RAGE Review

Game:  RAGE
Year (s):  2011
Company:  dev.  id Software
            pub.  Bethesda Studios
Engine:  id Tech 5
Type:  First-Person Shooter (with some RPG elements), Racing

Price (as of December 24, 2011)

Regular price on Steam:  $29.99
Lowest Buy-It-Now on eBay (new, with shipping):  $24

Game Time (first time, on normal): 33 hours

Obligatory Trailer:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtycv3h-4GA



Plot

In 2004 observations indicated that the asteroid Apophis had a small chance of hitting Earth.  RAGE begins with the asteroid hitting.  Selected people were put in underground Arks, kept in suspended animation by "nanotrites".  You, one of the Ark survivors, wake up about one hundred years after impact.  It's a phenomenal beginning, with great cinematics, music, and dialogue.

The rest of the game has almost no plot.  Shoot stuff that shoots at you.  A novel and a set of three comic books flesh out the plot, but these don't come with the game.  Many people have been understandably unhappy with the lack of story.


id Tech 5

I ran the game on nearly the lowest settings, and it looked as good as anything else that I've seen in the last five years.  I'm sure on the highest specs it's a bombshell.  A noticeable aspect of this engine is very short load times. 

Some complain that the engine is buggy, but they're idiots.  The game never crashed.  Occasionally graphical errors occurred on an area load, but re-loading the last save (typically the auto save that occurred on entering the new area) fixed it easily.  I had no other problems. 


Voice Talent/Audio

Most notably, we have John Goodman.  Several other voices are ones that you will recognize from other games, but probably won't know the name of the actors offhand.

The score is done by a guy named Abernathy, and really shines during cinematic cutscenes.  Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age) did a song that plays during the end credits. 


Combat and Gameplay

This is my favorite part of the game.  Like old shooters, you have lots of weapons and infinite inventory.  Except for two guns, all have multiple ammo types.  Ammo can electrocute, explode, or mind-control an enemy to turn them in to a suicide bomber. 

All weapons can zoom and be used in melee.  RAGE adds quick-use items (bound to Q and changed by the F keys ) ranging from medkits and grenades, to boomerangs, sentry bots, turrets, and RC bomb cars.  Using these in conjuction with your standard weaponry is a blast.

Quick-use items and some ammo types can be built by the player, from parts found or purchased.  This engineering system is simpler and more accesible than that in New Vegas or BioShock. 

Life regeneration is featured, albeit unlike other games, there's a sci-fi explanation for it.  The "nanotrites" that kept you in suspended animation now repair your body!  This also accounts for a limited come-back-to-life mechanic.


Driving

Two races are part of the main quest, and you'll be driving between locations as soon as you have a vehicle.  Lots of additional races are purely optional.  The parts upgrade system for cars is very simple, and weapons (many with parallels in Mario Kart) can be purchased.  All the racing together isn't as long as an actual driving game, but it's an enormous contrast to the shooter genre's typically limited use of vehicles. 


Game Time

I tried (and failed) to do everything in one play through.  This included side quests, racing, vehicle jumps, a handful of mini-games, optional areas, and achievements.  This made the gametime 2-3 times as long as most modern shooters, or a fraction as long as the big modern RPG shooters.  This amount of content is another complaint made by players.  However, RAGE doesn't have all the similar (repetetive) quests to do.  Different groups of enemies in RAGE have different AI and tactics.  Lastly, RAGE is already 21 gigs, with the promise of additional content in DLC form. 


Easter Eggs

The player can find Pinkies, which have a description like Twinkies but make a distinctive growl upon picking them up.  Vault-Tec bobbleheads can be found, so can a guy with a Doom 3 t-shirt, a few id logos, signs for Doom 3's Mixom company, a Half-Life 2 nod, and probably several other references that I didn't notice or didn't find.  


Expansions / DLC / Sequels

id plans to create DLC, but there is no information yet.


Final Thoughts

What we have here is a beautifully rendered, good-length shooter with top-notch voice acting and audio.  The game makes a huge advance in combining shooters and racing.  While there's no plot, I have a hard time remembering the last time I had this much fun with a combat system.  RAGE is pretty sweet.