Wingsticks in Your Face

See this? It's pretty much the flee's knees.

 Although I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember, I didn't venture into the PC side of things early enough to get to play Doom or Quake. However, I know enough to understand their impact on gaming so when id debuted Rage at E3 years ago, I was sure to pay attention. I think a lot of people were taken back by how amazing the game looked and how varied the combat felt. But when it finally hit stores, the reviews were good but not great, and the title seems to have been overshadowed by the metric tons of quality gaming being released this holiday season. I just finished my platnium run of it and, in the end, I think my opinion falls around where it's metacritic score landed it. It's not great, but it's good.

The story revolves around you, an unnamed protagonist who wakes up after society places him and a bunch of others in these things called arcs to jump start civilization after an asteroid hits. Things don't go as planned though when you find yourself in a wasteland covered with various bandit groups, mutants, and some group known as the Authority that appears to be bad, although you're never really given a reason why to hate them. After being rescued by a friendly bloke named Dan Hagar, you begin your fight against these antagonistic forces and try to bring some safety to the lands.

In other words, the story is pretty shitty.

Sorry you're not as interesting as me, bro.

 I wrote an article back in the day about the "silent protagonist" design choice and how it can be effective when used properly, Fallout being a good example. It can let you feel in the shoes of the character rather than just controlling some random dude. Alas, Rage doesn't really pull this off, as the lack of choices makes you feel like a dummy running around that fetches things for people and shoots things. It's a shame too because all of the other character you meet all feel unique and interesting, and you just happened to be the worst out of them. The fight against the authority feels flat too because the writing never really helps develop an anger or drive to top them, leading to the feeling that you're completing these quests because that's what the game wants you too rather than it has an impact on the world.  And to top it all off, the ending is probably one of the most anti-climatic ones I've ever gotten. It's safe to say that there isn't an ending, Rage just ends.

Graphically, Rage is a damn fine looking game. Rather than rendering each and ever object individually, using their new engine, id created what they call "megatextures" which are basically like giant blankets draped on the environments which help the game run at a smooth 60 fps regardless of how tense combat gets. While things might not look great super up close, running through the environments looks and feels great, helping to create a sense of immersion that's only shattered when you talk to people and realize you're just a shell. There is a bit of an issue of textures loading, with sharp turns being too quick for the engine to load what's in front of you, but I felt like I noticed it less and less as the game went on. Not really a hinderance.

We are so unpredictable!!

 There is a lot of attention paid to enemy AI, which is refreshing when compared to the other shooters on the market. Enemies will move about, take cover, and try to take you out with precision. No two battles feel alike and even the same battle, if you die and reload, feels fresh with the AI not moving about in set scripts or anything like that. Even the comments they shout to each other as their fighting you help them feel like characters, similar to the vibe Bioshock gave off. It's just a shame that you, once again, feel like the most shallow figure in the land.

The gameplay is a FPS at heart with some light RPG elements that I wish there were more of. Outside of a few armor and weapon enhancements, the main way Rage lets you vary your character is with ammo types, which really have the ability to turn the tide of any battle. With that and a few items like turrets, bots, and wingsticks (by far the most powerful and most useful weapon in the game), there are a few ways to play differently, but it doesn't go really beyond that. There are a handful of side missions and some mini games like kart racing and cards to play in town, but overall it just felt like it could have been more. The game feels like a FPS in an empty sandbox.

On the multiplayer side, you can kart race and battle which is fun at first but didn't really feel like my thing. There is also a spec ops mode of sorts called "Wasteland Legends" that lets you head through maps in the game with a partner while trying to clear out the area. I thought this was a lot more fun, but other than jumping into a quick match, there are no filters or anything to let you define the match you want to play. I had several times where I wanted to play thought a certain legend and had to wait 20+ minutes before someone joined my game. Frustrating to say the least. It's a fun distraction but nothing really more than that, unless you're the type that loves trying to climb leaderboards.

Let's kill these bitches.

Overall, I really liked Rage, but just felt like it could have been so much more. The story was crap but the gameplay and graphics really did enough to make the experience enjoyable. And I know id was trying to be different, but I think the multiplayer would have been so much better had they just done what everyone else is doing. With the different ammo and item types, death matches and capture the flag scenarios could have really been fun. I don't think it's Game of the Year material, especially this year, but I think Rage is definitely worth a try for any shooter fan.