This isn't the conventional form I take with reviews, but Tim, the writer and good buddy of mine, preferred this presentation so I obliged. Tim's blog is actually on the Blogroll, Geekidian Times, but you can find his other ramblings here. Take a look! He knows his stuff about gaming and other nerdy things of interest.
If the Mayans predictions come true and the clock does end
up running out for all of us, then I hope we’ll have the foresight to keep our
precious belongings locked away in safety deposit boxes for future
civilizations to discover.
If it were me, I’d make sure my box included; Stephen King’s
The Dark Tower series, (because it’s
awesome) anything and everything Arrested
Development related (because it’s comedy at its finest) and a copy of Id
software’s Rage just so they can
laugh at how ridiculous our concept of humanity’s end was.
The first time I played Rage was when
it was still an on-rails shooter demo for the iOS to show off what kind of grit
Apple’s touch devices are made of. Not surprisingly, Rage’s
console and PC incarnation has festered into (drumroll please) a first-person
shooter.
What gives Rage
the winning hand in the shooter standard is its simplistic approach to gunplay,
acquiring upgrades for your character, and all-around attention to detail. I highly commend Id’s design choice of basically taking a
wasteland exploration game and making it “fun.”
If you took a game like Borderlands
or Fallout 3 and trimmed away all
of their skill treed micro-management elements you’d have yourself Rage. Right after the opening cinematic
you’re thrown head-first into the desert wasteland this post-apocalyptic Earth
has become and start doing missions for your rescuers and their town armed with
nothing more than a pistol and a buggy. The more missions you end up doing for
people, the better your rewards – eventually gaining yourself a shotgun,
razor-sharp wingsticks, sniper rifles, and even RC cars rigged with explosives.
Like an RPG, you also get the ability to sell your junk,
craft items, and upgrade your load out (with explosive rounds, for example) and
different ways to bring the pain to those desert-dwelling baddies.
Ah, but the fun doesn’t stop at mindless FPSing, oh no.
There’s also a number of minigames you can take part in as your travels take
you across the wasteland.
There’s collectibles, racing, side-missions, and time-attack
missions that reward and add to your repertoire of killing skills while still
keeping true to Rage’s RPG roots of
becoming a better character.
Let’s talk graphics in one word; gorgeous. Most (if not all)
of these props go to Id and their newly developed graphics engine Id Tech 5.
Seriously, point the camera up at the sky and you will see photo realistic clouds,
sky, hell even rock walls look like they’ve been hollowed out of granite, sand,
and whatever else you can imagine a post-apocalyptic desert setting to look
like.
Character models have that Doom 3 design quality about them (it’s good thing, especially when
you’re moved by the attention to the steam-punk nomadic detail Id’s given to the
world of Rage.)
Bottom line, Rage is
hands-down one of gaming’s best-looking graphical endeavors to date. That being said, you’ll occasionally run into
a number of texture pop-in instances that range from very minor to major.
There’s a reason this game came on 3 DVDs for the 360;
annoying but not surprising.
Id’s game stories have always followed the mantra of keeping
things simple.
Rage is no different
in that respect but the game also manages to stuff itself with a hearty serving
of extras that soars above and beyond any run of the mill eight-hour long arena
shooter with story cues.
The planet’s hit by a spoilerrific space rock in the game’s
first minutes and your science buddies have put everyone in cryo-sleep, hoping
to wake up in a better tomorrow. The game starts with you waking up some time
later to a post apocalyptic wasteland ruled by bandit tribes, mutant zombies,
and Big Brother’s little brother; The Authority.
You’re rescued by one of the wasteland’s saner inhabitants
who takes you back to his shanty town, gives you a gun, a buggy and this is
where your adventure begins. You’ll spend your time in the wasteland doing quests for settlement
VIPs, help a resistance movement fight Authority commandos, and eventually
start piecing together what happened in the years you were asleep.
I’m
happy to
report that
Rage is neither too long
or too short. You’ll spend eight or more hours on the campaign and can easily
add many more if you take on side missons, races, card games and other such
nonsense.
Rage’s music, like
its story, is simple. Almost to a fault. There are some nice throw back’s to
Id’s older games with some very recognizable sound effects (the running heavy
breathing sound for example) and you’ll often hear country-themed pieces when
you walk into bars and important settlement buildings. On the flip-side there’s
also tension building pieces in use for stressful combat situations. It doesn’t grate on repetition but it’s not quite playlist
material either.
Honestly, there’s really not much to rage about Rage. Surely Id’s taken nods from
post-apocalyptic shooters like Borderlands
and there are loads of extra
missions, activities, and collectibles to feed a completionist full. Deep down inside, Rage is still a
mindless shot-fest that Id-ites will love to bloody chunky texture popped
pieces.
Final Breakdown:
Music – 22 out of 25
Story – 23 out of 25
Graphics – 22.5 out of 25
Gameplay – 25 out of 25
Final Rating: 92.5 out of 100
Disclaimer: I don't condone Mature rated games be played by children. Except it's hilarious when kids fight with grown men over Xbox Live. 
