Rage

When I first saw previews for Rage, I was enthralled. And apparently, I wasn’t the only one.

Rage won 20 separate awards when it previewed at E3, including the highly coveted “Best of E3” award. This is made all the more impressive considering the caliber of games released, or soon to be released, in 2011 (Portal 2, Arkham City, Dead Island, Gears of War 3, Skyrim, etc).

Developer Id, alleged father of the first-person shooter genre and groundbreaking franchise, Wolfenstein, designed Rage to challenge what gamers perceive as “good graphics.” By using a newly-developed graphics engine, Id crafted an echelon of visuals and AI that will undoubtedly rival games over the next several years.

Rage stars a nameless survivor (you) of the “Ark Program,” an attempt by society to preserve chosen individuals in cryogenic sleep for a future era. Upon emerging from your cryogenic capsule, you find that the earth has not fared well over the past several years. A meteor has destroyed society as you knew it, leaving only a few scattered remnants of civilization amid a mutant-infested wasteland, ruled over by something known only as “The Authority.” As you make your way from one dusty steamwork town to the next, you must battle through hordes of mutants and Authority enforcers in an attempt to unveil a deeper mystery and potentially the key to the world’s salvation.

If this explanation of Rage‘s story sounds concise, that’s because it is. Rage is not heavy on story or plot, instead hopping on the “sole survivor” bandwagon of countless video games before it. I found this interesting, especially considering Id had promised to weave a unique story into the game prior to its release. However, Id had also promised “not to release Rage until it was awesome.” Was it as awesome as Id promised it would be?

I’ll start with what I enjoyed about Rage. As I’ve already mentioned, Rage is a graphical masterpiece. The wasteland through which your character traverses is both expansive and strangely beautiful. Colors are sharp and textures flawless. Level design is varied and easy to enjoy from beginning to end. The countless NPCs you encounter throughout the campaign are all unique and exquisite to behold. Skin textures are perfect and clothing styles typical of something you’d expect to see within a town crafted solely of metal and steam pumps.

The graphics are so impressive that Rage actually had to be released on 3 separate discs for the XBox 360. Downloading it to your hard drive will cost you no less than 22 gigabytes of memory space. Yikes. However, if you have the space to spare, I highly suggest doing it. I downloaded Rage before I played it and never once experienced hitching, lag, or frame rate issues that often plague games of similar graphical quality.

The only thing I found more impressive than Rage‘s graphics was the behavior of the AI. Without a doubt, Rage has the smartest enemies, the most crafty foes I’ve ever fought in a video game. Enemies literally react to every little movement and decision you make. Draw your gun’s cross hairs over an enemy, it will combat roll away. Kill enough enemies in a room and the remaining few will retreat to regroup with others. Enemies rarely charge at your character directly. Instead, they leap with remarkable agility from wall to wall, floor to ceiling, and side to side.

Enemies also react perfectly to being shot. Hit one in the leg and he will stumble forward or crawl to the nearest cover. Hit one in the arm and he will reel backwards, clutching his wound. Injure one further, and he will drag himself across the floor, shooting a gun haphazardly in your direction.

This level of artificial intelligence extends beyond the realm of enemies. NPCs in town constantly mill about, preferring to visit various points of interest rather than being confined to a single spot. NPCs react accordingly to quests you’ve completed. Finish first in a dune buggy race and they’ll complement you for it. Raise too much of the Authority’s attention and they’ll question your motives.

Gameplay within Rage is, at its core, fun and frenzied. Your character is given a small selection of guns that don’t stray far beyond the typical pistols, automatic rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. However, most guns have several different types of ammo that vary combat in unique ways, from darts that allow you to briefly take control of an enemy’s mind to shotgun shells that emit EMP blasts. Proper use of these ammo types will grant your character the greatest chance of survival on the field of combat. You can only assign four separate guns to your D-pad at any one time, but switching between these guns and their respective ammo types can be done on the fly during combat.

Ammo, as well as several other items, can be crafted at any point in the game using Rage‘s engineering system. By combining recipes and components, such as gears and cables, players can craft not only ammo, but gizmos that unlock doors, bind wounds, and temporarily increase health and attack power. Chief among the items you can craft in Rage are automatic turrets and spider drones. These, once deployed, will shoot any hostile force in the area until they run out of bullets or are destroyed by enemies. The spider drones, in particular, are very entertaining. They not only fire at enemies, but will physically pounce or swat at any mutants that come too close to them. They can also vault over obstacles, skitter across vertical levels, and follow you from room to room, guarding your back from rear attacks.

Rage has several mini games scattered throughout the wasteland that players can engage in when breaking from the main story progression. Most are short games of chance where players can bet in-game money in the hopes of winning it big. Other mini games include races, demolition derby style combat, and a unique card game that utilizes the collectibles found throughout the game. This latter mini game most resembles Magic the Gathering in that it allows you to customize a deck of character cards with their own individual stat points and abilities. Combine the right amount and kinds of cards to increase your chances of winning more money.

Sound quality in Rage is excellent. Guns fire and motors rev with deep intensity. Mutants growl and shriek while swinging on pipes dangling from the ceiling. NPCs are voiced beautifully, each with their own inflections and personalities. Voice syncing is perfect and doesn’t detract from overall gameplay. Music in Rage is also excellent, mostly consisting of twangy guitars and harmonicas reminiscent of the Old West. Music picks up dramatically during combat and racing sections, which it should, and slows down whenever you’re in town or away from enemies. The song that plays during the ending credits, “Burning Jacob’s Ladder” by Mark Lanegan, fits the style of Rage quite well.

These are all complements to the core of what makes Rage a fun, fast-action game. Before I even picked up the game, I was ready to call it my favorite addition to my video game library this year. Unfortunately, the game ended up having a few major issues in my opinion.

First, there is the fact that you can’t customize your character beyond choosing one of three initial classes. There are no stat points to distribute or skills to upgrade. Even the character classes don’t have a lot of variation between them, adding only a few perks to certain aspects of gameplay.

Second, there is no overworld map. Maybe I missed it during my playthrough, in which case please correct me in the comment section below. This issue didn’t detract from gameplay at all, but there were a few times when I got lost in town or during a dungeon sequence because I couldn’t remember where the exit was.

Third, Rage is short for a game of its scope. Despite being split across 3 discs, the campaign took me less than 15 hours to complete, and I did every side quest, mini game, and errand I could find.

Fourth, the inventory system is drab and generally confusing. The entire menu looks like something created from MS-DOS and consists only of gray, brackish colors. There is hardly any organization for the component section of your inventory, leaving you to cycle through a high number of random junk before you find a specific item.

VERDICT

Rage is, overall, a great game and a lot of fun to play. Yet, after beating it, I am left only with the sensation that the game could have been much more. For how much hype it received over the past year, more detail could have been given to certain aspects of the game. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it the first time, but there is nothing that convinced me I would ever find the unshakable desire to pick up and play Rage in the near future.

SCORE 8.8/10