Rage PC [Review]

FULL REVIEW

iD Software is way up there in gaming history as one of the founding fathers of first person shooters. It began with their Nazi-killing Wolfenstein 3D. They went on to make Doom and then a whole host of developers carried the torch from there on,. A decade on, iD was lost in the crowd, as engines like Unreal and CryTek have more or less the same prowess. Now, with Rage, iD has come back with a vengeance, and a brand new killer engine called Tech 5. Question is, do they make or break it?

(Note: This review was intentionally late, as the early builds of Rage had terrible, terrible texture tearing rendering this game almost unplayable. So, we waited for the developer to address this with a patch before we put down our thoughts)

Rage opens with an incredible cinematic showing the Apophis asteroid crashing into Earth in 2029, changing the face of the planet completely. All the planets greatest minds have been cryogenically sealed in Arks all over the planet. You play a survivor of one of those Arks. Your adventure begins once you wake up and find yourself bang in the middle of an unfriendly post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Every screen in Rage is packed with insane levels of detail. The moment you leave the Ark, you are treated with screen after screen of photorealistic scenery. Desolate decay and destruction is laid out before you, leading your eye through canyons to mountains in the distance, while large cumulus clouds tower above you. A lens flare of the harsh mid-day sun pokes through your peripheral vision. The Tech 5 engine is capable of rendering awe-inducing visuals and very large maps. There are points where you have to stop to gape at the landscapes, the developers have made sure that there are more than enough spots.

The story of Rage takes you to rundown towns, and ruins of old cities where you meet survivors and solve quests. Get to know the world of Rage a lot more. It’s interesting as a lot of individuals in the game refer to you as an “entity of the past”. However, being in cryo stasis has given you a special ability to cheat death a few times, thanks to nano-machines in your blood.

The gameplay of Rage has you fighting across the wasteland against bandits, mutants, and some other factions who are quite interested in your Ark status. In Mad Max style, you also get behind the wheel of souped-up vehicles packing lots of firepower, as you traverse the lecherous landscape from town to town. The car action is fast and furious and very reminiscent of a game called Interstate ‘76 (), which also featured this kind of vehicular car combat.

Money plays a vital role in the game and you have to solve quests or race on the local tracks to earn money to buy you weapons, ammo and new cars and their upgrades. Quests are the usual run and fetch, up and down missions, but the driving sequences do a superb job of keeping things from getting too mundane. The action is tight and very enjoyable, due in part to the unique and explosive weapons. Each weapon has different ammo types for you to have fun with - the Shotgun has buckshot, pulse rounds and powerful rocket rounds, and they all go off with a satisfying boom.

The game’s characters seem too charismatic, it’s as if the meteor-induced apocalypse bought happy gas and distributed free samples to the survivors. Everyone seems like they’re on the elocution podium saying their lines with the happiest outlook possible. Though, to say the characters lack personality would be an understatement. The character models are detailed and very realistic, especially when emoting during conversations.

Rage’s storyline, if you had to map it on a graph, it very rarely shows its face above the excitement line. It starts slowly, then peaks in the middle and flatlines towards the end in a hasty conclusion. There’s no feeling for the larger picture. There are points where it excites you, but doesn't really follow up on those threads. After a very anticlimactic last level, the game closes in one of the most disappointing endings that makes you feel cheated. Especially since the action and set pieces throughout the middle will completely blow your mind. You can’t help walking away thinking that this was just a slightly longer prologue.
The landscape is not the only thing packed with gorgeous detail. The enemies you encounter are varied from mutants to towering hulks of mutants, all rendered with striking realism. All the factions you encounter have their own quirky edge, from the Russian Gearheads to the Red Indian-like Jackals. Each faction has their own weapons and their own fighting styles. The AI is quite excellent as enemies dodge you and try to get around you to attack.

As mentioned earlier, the graphics are top notch. However, at the time of launch, the game was nigh unplayable, with a hideous amount of texture tearing and v-sync issues. While the game renders distances well, when you move up close, one can actually notice lots that the textures are quite low-res. As of now there has been a few patches addressing these issues. Not only that Nvidia and ATI have been hard at work releasing new drivers. So make sure you update to the latest graphic card drivers before playing. Read up on Rage tweak guides so you get the best out of the game.

This being an iD game, it’s only natural to expect some A-grade multiplayer. Sadly there’s no Deathmatch or Capture the Flag mode. There are a few racing multiplayer games called Combat Rally, where six racers can blow themselves up to smithereens. There are also co-op modes, called Legends of the Wasteland where you can embark upon quests that have been mentioned in passing during the single player campaign. There is also the horde mode co-op based, on the Mutant Bash TV arena you encounter during the game as well as in the iPhone game.

Rage at its core is a brilliant and highly enjoyable action game with top notch combat and driving sequences. What it lacks in story and structure, it makes up for in heaps with setting, cutting edge visuals and a satisfyingly long campaign. A recommended buy once all the visual bugs have been ironed out.