Rage is Technically Astounding however,it is shallow in every other department and becomes just another mediocre shooter
Id software famous for the Doom and Quake series are pretty much the founders of the FPS genre. They've made a name for themselves but haven't really been on the game scene for quite sometime after Doom 3. Known for making tools/development kits for other publishers, Rage was announced as there Foray back into the FPS market, but sadly the game-play is too generic and straightforward to differentiate itself in an over-populated market.
Rage tells the tale of a silent protagonist who's been locked away in a container, known as an Ark, which is followed by an Apocalyptic event that leaves the world in ruins. You awaken from your slumber and as you walk out from your refuge you are immediately attacked by a local bandit, but to your avail are helped by Dan Hagar and he proceeds to explain how your kind is a rare commodity indeed. And thus starts your adventure. As you continue to progress you help the likes of many who seem to have given up hope until they see you. The story moves along at a slow pace, then suddenly dumps you into a resistance group who against The Authority and then the game abruptly ends. No Lie the story seems to pick up but never really truly unfolds and the ending is one of the anti-climatic things I have witnessed. A short cut-scene with a small voice over and then the credits roll. And where's our epic boss fight id software?
During your travels you will encounter many bright as well as shady characters who ask for your help across different settlements and towns. The overall attention to detail and voice-over work is quite brilliant. Each character has a unique complexion and no two ever look alike as well as great voice actors (such as John Goodman) to complement each person that asks for your help. But of course not all NPC's are your friend. Rage boasts some crazy bandits, mutants and Authority officers to quell your efforts. However, The enemy designs felt, lacking. Too many of the same looking enemies with slight color variances are littered throughout your quest. Some areas would have a new enemy type, but once you finished said area, there never to be seen again. The only enemy that stays consistent is the same generic mutant along with a few of the super mutants.
Rage gives you a nice, but limited, world to explore. As you traverse the sand dunes into dilapidated cities, you can really appreciate and feel that true apocalyptic feel id software was going for. However your exploration is cut short. Many areas are sealed off until a mission requires you to enter that area, which really cuts off any real sense of "freedom." Also traveling on foot is pretty much frowned upon completely. Rage's world is pretty much a long stretch of highway that's sectioned off into different mission "zones" and walking would only make it boring and difficult since their are usually a few bandits ready to mow you down in their vehicles. Of course you are provided with transportation.
Once these areas are opened up for you, there isn't much to do. An area named the Dead City for example, puts you into a seemingly huge metropolis, but the only way to go is from Point A to Point B to finish your objective, then you exit back into the Wasteland to your next destination. Very Sad. Reaching your goal in said mission areas don't offer up much for exploration or discover. Most paths are un-accessible, accept the main one, and aside from a few small side areas that contain ammo or scrap, it's pretty much your run of the mill FPS here.
Walking to your destination isn't really an option, but you are provided with a vehicle quite early in your quest. Vehicles are a major focus in Rage, perhaps a little too much. 40% of the time you will be in a car traveling to your next destination/mission or in a race to get some upgrades. Their are 4 different vehicles to obtain in the game and each can be outfitted with numerous upgrades. Upgrades can be obtained to a slew of different racing events such as time trials and rocket races. To me, the racing/driving segments are one of the game's weakness's. Rage focuses on this area to much and isn't one of the game's strong points. Controlling your vehicles can be sporadic at times, especially during heavy firefights are racing pesky opponents. But for the most part, all races can be completed without barely trying which makes me wonder why they were such a focus in the first place. Many people like the racing segments, and I say hey more power to you, but to me they felt out of place and to much of a recurrence that they grew tiresome quickly.
Now what's an FPS without it's guns? Rage puts a good arsenal of weaponry at our disposal. I only wish is there were more guns to appreciate. However most weapons have up to 4 separate ammo types from Explosive Crossbow darts to Armor Piercing rounds. Each weapon has a nice feel and distinct feel to it. However, Customizing is quite basic. Once you buy the upgrade it is automatically put on your gun, so it kind of puts a halt on trying to mix and match a bunch of different upgrades.
From the graphical stand point Rage is very impressive... for the most part. Each area looks more impressive than the last as well as character models and animations are very nice. Shooting enemies in different areas will cause them to flinch or scatter away holding that limb you just shot up. But texture pop-in bears it's ugly head on this title. Looking at certain section will cause the textures to load up and if you stare away and look back after 10 seconds the textures re-load. It becomes quite annoying seeing as the game needs mandatory installs on both PS3 and Xbox 360. The sound department doesn't fail and is one of the game's strong points. Voice-over work is greatly done as well as gun shots and explosions.
Now with a 3 disc long game on Xbox 360 and the mandatory 8 gigabyte install on PS3, it seems that Rage would be a rather huge game, no? Unfortunately, the disc space is all used up in the graphics department. The game took me 9 hours to complete. This wasn't a straight run-through either. I didn't do 100% of the side "diversions" and races, but most of them. So you're looking at roughly 12 hours to complete. Which isn't too bad for a First Person Shooter, but bad for a supposedly "Free-roam" title.
Another annoyance in the game comes with it's horrid save system. The game only auto-saves your progress when you enter or exit a zone. So be ready to save manually often. In one occurrence I had played a particular mission for about 30 minutes since entering the zone. I was at the end only to get stuck in a wall(only glitch I came across) and the only way to get out was to reload a previous save, 30 minutes earlier, making me start the whole level over.
The game sports Multi-player, so that should in theory give the game some replayability but it doesn't. The multi-player is probably my biggest gripe in this game. From what was said the game was supposed to sport full-coop, but this of course is a myth. We get a Co-op score attack mode of sorts that is apparently a prologue to the events in the main game. There are only 9 levels and all of which are the same exact missions that are played in the campaign(nice one id software). Each mission is roughly 5-12 minutes long, and can be beaten in an afternoon. As well as this Co-op slap to the face we get 4-player Car combat (?!?). Interesting to say the least in a First Person Shooter, I didn't know I was playing Twisted Metal. Now you see why I say they focused to much with the vehicular side of things. I grew bored of Rage's Multi-player outings quickly a simple 16- player TDM/DM/CTF would of sufficed, or completely scraped competitive multi-player for true co-op game-play.
Rage is, for lack of better term, disappointing. Lack of true Co-op, too much emphasis on vehicles, poor story and pacing, archaic save system, lack of a truly open-world and shallow game play hold this game back greatly. Great graphics and great sound do not make a great game. I had high hopes for Rage and it hurt me to see barely any of its promises seen to light. If you want to experience the game for its great technical stand points then please do not hesitate to...rent this game, cause once beaten, I doubt most will go back to it.