Rage

Rage is the first game from id Software since Doom 3 was released in 2004. It’d be hard not to expect a lot out of the house that built the first-person shooter as we now know it, but does the legendary developer still got it? Doom 3 may have gotten favorable reviews, but consumer reception was more tepid. It’s been almost a decade since that release, and this one comes on their latest engine. Rage is a good showcase of the power of idtech5, but it leaves a lot to be desired despite having a lot of pieces that might add up to a greater whole.

An asteroid hit the Earth years ago and the world has turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Things called “Arks” were buried around the world so as to keep the human race alive in the event of such a disaster. You are an ark survivor, and you are the only one from your ark. Upon exiting the ark you quickly learn that the human race has indeed survived. However, maybe not in the way the creators of the arks would have expected. Bandits run wild, and an entity dubbed the Authority seems to rule, and they want the arks and their survivors.

Despite being well voiced, Rage’s dialogue and narrative don’t demand attention. The premise of an asteroid-induced apocalypse and ark survivors is an interesting one, but neither the characters nor the story deliver on the promise of that premise. Instead of enhancing the setting they reduce it to a fairly generic Mad Max style wasteland.

The wasteland may be generic, but it certainly looks nice and the game runs smooth. Most impressive are the character models and their fluid animations. Using a very washed out color palette, the art direction feels like it could have been more inspired, but there is still something to be said about dry colors within a bleak setting such as the post-apocalypse.

Mechanically Rage is a competently made and solid shooter, and it has a lot of pieces that ought to build upon that. There is an open world, but that ends up feeling like a misnomer. There are two major towns in the wasteland, and some dungeons strewn about, but there is nothing in the world that can really be explored. It’s mostly just a network of roads connecting areas of significance together. Driving around the wasteland is little more than a way to get from point A to B, but it’s a welcome way to break up the traditional shooting that the bulk of Rage consists of.

There is still plenty to do in addition to the main story. The game show flavored arena and various races are probably the most worthwhile side offerings, but there are job board quests and other side missions you can find by talking to people. And of course there are the more trivial things to do like gamble or drive off the jumps that are scattered throughout the wasteland.

Featuring a mostly standard assortment of weapons, the arsenal lacks pop. Each weapon has its own variety of ammunition types associated with it giving each of them some measure dynamicity. However, special ammunition is often hard to come by, and about halfway through the game enemies become bullet sponges, wearing armor head to toe. Even armor piercing rounds can’t cut through them efficiently. It doesn’t help that there seems to be one or two too many enemy spawn waves in certain areas in which your path is blocked and you must clear all the bad guys in order to proceed, so tedious sections become that much more tiresome.

The most useful and interesting weapon is the wingstick, a Road Warrior style boomerang capable of decapitating foes. They’re a cool alternative to grenades, but because of their utility, other already inefficient weapons seem even more inefficient, so while wingsticks start out fun, they lose their satisfying edge rather quickly.

Littered about the wasteland are miscellaneous objects that can either be sold or used to craft useful gear like ammo, bandages, grenades, lock picks or even RC car bombs. While it’s not a very intricate system, it’s intuitive, adding another element to the gameplay. Unfortunately, because the weapons and creatable items aren’t all that interesting in the first place, crafting doesn’t really enrich the experience as much as it could have.

Perhaps the most disappointing part of Rage is the level design. In addition to an overabundance of enemies with an unwavering resilience are levels that don’t really give you many ways to approach a combat situation. Movement is so restricted in most encounters that even opportunities to perform basic maneuvers like flanking don’t present themselves. It’s generally either an open space with enemies coming at you from all sides or a tight hallway with no room to move, and either way there isn’t a good way to adapt to the enemies coming at you. Even the final engagement of the game fails to standout in any way, making the conclusion feel that much more abrupt and unsatisfying.

Hinting at the potential of idtech5, Rage is a gorgeous feast for the eyes, but it is little more than that. Despite overall competence in the core design and a wide range of gameplay elements that sound good on paper, the larger portion of Rage is hindered by a lack of combat options within uninspired levels featuring enemies that are excessively resilient, relentless and too many, souring the action and turning the entire experience into one long drawn out corridor crawl.