Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

Story: In 2029 an asteroid collides with earth and destroys nearly the entire world. 106 years later your character awakens from an Ark, an underground shelter which main function was to keep its occupants alive so that in the future there would be enough people in the world to repopulate. Your nameless character is thrown into this harsh world with no motive and no idea what awaits him in this new world. And that is pretty much all the story is through most of the game. There is no real narrative beyond that point and when the whole story about the Arks starts to go some where, the game just ends. Most of the game's story revolves around you doing odd jobs for other survivors and in hope of getting a better understanding of the world. What the story does well is that it gets the atmosphere down pretty good of a world pretty much gone to hell and there is no hope, and that you are just another person in this world. Along with some good voice acting and a few interesting and funny characters, the atmosphere is pretty well done. I just really wish that the main story could be a little more interesting, because the story itself is only average at best, with a pretty good atmposphere to say the least.

Graphics: Sure there are tons of games on the market today that take place in a post apocalyptic setting, but none have amazing and detailed graphics like this. The environments are nothing new for a post apocalyptic game, your basic destroyed cities and landscapes but with the amount of detail in the envrionments and areas, it is very easy to look past this. The same goes for the characters, the animations for the characters are fantastic to say the least, the characters don't just walk, run, shoot etc. They climb walls, jump all over the place, nod their hats as you enter their office and they are just very well animated. Their reactions also look fantastic too, for example if someone gets shot they don't just shrug it off and keep going, they may clutch their arm or their mid section and take cover for a minute to recover. The faces are all well animated, the effects from everything from cars tearing up the road to guns firing all over the place, the graphics are fantastic. The only real bad parts are that there is a little clipping and screen tearing every now and then, along with some other bugs and glitches, but over all the game looks flat out amazing.

Gameplay: The gameplay is split into a few sections and they all work, but are not perfect. The first section is the shooting, The shooting works well and can be fun at times, and there are a couple of different ammo types to mix things up. Along with that there are also a bunch of different enemies to fight, from different bandit factions which all fight in different ways, to mutants which are just out to rip you apart. All this variety helps but the game still suffers from what most FPS suffer from today, it all feels kind of the same. Don't get me wrong it still does enough to make it its own game but it feels all the same. While in the shooting sections of the game, you can't go off and explore the entire area like you could in Fallout 3 and to be honest there is a whole lot to explore in this game. The next section is the small RPG elements that the game has. I feel like this section is rather lacking because you don't level up or anything like that, and the only real elements are creating weapons and gadgets to help you survive, which are fun to use, and make the game that just more fun. The last section is the driving which is simple, but fun. There are different kinds of cars to collect and you can compete in races and car combat. You can also get upgrades for your car which are all the more welcome and a good addition to the game. There is also multiplayer to the game, which includes car combat and co-op missions which I guess can be enjoyable (didn't really get to play it that much).

Over all:

Story: 6 Despite having a good atmosphere, the game's story has little to offer.

Graphics: 9.5 Even though this genre has been done to death, it has never looked this good.

Gameplay: 8 While solid and it can be a lot of fun, it is far from perfect.

Enjoyment: 8 I did enjoy Rage but I feel like this game could have been a lot better in some aspects.

Final score:7.8(8)