Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

Maybe Id's timing with the release of Rage wasn't the best. Not only did it take years to develop, it also had to follow the huge surge in open-world and post-apocalyptic games that hit in the past five years. Fallout 3 and New Vegas came before it. So did S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and its two sequels. Want more of the post-apocalyptic feel? I guess Metro 2033 fits that bill. The Last of Us will be releasing soon as the famed Naughty Dog leave behind Nathan Drake and the Uncharted series for grayer pastures. And than there are all the open-world action games like Just Cause and its sequel. Sure, Rage was in development before any of these games even released, but the fact is that by the time Id got their product out the door there were alternatives available and they were alternatives that people adored. But despite the crowded market, Rage still stands out as an exceptional shooter, one that handles its gunplay better than any of the above games and it shows Id's mastery of the genre where it matters most: point-blank with a shotgun.

Gameplay is what defines Rage, and it is the focus and polish put on the core mechanics of the game that make Rage such a wonderful shooter to play. The gun handling is the best since 2005's F.E.A.R., the different types of enemies are all fun to fight and help bring a different perspective to combat. Fighting bandits often feels like guerilla warfare, while the mutants are a jumpy lot that sneak up on you and provide some of the most tense moments in the game, and the militaristic Authority provide an armored and professional opponent that coordinate movements and attack together with vastly superior technology to anyone else in the game's battered and ruined version of Earth.

The game is simultaneously exciting, thrilling and suspenseful. Playing through the Dead City will have you on edge as you creep around the destroyed, grotesque city, blasting mutants to pieces and surviving through a part of the game that takes the meaning of the apocalypse to a disgusting high that every shooter fan should experience. Another mission has you infiltrating an explosives factory and blowing the place sky high as you try to escape. Another of the highlights towards the end of the game, against a group called the Gearheads provides one of the heftier challenges and vertical combat. Meanwhile the howling bandits of Jackal Canyon provide one of the most manic, Sniper-rifle friendly missions available. There's tremendous variety to Rage's missions and each one is extremely fun.

There are various side missions scattered about as well, and they still retain the same level of intensity found in the main missions. Some are ridiculously exciting, like a showdown against mutants in an abandoned distillery as you pump shotgun shells and Wingsticks (Rage's version of a shuriken and a boomerang combined together) to lop off heads, all while trying to not be knocked off of the highest points of the towers you are fighting on. Others require you to go through previously completed levels again to find some item or missing person or whatever the situation calls for. It's a bit disappointing that there aren't new areas, but the levels are still fun to go through only because the combat is so entertaining. As far as main missions there is only one that you will go through in reverse, and that's unfortunately Dead City. It is amazing the first time around, but the second time it does lose a bit of the magic. But it is the only instance in the game where you are required to play a level in reverse.

Other side missions may be minor things that you have to do, like covering a traveling caravan from incoming enemies from a sniper perch somewhere hidden. Many of these sidemissions, whether they take you to brief moments where you cover people or simply back to the main levels can be obtained from job boards scattered in towns. Some are given by specific characters. They lead to unique items and upgrades for completionists but don't affect the game in any way noticeable.

Rage differs from other Id games in that it is set in an open world, essentially requiring you to drive due to size of the game map and attempts to put its focus on the game's story. This is where the problems begin. Vehicular combat is fun. Unfortunately it isn't incorporated into the game's actual levels, it's only for the overworld, essentially making vehicular combat useless. Furthermore, there isn't anything to do on the overworld other than to drive from the city to your mission and to get into a few fights on the way. Where a game like Halo has incorporated vehicular combat in its mission design from the get-go, Rage's attempt is a bit weak in that once you start your missions you don't use your vehicle.

There are races you can attempt to upgrade your car as well, but I personally had little interest in them beyond what was required to advance the game forward. They are fun for a bit, but fail to be a major attraction. And this is a problem because the combat racing is the only multiplayer option available in the game. For a developer as storied as Id, who dominated the multiplayer arena with Quake III, it's disappointing to not even have the option for online combat outside of the races. They just are not substantial enough to give the game life after the campaign. Thankfully Rage is a lengthy game and worth the asking price for the campaign alone, but it would have been nice if the effort put into the vehicular multiplayer was put towards either arena combat or back into the campaign.

Rage attempts to tell a story moreso than any other Id game before it, and it fails. Hard. The entire narrative arc is worthless and if you are anything like me you will click the Accept button long before characters finish their trite dialogue. What they have to say is of no importance. The voice acting is fine, but I was completely caught off-guard by how friendly everyone was towards my character despite warnings I would be given to keep to myself. The world as we know it ended, you would figure people wouldn't be so polite, but I'll still see a bald, tattoo-covered tough guy say "excuse me" as he walks past me. Everyone with the exception of one character is friendly. It just felt so jarring. The entire narrative arc is bad. It literally serves no purpose. One moment you are helping one settlement get by and the next you are in a town helping them get by only to go to another town to help them get by before being given the final mission which finally ties into the main antagonists and than abruptly ends after a basic firefight. If you are one of those people that cares about the story, stick to a game like Half-Life.

Despite the empty overworld, the lack of significance that the vehicular combat has in the game and terrible story, Rage is still a stunning game. It is carried forward by its singular ability to entertain on the most important level of gaming: by being fun to play. Whatever the issues are, they simply can't ruin what Rage has to offer, and that is the most fun shooter since Vanquish and Halo: Reach dominated in 2010. And it is because the core gameplay is so fun and exciting that it's disappointing that Rage does not have a competitive multiplayer based on the game's excellent combat.

There are also the obvious things that Rage gets right, the most obvious being that it looks absolutely stunning. The graphics are impressive both from the use of the powerful Id Tech 5 and the surprisingly awesome art. There is no post-apocalyptic game that has anything similar to the Dead City in terms of artistic design. Underground caves provide a surreal sense of beauty that feels hauntingly beautiful at times, abandoned railways and buildings have you on edge as dead bodies litter the floor and enemy hideouts provide disgusting reminders of the savagery and barbarism of your opponents compared to the more relaxed way of life in the towns. This is a major step up from Id's last game, Doom 3. That game was gray corridor after gray corridor with a handful of monster closets. Rage is a major step up in terms of artistic vision, overall level design and the awesome power of Id Tech 5 certainly helps as well.

The audio design is stellar as well. The voice-acting is fine, people all sound too friendly though and seem a bit too happy go-lucky at times despite the clear problems in how they live. But the roar of the cars as they tear up the wasteland is awesome. Gunfights just pop, and enemies sound vicious whether they are human or not. Rage is a blast to listen to, but it could have benefited from some more tough guy dialogue and a little less "can I help you kind sir?"

Rage is a wonderful shooter and one of the best examples of the genre from a gameplay point of view. Brilliant gameplay, beautiful visuals and top-notch sound design hold up this game to a level of excellence that few modern shooters can match. Despite the missed opportunity to include arena-based multiplayer, despite the misuse of the overworld, despite the overall insignificance of the vehicle combat and despite the horrendous plot, Rage stands as an excellent game. It succeeds on the most basic level that a game can: by being fun to play. And it is that which many modern games have lost in a generation of gaming defined by quicktime events, scripted events, cinematic events and basically any other event you can think of. Rage has no "events," it only features excellent gameplay and it is proof that a game doesn't need any extra filler to be good, they can certainly help if done right, but they aren't need. The only thing games need is to be fun, and that's what Rage is, fifteen hours of exciting, thrilling and suspenseful fun.