fallout type openness and exploration, you won't find that here. Rage's wasteland isn't as expansive, but rather felt like canyons connecting all the quest areas. It takes you only a few minutes to go from one to another, coming in contact with groups of bandits in vehicles where you'll battle it out with mini guns, rockets and more. Towards the end of the game it was cheaper and easier just to turbo blast past all the rough spots and fast track to the mission points. It just wasn’t worth the time and energy to burn the rockets, and have to pay for repairs that came with battling the bandits with your vehicle. There is no real auto save section so on longer levels make sure you save your game once and a while. Also, you should defiantly crank up the difficulty to at least hard. I couldn’t imagine how short this game would feel if I wasn’t facing the challenge of the Hard Level enemies. The story is average, and ends so abruptly that you don't really care why you're being sent to areas to beat up on mutants or bandits, you just want to get there already to get back into the action.
RPG Elements
As much as this feels like an RPG/FPS hybrid, don’t get too attached to the idea. You receive
quests but doing them doesn’t award XP. There is no real player progression as you carry on doing quests. Most of the side quests include revisiting old main quest locations with a different enemy type and sometimes going through the reverse direction. This made the side missions feel cheep and repetitive. Considering that the loot you took the first run doesn’t respawn, the side missions can feel like an ammo and supply sink, with no reward to match the bullets and engineering items used to get through the missions. The fact that these RPG elements are in the game, but no real bonus comes with them and no player progression through levelling the quest felt cheep and unrewarding.
The FPS Action
So let’s leave the RPG stuff behind and move onto the FPS action, which is the real gem of the
game. The game runs smooth, zipping at the full 60 frames per second constantly, with plenty of mutants and action on screen at once there was no slowdown. The speed of the game may take a little while to get used to but you accommodate to the speed and learn to react quicker and play more skilfully. The character models are really nice with sweet animations. Watching a bandit bound onto a wall dodging a shotgun blast will make you think twice while you flail about with your shotty trying to land a shot on your target. Your reflexes are always being tested. The hit detection is amazing and the body reacts to where it’s shot, for wounding shots and kill shots. The engineering items come in handy verses the harder mobs and once you can engineer the advanced wing sticks there are some really great moments in the action. I kept to the basic engineering gadgets like sentry guns and robots, bandages and only a few other items. The game didn’t have the length or depth to make me even consider wasting money or supplies on getting the other engineering items. The bandages are useful because they're an instant full heal at the press of a button, you don't need to be in cover even, charge an enemy, hit your bandage button and tear a hole through everyone. When you die you get a defibrillator mini game where a few quick stick twists and button presses you’re back in the game. It does take some time to recharge so that’s when you have to be careful about saving your games. Usually the game saves when you enter or exit an area but will not auto save through the level. Keep that in mind and manually save when you think the time is right.
A negative I found in the gunplay was the there were some spots around cover where you could see the enemies, but not shoot him. It was a tad frustrating in the few instances I saw it, but you can learn to accommodate to that flaw in the game. There is not a great selection of weapons in the game either, when comparing to borderland’s loot system it’s a pretty bare bones selection of shooting equipment. You have different ammo types that can add some variety to the game but you're still shooting the same model guns for the last few hours. I guess it's just another nod at the games depth as a whole not meeting today’s gamers’ standards
Graphics
Now let’s hit on the graphics. I like to say the graphics are pretty nice, that is if you don’t look at anything too close. There is a slight delay with the texture pop up, and some of the textures on some of the levels look off, even blurry. The missions into Dead City come to mind where buildings around you look really blurry. The color and lighting are adequate, but the game just looks a touch off, like they had to cut down on the details to still get the 60fps. The character models and guns look great though. Once you get into the heavier action, you spend less time critiquing the graphics and instead focus on the great gameplay.
Parting Thoughts
So in ending, the game looks ok. It is over way too quick. The driving aspect is average at best, but if you like First Person Shooters you have to give this game a try. I almost felt Id would have been better served by creating a level driving FPS, not open world, and kept the gamers attention on the great shooting moments. The shooting gameplay is smooth and intense! When you're getting rushed, you kick into instinct drive. Every shot counts and you you'll be biting your lip in the more chaotic moments. With only 10 hours of game play, I say rent it and put a good week into it and you'll get everything out of it you could need. With no feeling of progression it just feels like a shooting gallery of great FPS action, but the game just doesn’t deliver when thinking about replay ability and value for your dollar.
