Rage takes many cues from a lot of different games, and it delivers on its promise for some good old-school fun
Rage doesn't reinvent the FPS wheel. Far from it. From a gameplay perspective, it's actually a bit derivative, but not in the way you'd expect. In this age of modern tactical first-person shooters, it's nice to see a game that really sticks to the old-school formula, and combines a number of things together to form something new while simultaneously being familiar. If I had to describe this game, I'd say that it channels the soul of the original Quake with the cartoony FPS-ness of Borderlands, and it has its finger on the pulse of Fallout, with the gritty and grimy feel of Gears of War. And it has a lot in common with many other games, but first and foremost, this is an old-school FPS with a lot more to it than a fresh coat of paint.
The plot isn't amazing or deep, it kind of serves as a backdrop for the action. It's got a basic wasteland-ish sci-fi story. X event causes Y, world is now a wasteland. People are struggling to survive, but have access to power, cars, and guns. I'd say this game is more of a combo of Mad Max and Borderlands than Fallout, although it definitely feels like Fallout sometimes. As far as the story goes, it's got just enough there for you to care, but not much more. It's cool and the characters are fun and lively, but it's not complex or deep.
(A NOTE ABOUT TEXTURE POP-IN ON THE 360 AND HOW TO STOP IT)
Now we get into the graphics. Some of you may have heard that the game has insufferable texture pop-in. This is a half-truth. If you have the hard drive space for it, install it. I know it takes ten minutes, but it will seriously change the experience. It is an absolute must if you are able. There's even a disclaimer before you get to the title screen that tells you to do it if you haven't done it. It's 22gb for the two campaign discs (the third disc on 360 is for multiplayer, I think), and installing the game on your HDD will SEVERELY cut down on graphical issues. I'm currently playing this game at work, where we only have a 256mb memory card (so I obviously can't install it), and the game is greatly suffering from texture pop-in problems that I am simply not experiencing at home.
With that out of the way, let us discuss the graphics. They are pretty amazing. Looking from side to side while driving a dune buggy shows craggy outcroppings and jagged rock formations that look shockingly real and detailed, even while driving by at high speed. The towns are superbly designed, and they have that id feel to them that you can't describe, but know in your heart is there. The character models are realistic and have immense character and depth to them, like they really are people in this inhospitable world. The towns feel lived in, like people have been there for a while, and that they truly live there, and that you're a newcomer in their very real community, and the graphics are a big part of this illusion. Get too close to a texture however, and they get muddy pretty quickly. The textures don't seem to have been made to look amazing at six inches away, but that's probably because they weren't meant for that, and because the new mega-texturing system is still largely experimental, and they wanted to see if they could have a graphics system be so technically proficient overall while still maintaining 60 frames per second on current-gen hardware.
Oh yeah... about the 60 frames per second. It looks and plays fantastically. It's a bit disorienting at times, how quickly and fluidly everything moves. It's definitely something to see in HD if you have the option.
The audio is quite good, but not as jaw-dropping as the visuals. The guns are loud as hell, the voice-overs are competent, and the atmospheric noises and the soundtrack all do their job. It's nothing to scream about, but they did a good job. It's totally decent and about what I'd expect for a game like this.
And all of this would be meaningless if Rage wasn't fun to play. Well, it is. It's damn fun. Ignore the fact that you're mostly just some errand boy or sent on "go check this out" missions, those act as a backdrop for you to explore this amazing world. Yes, the world isn't quite as open as we would like to have thought, but you forget about that pretty quickly, because it's a stunning backdrop for all this visceral action. Enemies really respond to being shot, which is so different than many other games. You shoot a bandit in the leg, and his leg flies back and he jumps up and down for a second. Stuff like that feels real, and draws us in. The crafting system is fun and interesting, and makes you feel thrifty with the things you pick up. The weapons are all fun as hell to use, and the wingstick is just fantastic for lopping bad dudes' heads off. The game is super fun, and it's a kind of fun I haven't had in years. I miss the days of literally running and gunning with enemies that are hard to predict. This game has that old-school Quake-ish, Doom-ish feel that I miss in modern games. And that's reason enough to recommend the gameplay.
A lot of people were expecting id to completely reinvent the genre with Rage. I wasn't, really. I knew that they were working on something new, and I was sure it would be excellent, but I figured they were going to try and get the genre back to basics. I miss the old games, and they way they played. They weren't terribly realistic because they didn't have to be. Back then, games just needed to be fun, and they sure as hell were, and id was responsible for some great games back in those days. That's not to say that I don't have tons of fun with modern shooters like Black Ops and Bad Company 2. I just long for the old days sometimes, and I'm so glad that id was interested in showing us that you can take everything that the game industry has done over the last ten years, and push the clock back to a time when gameplay was more about being reckless and trying new things. Rage is definitely for those of us in our 20's and 30's who miss those days. I can recommend this to anyone that likes RPG's, shooters, or adventure games. It's got the strengths of all those games, and some weaknesses too. It's not perfect, but I am having a great time, and this is one of those game I can see myself revisiting time and time again for the experience, and the world that it takes place in.
So saddle up, men. This one's for us.