Got the game early

Much to my surprise the game showed up today and what surprised me even more is that I couldn’t put it down once I started playing and ended up playing for around 9 hours.

I’m playing on the Xbox One X with the 13gb day one update installed and it runs really well.

I remember liking the first Rage but I haven’t played it since it came out so I don’t remember all that much about it. So far I think Rage 2 is better.

The guns feels really good and the powers feel great to use too. There’s a ton of stuff to upgrade so you’re always getting more powerful and I’m playing on hard which feels just right.

I have only explored 2 regions but there’s plenty of stuff to do in the world this time around. There are Arks to find which give you new powers, enemy outposts, bounty missions and more. In all my time playing I’ve actually only done 1 story mission outside of the tutorial so I can’t comment much on the narrative.

My only real complaints so far are that the in game menus are very laggy and there is a lot of pop in. The game can look pretty good in spots but it’s nothing spectacular. I’m sure the pc version will look much better. I’m just glad it runs at what seems to me as a completely stable 60, I’ve not noticed any drops but I’m not the most sensitive when it comes to frame rate.

I think it runs at 30 on the base consoles.

It has an fov slider which I thought was cool because it’s not something you see much of on console.

If anyone has any questions, I’d be happy to answer.

Whats the tone like? I know you said you havent done many story missions but a big part of the marketing is how over the top everything is. Does it feel that way? If so is it too much? On the gameplay end is there much variety in enemies? From what i've seen it seems very Bulletstormish in the sense that you can do all this cool shit but your enemies just kind of stand there and shoot a few bullets every now then or just run at you with a hatchet or something.

Part of the reason Doom 2016 was so good was because of the variety in enemies and how that shook up each encounter. I'm only bringing that up because the trailers keep saying 'from the makers of Doom' but as far as I can tell this is much more of an Avalanche joint. Not that thats a bad thing I enjoyed Just Cause and Mad Max just fine, I just wouldnt pay full price for either.

I saw the early look stream Cohh did a few weeks ago and this game immediately jumped way up on my expected games list. Am I right in thinking this is basically Far Cry 3 but with more personality ?

@boozak: Again I’ve only done 2 story Missions in total so this could be very wrong overall but so far it kind of seems like Borderlands in tone. Where I’m at it’s not too much but I just hope they don’t try too hard if that makes sense? I apologise for not being able to think of any examples right now but some of the writing on the bounty descriptions made me roll my eyes a bit but it’s nothing too bad.

So far there isn’t too much enemy variety just your standard grunts and mutants. They do add in a lot of guys with armour that you have to break apart before you can kill them. I have also come across one really big enemy which was cool but it wasn’t mixed in with a bunch of other enemy types.

The A.I isn’t anything special but playing on hard you definitely have to use all the tools at your disposal to survive and it’s immensely satisfying. Headshots with the assault rifle feel particularly good and the shotgun feels great.

I know that ID said they helped with the combat and it definitely shows. It doesn’t feel as good as Doom 2016 (no game does really) but it’s close in my opinion.

So would you say the main missions are fleshed out and interesting while the side stuff is just side stuff? As long as there is a nice balance between really well produced main story content and filler missions on the side then I'll be happy.

I mean I'm getting it anyway because it looks like a ton of fun, but from everything I've seen it almost seems like they might be spreading the fun a little too thin.

@humanity: The one story mission I have done outside of the tutorial was fun and interesting but I have no idea if that holds up over the rest of the game.

Hearing that it does indeed feel like doom, I might get this on PC after all.

I enjoy relaxing on the couch, and with it being 60fps on the pro I was gonna get it there. But, having played Doom on both console and PC....that MKB feel is *muah*

How are the environments like? Are there interior buildings you can explore and fine unique items in?

@merxworx01: So far they are nothing special. I’ve not even seen that many buildings you can go in outside of enemy outposts and a bar in the first trader town. I did find a few destroyed buildings and some abandoned houses but there wasn’t anything to find there that’s unique. Most of the stuff you find are supply crates that either have money in or an upgrade currency (there are a lot of different types).

@reap3r160: If I had the option, I would definitely get this on PC assuming it’s a good version. Given ID’s involvement I bet it is but I have no idea about Avalanche’s track record on the PC.

I was sold on this since they announced it. I really liked RAGE and it's nice to hear they haven't fucked this one, I really hope the story is better this time as that was what let the first one down most for me but I'm gonna play it either way for the combat.

I'll probably just get this game when it's on some kind of super sell (like, when it's around fifteen bucks). It could be good, but I'm not in any hurry to play it.

I played for about two hours and already kinda stopped caring about the story. But the shooting feels (enough) like the new Doom and that helps a lot, especially because I haven't played any good-feeling shooters in forever.

Damn, really thought this and Metro would review better. Still want to play them at some point.

How do you feel about being a CRIMINAL and breaking the Microsoft terms of service?

@glots: Ah well, that's disappointing to hear tbh but the shooting/gadgets/abilities is what I'm most interested in. I loved the combat from the first one, does this one play in a similar way? I also haven't heard anything about character classes (or I've missed it), I remember the first one having 3 "classes" iirc and enjoyed the shit out of the one with the turrets/spider drones, any of that stuff still present?

@someoneproud: I never got that far in the original game and by now it's been at least five years since I last even tried it, so wouldn't really know if it compares to that in any way. But it certainly feels like the new Doom, as I mentioned. No classes, but a bunch of skills and upgrades to go through. Haven't looked at all of it, so not sure if there are any gadgets like turrets to get later on.

@glots: Fair enough, yeah the shooting in the original was pretty similar to Doom but with the wingstick and gadget stuff thrown in. It seems they've replaced the class gadgets with the skills/abilities then, thanks for the info.

It seems like the only good thing this game has going for it is the gunplay while everything else is boring, standard stuff that you don't really want to do. To be honest, it makes me think of Mad Max just with Doom's combat as opposed to Arkham combat. I didn't finish Mad Max, so that already makes me hesitant. I don't think I'll be playing Rage 2 any time soon. The consensus from everything I've heard is echoing the same thing pretty much, the Id shooting is great, the Avalanche open world stuff is not.

The things I've heard multiple people say:

The story is so boring that you want to skip the cutscenes, and yet NPC's will talk your ear off and it's annoying.

Killing enemies in a base and then scavaging the area around is annoying and boring (not good for completionists).

The driving sucks and is just a thing to get you from one shooty place to another shooty place.

The world is lifeless.

Super repetitive.

The shooting is great.

Put in about 8 hours so far. It's . . . fine. It's fine. Everything about it feels so middle of the road that it makes me wonder if there were other versions of the game in development that went harder in different directions.

For example, the world isn't Mad Max grimdark, and it isn't completely bonkers like Borderlands. It has a little bit of Blood Dragon in it, but without the sarcastic referential humor. It just sort of . . . is. It's a game where the characters say "fuck" but feel like they're embarrassed about it.

It's a little frustrating because there is a really good game buried in there somewhere if they'd just committed to a particular direction.

I bought it because I loved their Mad Max game so much. Was hoping this would be basically a first person version of it. Mad Max was pretty repetitive but I enjoyed it and finished it. Maybe I'm remembering Mad Max too fondly but the driving in this game feels a lot more clunky. And all the environments look so flat and bland. Definitely feels like a very middling game, unfortunately.

I like how the enemies explode and make the squish sounds when you go into overdrive and mow them down. That's about it.... wish they would of leaned way more into that stuff and put in more explosive objects like in Just Cause games.

Ah, this game. I put my pre-order for it back in August 2018 to get the Amazon discount before they screwed that whole thing up.

It showed up. I played through the tutorial I guess and that first closest Ark quest thing. And then I shut it off.

I have so little interest in continuing to play it that I keep forgetting I even have it. I'm bored as hell right now and I still don't feel like playing it. Going from Sekiro (which I am so close to Platinum'ing but also don't really care) to this is just like.. from one extreme to the opposite on the engagement spectrum.

I don't feel like I have anything against Rage 2, I just can't muster the energy to turn it on.

Oh also, pretty disappointed in how rough the game looks on PS4 Pro. I think the decision to do 1080p/60 was wrong. The game looks really plain and bland and jaggy/low res as hell.