Rage?

[Daryn]

One of the biggest games of the year is no doubt id Software's RAGE. This post-apocalyptic shooter is the first to use id's new id Tech 5 engine. Beyond that and the nifty megatexture technology it turns out that RAGE is just a really fun game. Anyone here played it yet? Was it what you were expecting it to be? I for one didn't care much for the multiplayer, but I really liked the single player mode.

[SliceOfDog]

Due to a need to focus on my Uni work and a lack of spare funds, I'm putting this one off until Christmas, but I'm very excited about it! It's the first game I've been this excited about since... well, since New Vegas (anyone noticing a pattern here?)
A friend of mine who has inexplicably disliked it since the first trailer revelled in telling me it's had horrible reviews, but when I checked those out it turned out only to be for PC, as it was released with terrible graphics problems (since patched, if I'm correct). On console, it seems to have received 4 1/2 - 5 almost across the board.

[Daryn]

I got it on PC, and the first couple of days I had it the game was pretty much unplayable. Now that the drivers are up to scratch and the game got an update it's excellent. With 8k textures it does look better than the consoles, but you need some heavy horsepower on your graphics card to handle that. The console versions on the other hand look good and work out of the box. Still, now that the PC version is fixed up I have no problems recommending it.

[Adonisus]

Played it on Xbox. Loved it while it lasted.

[Rick Canaan]

RAGE, for me, was a mixed reaction.

When I first got it (which I did on the PC), I thought it was the coolest game I had seen in years, and I was worshiping at id's feet for finally producing another game.

And those two things, I later understood, were why I wasn't really seeing that RAGE was actually just a mediocre game.

Id Software has long had the reputation for leading the shooter genre. Whenever they'd announce a new title, fans would would be sitting in great anticipation. I think this held especially true after id told Activision where to take itself and signed up with the software publisher, Bethesda. Their team-up with Bethesda promised fresh breath into the shooter genre, getting id away from the profits-grubbing corporate mentality held by Activision. We saw examples of this latter in the second Doom3 title and in Quake 4; both were completely uninspired sequels seeking to cash in on the original titles' fan bases.

Now, we get the first game from id after their team-up with Bethesda: RAGE.

RAGE, honestly, is a good game. For what it presents, it is a fun, fast-paced shooter and action game. You get a huge loadout of great weapons (a thing started by id with DooM), and you get segments with some very exciting racing play. The game particularly shines with enemy encounters.

The game's enemies are truly inspired. They talk amongst one-another during combat. They'll flank you, get behind cover, and even retreat if you move to more advantageous positions against them. And their movements are spectacular. To make themselves harder to shoot, these guys jump against rocks, leap up and grab onto features in the ceilings to swing at you, dive for cover, and weave and dodge as they charge your position. Their animations for all of these movements are awesomely seamless and done so well so as to be indistinguishable from life-like.

RAGE's driving segments are equally fun. You get a huge landscape around which to explore, faster and more powerful cars as the game progresses, and fun little things to try for as you drive around. (There's like these floating drones that you can jump into for extra goodies.) The animations for the cars are done with as much attention to detail as the enemies, too; you get to watch suspensions jump and shudder over ground features, and your car is realistically effected by terrain.

But this is pretty much where the game stops being fun.

Before too long, these things I mentioned above, become commonplace and expected. And not long after, you come to realize that these are all the game really has to offer. The difficulty presented by the enemy encounters will become increasingly annoying, and the driving will become more than a little tedious.

The story is short. The typical experienced shooter-player can get through the game in like 12 to 15 hours. The missions and story are unspectacularly linear. The landscape is disappointingly restricted.

This being a roleplay game in addition to being a shooter, you also have to manage an extensive inventory. As you move around the game, you'll pickup goodies, and you'll get goodies from allies you meet along the way. You can also buy and sell stuff from vendors.

All of this has to be managed. The screen for doing this, in my opinion, is clunky and uninspired. It will very quickly grow tedious not very far into the game.

Also, with this being a roleplay game, I was more than a little put off by there not being any experience management. You get no experience points in the game. All you get is money, trinkets and ammo. So, in addition to the game's story and objectives being linear, you're character's progression through it is restricted in the same linear fashion. You don't level up (a hallmark of the roleplaying game), and your only rises are in toughness and better weapons. You even have to buy armorer upgrades from vendors. There are absolutely no experience points to allocate towards character customization.

In the final analysis, RAGE is a title you'll have fun with over about half a weekend. You might do a second or third playthrough, but that is the most I think anyone will be able to get out of it. I did two playthroughs, hoping to find new and hopefully interesting secrets. I found a few, yeah, but they were populated only with more of the same: lots of annoying enemies to fight and just more junk to sell - for more money just to buy more ammo.

Hopefully, id will be releasing content for the game. If they do, I will be one of the first in line to buy it. This game has incredible potential. Hopefully id and Bethesda sees this and is willing to expand on it. Until they do, however, RAGE is only a title which will thrill for a short time. After the thrill, it turns into just one more game.

[Daryn]

I would be hesitant to call RAGE a roleplaying game. It has some roleplaying elements like an inventory and quests, but RAGE leans far more heavily on the shooter side. What I can say though is that id took a risk with RAGE and for the most part it paid off. Sure they made a few mistakes like focusing on consoles and treating the PC like a second class citizen. The result of that was a lot of PC players didn't have a good experience. I'm sure they're going to remedy that soon and not repeat that mistake for Doom 4.

Another thing I hope they don't do is release DLC for multiplayer. I don't think anyone bought RAGE for multiplayer. It was one of the better single player games in a long time, and I think they should expand on that aspect.

[Uilliam]

I rather enjoyed RAGE, but it was a bit on the shorter side.
Which isn't to say it wasn't fun. I mean I enjoyed Metro 2033 and that was linear (when did linearity in games become a bad word?). But still, it would've been nice if it were a bit larger, even more reason to put in a car so you don't have to tromp around on foot for hours.
I do like the more updated uptake on Fallout's Retro-50s underground vaults, and that the reason for going underground being, also a modern fear.

[SliceOfDog]

How have I not replied to this since playing RAGE?!

This will change right now:

I absolutely love RAGE. Admittedly I'm not quite half-way through yet (still on first disk, although I assume I'm very close to finishing it) so there is room for it to become repetitive, but as it stands I find it extremely fun and very versatile. The mini-games in it are of a high quality, and the core game-play mechanics are near spotless. It looks fantastic, especially the characters' faces, expressions and general movement, and you can really feel the weapons that you use (brilliant reactions from the NPCs you shoot, including stumbling, collapsing realistically and, sometimes, crawling away dragging damaged limbs).

I find it a very fun game to play, and genuinely enjoy doing all of the side-missions and mini-games, as opposed to ploughing through them to unlock things or through feeling that I have to. And of course, as a post-apoc lover, the setting and story for me are just fantastic. I love just seeing things dotted around, and the first time I saw those blimps that occasionally float around? Forget about it, I was ready to yell out "Shut up and take my money!".

However, there are naggling things that annoy me about it. No where near enough to ruin the experience, but probably because I enjoy the rest so much, the bits I don't enjoy are highlighted and difficult to ignore:

Strange lacks of reaction throughout the game. NPCs will not react to stimulus which you would fully expect them to react to, and so you can be left feeling a tad empty. For example, there are the racing mini-games. When you get far enough, the best NPC racer will personally challenge you. You can accept, race him, and beat him. Great. Then you leave the racing tracks, and he is stood at his usual place. You walk up to him. He stares at you.
...
No comment. No finishing of the quest. Nothing.
From then on he just stares at you when you walk past, exactly as he did before he challenged you.
Then there's the man who advertises the races. He signs you up initially as a driver. You beat every single race they have available, clearly proving yourself to be the best driver in the town, and he makes no comment whatsoever. Just that empty stare again.

I'm sure it wouldn't have been difficult for them to have added, what, 3 lines of dialogue that are chosen at random when you walk close to him. "Great going there, I can't wait to see you race again". "Wow, you sure showed [name of last #1 driver] who's the best around here" etc. It just gives a bit of closure. I feel like my game is broken at the moment. People spoke to me more when I was a stranger in the town (prompting the starts of quests) than they do now that I'm a local hero.

Then there are gameplay versions of this. There's a point (slight spoiler warning, but nothing major) when the Authority send drones out to Wellspring to search for you. When I first saw this I thought it was bloody brilliant (despite almost soiling myself) and spent the next five minutes waiting for the drones to float away before dashing through the side-streets and back-alleys to reach my destination. There was even a moment where they started to scan my back before I ducked inside the garage and quickly drove away.

Then after a while I got curious. I saved the game, went back to Wellspring and boldly walked right up to the drones. It looks at me, scans my face. Tense pause.
...
Nothing happens. It floats away.

Now that to me smacks of a missed opportunity. I'm sure it would have made things very difficult gameplay wise, to add enemies into an area that is necessary for story progression and where you can't use weapons. But if you don't intend to do that, why add them in the first place? They could easily have added Authority soldiers instead, who see you just as an irritation and wave you along. "Move along, move along". They have an excuse not to recognise you. But drones that scan your face? They have no excuse.

Also, on a minor note, RAGE is somewhat sexist and racist. The only black character that I can remember coming across so far is the Wellspring mechanic, who somehow, despite presumably living with the entire population of Wellspring for his entire life, has developed an entirely different dialect to them, which is strangely reminiscent of 1930s Southern black Americans. I find that rather suspect.
And so far every enemy is male (Tribals, mutants and the Authority. How do they reproduce?!) and every female is in a skimpy outfit. Well, I can think of maybe 2 female characters who aren't, but they're older women and as such wouldn't have much sex appeal to show off anyway.
But even ignoring the social/moral implications of that, how the hell does humanity survive on a ratio of about 95% men? Curious. Very curious.

Other than those minor points, and they are minor despite taking up more space than my positive comments (there are only so many times you can say "I loved it"), I thought RAGE was a great game. Probably one of my favourite of all time, and I'm greatly looking forward to being able to play it once again when I'm home for Easter.