Quick Look: Rage 2

Ohhh yes yes yes

Where is Andrew W.k.?

Finally, a post apocalyptic first person shooter.

Ben may be confusing Rob Huebel with a Rob Riggle

I don't know that I want a return to CoD super linear games, but when every other game is this open-world, skill tree, and side mission checklist with no variation thing, it's a lot less exciting when another comes out. This looks like Far Cry and every other Ubisoft game now. I think I'll wait for Borderlands 3 since that has more color and personality, and I already know I like how the shooting feels in those games. Plus they seem to have more level design and aren't just a buffet of generic side missions. Hopefully, those things stay true.

Seems that the male protagonist is actually voiced by Sam Riegel.

Looks like this pretty much just has all the Mad Max mechanics but adds an FPS view and more guns.

Somehow, this still has a weird appeal to it, warts and all. It's not rage, but here and there, some personality is shining through all that tack. Wish there is more of that, but i'm not holding my breath.

Huge Mad Max defender here. It's honestly one of my favorite games of the generation.

If this is as good as that, this is an easy buy for me.

So much negativity in this quick look.

@lonelyspacepanda: that seems to be the universal sentiment. That the world just feels bland.

I think the reason it worked in doom was because it was a linear straightforward experience. If Doom(or even wolfenstein) was an open world, I don't think it would have held up.

They took those mechanics and tried to force them into an open world, which just doesn't translate.

does this have megatextures?

I havn't played Rage 1 in a long time but I remember the enemy AI being a lot better the way the would move around the environment and fall back to different rooms when most of there guys were dead this seams so much worse

Was hoping this game would be less open world, but it's still a buy for me. The last "map barf" game I played was Far Cry 4, so I can see Jeff & Ben not getting very excited for this, having to cover so many.

Also I honestly just want to support Bethesda's single player shooter effort, even if they don't all hit me like Doom or Wolfenstein.

Additionally, at the risk of sounding elitist, I feel like the modern Bethesda published shooter efffort is really hamstrung on consoles. I feel like they all really shine the more you lean into the movement / precision afforded on mouse & keyboard.

Having not played Rage 2, I can't compare it control-wise...but that convoy stuff seemed EXACTLY the same as Mad Max. Jeff calling it bad in Mad Max but not here is a little weird.

I haven't been following development, but the whole game in fact looks a lot more like Mad Max than I was expecting. So much so that now I might be interested in getting it, because Mad Max was GREAT.

Rob Riggle was a Marine. Not Huebel.

Yeah, the AI here is not on the level of Rage 1. I was hoping the AI would be better so the Bulletstorm-like abilities and movement would be more of a need to do instead of just some unnecessary extra flair to the typical headshot gallery.

Oh boy, what a boring, negative and low energy quick look. Also no information on performance or how it feels with mouse and keyboard.

I loved the crap out of Mad Max, and adding the Doom shooting to the mix makes me pretty excited about this. Too bad the game releases at 2 am where I am.

This definitely looks likes 'one of those' open-world icon-fests. Ben's right - we're in an era of gaming where's there's not much new under the sun with these types of titles.

Stuff like this seems difficult to cover because of how open world stuff is. Like I loved Horizon Zero Dawn, but it went in one ear out the other for a lot of people because they'd played a million ubisoft-style open world games (which I hadn't, because I hate those types of games for the most part). Given that I really liked Mad Max, might have to give this a shot.

Still don't get why it's called Rage 2 besides irony.

Boy I sure wish Avalanche knew how to make an open world that was anything approaching fun or robust. This has the same kind of dead-eyed, glazed-eye feeling that Mad Max had.

Edit: that thing totally dabbed. It's somehow even less funny than the cactus speaker.

@lentfilms: Oh man thank you, I knew I recognized the voice from anime stuff but couldn't pin point it and couldn't find it from a Google.

I can't speak for this one, but the wingstick was ridiculously, hilariously overpowered in the first game. You get all these weapons and throwing a stick is the best thing you got.

Man, the marketing has been super misleading when it comes to this games aesthetic. I was led to believe the game was really colourful, but the end result is something drab looking.

This REALLY looks just like a more boring open-world Doom.

i should revisit 2018 GOTY podcasts cuz i am scrambling to find some thing interesting to play...

Looks like the driving has absolutely no weight to it. Figured that wouldn't be the case with the Mad Max team.

Wow, this looks really boring. Like, weirdly boring considering the in-your-face marketing and theme.

Edit: Wow, I just got to the part with the "battle mutants" and... boring might be understating it. Holy moly.

@thegoldfether: I just picked up Stick of Truth and Fractured But Whole and have been liking SoT a lot so far. You can get both games by just buying a physical copy of FBH from Amazon.

@benpack Rage takes place on earth after an asteroid hits and causes the apocalypse.

5:42, vehicle skids on dirt road, tires squeal like they are on asphalt. 2/10

Yeah I loved Mad Max so I'm really excited for a Doom/Mad max hybrid. I'd never say that GB needs to like the things I like, but the amount of misinformation (or ignorance on basic information) that has been prevalent lately in quick looks and the like has been disheartening for a site I generally love.

@skullcrushermountain: I have to be honest, a more boring open-world Doom sounds like something I would love.

I also enjoyed Mad Max quite a bit, although I didn't like some parts of the car combat. I need to finish that game.

Rage 1 is amazing and underrated. Best ID shooting to date. The way enemies react and weapons feel is just fantastic. It ended kinda badly but the graphics, gameplay and style was fantastic throught

Hmm this came off more negatively than I meant. It's actually been more of the East coast getting things wrong occasionally and it generally stems from "Question; Does this game have this?" "Person doing Quick Look;(sounds unsure).... yes." type of interaction.

It's Sam Riegel, not <name> Huebel(?). Sam's a really well-known voice actor...

There are a lot of nods back to Rage 1 here (despite Ben & Jeff comparing them to basically any game except Rage 1), except for the one thing that would matter - the enemy AI & movement. Seeing the enemies be so lifeless and dumb is a bummer.

The absolute neglect of AI advancements this generation is what I see as the worst trend in videogames. I really hoped to see actual advancements rather than incremental graphic upgrades and big empty maps.

@hansolol: i liked it a lot too.

in his ACG review Karak (sp?) says the AI is very similar to Rage 1, but he generally plays on the hardest difficulties.

@doncabesa: Hmm. Interesting, thanks for the heads-up. Kind of disappointing, though - I generally play on normal (sometimes easy if I just want to plow through a game) and if the game gates the full enemy AI under the highest difficulty that would be a real shame.

I played through Rage in the last year and the AI was a real highlight and made me actually have to think about how I was going to effectively take down my enemies even if I wasn't overly concerned with actually dying all the time.

This really just looks like Mad Max 2 with first person shooting replacing the Batman melee. Not a bad thing, but maybe not what they've been selling in the marketing.

@larsc: literally stopped the video to comment this exact thing lol

They talk about how boring and conventional the NPC design is mere minutes before running into the weirdest motherfucker. The Commentator's Curse is a hell of a thing.

Ben sounded like his soul was leaving his body whenever the camera was pointed at the freak-mount.

Obviously they are bored the whole time on this QL, but it didn't look boring...I stand undecided.

Didn't realize there was such a Rage defense force out there.

Where is all the flare :( All the STYYYYLE.

Looks so vanilla :(

Is this a shooter in the Post Apocalyptic Future 1980"s? I'm trying to put it all together, visually and such.

IDK. The protagonist seems to be a too nice guy between rending people apart. Mohawks, again back to the 1980's. And I truly do dislike being called 'sport'. No trust for that term.

Also the atmosphere seems a little murky and it all does seem so saturated.

But in the long run, I will follow this game. It looks competent. Perhaps I need to hear more.

Well, you can definitely see that this game was made by the same people who made Mad Max. I think a lot of the issue Jeff is talking about originates from the fact that enemies are inherently less interesting in shooters than in brawlers. In Mad Max you have a fully fledged melee combat system that means small packs of generic enemies will always at least be somewhat engaging. In a shooter on the other hand you just shoot them and move on. It seems like they failed to account for this and just applied much of the same design Mad Max had.

This seems a little more open world than I anticipated. What I liked about Rage 1 was that once you got to your location in the rather bland open world, the sort of closed off missions were all very bespoke and interesting. The "seamless" transition from open world to mission make this game lose a bit of that craft and detail. At least from the QL, which was one of the most low energy QL's I've seen in a while - you can tell because Ben didn't yell even once.