I thought Rage will be a great post-apocalyptic experience but in the end the game is just disappointing.
Once again we play as a speechless hero, who wakes up inside an Ark which is destroyed. The hero finds out that his crew is dead and the world is destroyed. Later on, he also finds out that he is being hunted by Authority (an organization) which wants to capture him in order to retrieve the Ark technology as he is the only survivor. The Story is simple as that, and we will not feel any emotions towards the protagonist or the story itself. Only the characters meet by us have some interesting personalities.
Because the main character does not talk whatsoever and the plot is boring (sometimes I even wonder if there is any plot or not), Rage becomes an empty, typical and ordinary first person shooter. Of course we can ride vehicles, buy new parts and upgrade them and then race with others NPCs but still, we have the feeling of strange 'emptiness' when we see out protagonist or the world around us. Maybe it is only my feelings but I suppose that many of you guys share the same opinion. Moreover, if you think that Rage is a open-ended fps than you are mistaken. In Rage we will visit places like destroyed cities full of mutants, caves, towns and etc., but overall the game is very linear. We only play from one mission to another which is really boring and stupid, because sometimes I ask myself if I play a survivor or a courier. I am a demanding gamer and I want a good protagonist with interesting storyline and I am completely sure that first person shooters can be like that. Unfortunately, Rage is not.
There are some good elements in Rage though. I like the weapons which have cool design and we can swith between different ammunition. We can ride vehicles which is also a nice addition to the game. Post-apocalyptic towns are really atmospheric, there are many mini games (we can play cards etc.). But most importantly, the NPCs are really interesting and to be honest, they are the true main character in this game.
The visual effects are stunning when for example we see destroyed buildings in the sunlight, or a room full of dust and other stuff. But very often the graphics can be very glitchy, especially when it comes to loading textures.
I do not have any reservations to the game's sound, but I do think that the soundtrack could be better.
Overall, I would say that Rage is not as good as probably all of us was thinking in the beginning when we saw the trailers and read the news. The main character and the story are boring and ordinary that we simply do not care about it which is sad. We do not feel engaged in the plot itself. Also the world seems to be so empty even though it looks big. This is enough for me to say that Rage is a disappointing game. It is still worth to play it of course, but you will quickly forget about this game and return to Fallout or Metro 2033.
The Good: interesting NPCs ~ climatic towns~ we can ride vehicles~ good arsenal of nice weapons.
The Bad: Boring main character~ not engaging storyline~ empty world~ gameplay becomes repetetive~ playing from mission to mission is boring again~ slow texture loading.