RAGE (by id Software)

RAGE review RAGE comes to us from id software, who brought us Doom, and Quake, like it says on the front of the cover of the game. Those are both great games by id, from way back when. It’s been quite a while since this old racehorse has been in the ring, and it shows. RAGE is about a guy who’s managed to survive years upon years of cryo sleep. When he suddenly wakes up, he’s immediately assaulted and then rescued by a character voiced by John Goodman, yes that John Goodman. After he is taken back to this mysterious characters hometown, he is immediately sent on a job to hunt down and kill a small pack of bandits. It hasn’t even been established if this guy can walk, or even speak the same language as these people, then he’s sent out on a dangerous mission? Anyhow, this is the flow of RAGE for the rest of the game. Go out, kill bandits, come back, get a new mission, go out, kill bandits. This repeats under the façade of what RAGE refers to as its storyline, which I’m not quite so sure I comprehend. There is, apparently, a looming presence which calls itself “The Authority”, and it’s got all the good bandits, I mean people, of the wasteland down. So, as the guy who just woke up from a millennium of sleeping, you have to be the guy who takes care of it. Why not? The gameplay of RAGE is very straightforward. In that you point the gun straight at the bandit, or mutant, or member of The Authority, shoot it, and move forward. There’s nothing more to it than that. The environments are mapped out so that players don’t have any real say in the matter. Cover is placed in obvious locations that clearly dictate where both the enemies and the player will go. Enemies don’t even seem to react toward the grenades that are hurled at them, they just stand there and wait for it to just go away. Then it explodes. It just goes like this, from room to room. RAGE is a very linear game, and it’s very simple and boring. After each mission, players will have most likely collected loot, that they can sell to the shops to get money to get very well stocked up on ammunition and instantaneous healing supplies. This makes missions tedious, and not exciting at all. There are also a few boss fights in the game, but they’re all just monotonous. Like the letter o in monotonous. The bosses are old school, in the sense that they have a pattern, which they repeat, over and over and over, until they are finally defeated and thy open the door that was previously blocked with their massive girth hitting the ground. This was disappointing to say the least. With dumber than rocks AI and boss fights that were uninspired and lazy, RAGE’s gameplay is severely lacking. I’ve never played Doom, and I’ve also never played Quake, though with all the praise that those two games have received, I would have expected more from RAGE. However, one thing that did blow me away were the graphics. The graphics of RAGE are simply magnificent. All the detailed environments and character models really shine with the new graphics engine that id software designed specifically for this game. The animation is clean and fluid, though almost too fluid. It’s kind of straining on the eyes and everything moves faster than my mind can comprehend. Though, the facial animation and movement of all the characters is very impressive, and something to be applauded. However, good graphics do not for a good game make. There is a multiplayer segment to RAGE, that even includes split screen cooperative, which I did not play. If the single player indicated anything about the multiplayer, it’s that it is better to be bored by yourself than with another person. All in all, RAGE did not leave me filled with it, so much as it left me filled with boredom, and a sense of longing after better games. The simplistic, and predictable AI don’t offer any exciting firefights that were worth remembering, nor did the story leave me with any sense of engagement to the world, or characters. RAGE is not an immersive experience, it does not satisfy any desire that would normally come with an id software game. Albeit, the only game that I’ve ever played that was developed by id software was Wolfenstein 3D on MS DOS, but still! I’ve had more fun with that game then I did with RAGE. Also, even on the PS3, which is what I played this on, the game still had to do an install. That’s understandable given how impressive the graphics are. However, during said install the game locked up. That gets an F. and! On top of all of that , the game wasn’t even that good! Double F