Though lacking originality, Rage still offers enough for a satisfying post-apocalyptic shooter experience.
Though a few friendly settlements are to be found dotting the landscape, this veritable desert's nooks and crannies are teeming with brigands and murderers set out to pillage and destroy whatever comes across their path. Yet there are nastier places that even these formidable fiends won't trespass…
The mysterious and threatening "Authority" runs Capital Prime and the darker, fouler places of the world is where madness makes its home…
Rage starts us off with a history lesson, providing a glimpse at the cosmic calamity responsible for this abomination of mother earth and we are transported to the inside of an "ark", an orb built by man to preserve a handful of human lives held in stasis until the machine deems it safe to wake them. In a horrific turn of events we are the only survivor of this particular ark, and are shown our oblivious comrades withering away in their chambers like old meat in a delicatessen display case.
The brutal tone has been set and it is now time to emerge from your ark alone and unarmed…to face the destruction of your world and the horrors calling it home.
Rage is a shooter in the tradition of Quake or Doom, where kill or be killed is the rule of the land. Beginning with a simple pistol, you'll discover heavier firepower along your way as well as a slew of modifications and craft-able ammunition types to up the badassery. That not enough to stave off the bandit hoards? Try engineering sentry turrets, remote-controlled bomb cars, robotic side-kicks, and more to assist your quest.
The foes in your path also pack heat to the gills, armed with machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers, grenades, etc. to keep you on your toes. The real challenge however, comes from Rage's many melee baddies that often find a way to snake through your hail of bullets and force you into close-combat where they'll leave you in shreds with a few brutal slashes from a rusty blade. It is in just this sort of desperate moment that man discovers his true strength…and our ark survivor is no different.
Through the assistance of "nanotrites" coursing through your veins, you've got a built-in defibrillator to revive yourself. Until you upgrade it takes a while to recharge, so jumping headfirst into danger is not a recommended battle plan.
Rather, through trial and error you should test your various weaponry on the plethora of foes out there to discover what works best…because the wrong gun in the wrong moment may spell certain death. In addition to the firepower in your hands, you also have access to "wing disks" which, for all intents and purposes, are the crazy Aussie boomerang the feral child wielded in Mad Max 2. Headshots with this hellish toy are extremely satisfying, especially when brandished out of desperation because of a reloading firearm. The ensuing gore does wonders for the gaming soul!
Enemy AI is about par for the course and most foes do provide an adequate challenge, but there are difficulty settings for those brave souls up to a tougher campaign. Worth noting however, is that currency can be hard to acquire at times, forcing you to improvise when your particular ammo of choice is out of your price-range. That aspect in itself adds a small layer of difficulty.
If a simple shooter isn't your bag, never fear as Rage's dusty canyons and corridors are the perfect place for dune buggy racing and high-speed firefights. Mini guns, homing missiles, and pulse cannons can be added for a smoother ride and the race tickets required to acquire such technology can be won in the races, which are pretty entertaining by the way. There is also an online racing service for those looking for an extra shot of speed. The settlements you come across also offer a number of mini-games to pass the time, including an addicting card game played with collectable cards you discover on your travels.
Visually, Rage's offering is decent. Animations are fluid and believable and facial expressions are on spot. The wasteland is a rather drab shade of brown, but the gorgeous blue sky and detail on distant landscape is enough to distract you from any color-scheme shortcomings. Then again, brown is basically what you'd expect from most wastelands anyway…
Audibly, the game offers good voice-acting (even a cameo by John Goodman) and the non-human foes' guttural breathing and high-pitched shrieks are not only believable but frightening as well. That said, there are no real complaints in the technical department.
The only aspect of this game that might leave you with a bad taste in your mouth (besides the slime!) is that the game treads in the same territory as the Fallout series and Borderlands and really doesn't do much to add to the equation. As a fan of post-apocalyptic stories and settings, I don't personally have a problem with the lack of creativity and firmly believe more wasteland is always a good thing, but for those looking for an original idea, Rage may not be the best place to start.
The real dilemma comes when it dawns on you that Rage is a first-person shooter and not a role-playing game loaded with content and a wide variety of far-out places and things to discover. Without 100% completion I finished the game in about 13 hours which isn't bad, but like most of the reviewers have already said it would be nice to have more out there to explore…
The Good
+Interesting environment populated by frightening foes
+Very satisfying action/kills
+Fun dune buggy racing
The Bad
-Little to explore off the beaten path
-A better post-apocalyptic experience can be had elsewhere
Final Score
8/10