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RAGE
PC (Steam)
That’s Not the Emotion I’d Use to Describe it
4/5 stars
“RAGE” is the latest game created by the granddaddy of FPS developers, id Software. Id was largely responsible for the basic underpinnings of the entire FPS genre with their groundbreaking (and utterly deplorable) work on “DOOM,” “Quake,” and “Wolfenstein 3D,” and the franchises those primordial FPSes spawned. I never intended to play an id game again after “Heretic” and “Hexen” soured me on the company’s gameplay design and “Quake II” (which came free with my 1997 college PC) showed me that the entire FPS genre was incapable of improving for the better. Yet, after playing “Borderlands” with my friends, I was primed to give the post-apocalyptic-without-zombies-or-space-marines setting another try, and it just so happened that id Software decided to create a brand new intellectual property in 2011 with just such a setting. With both “Borderlands” and “RAGE” being FPSes with a similar setting, I can’t help but compare the two in every way, and despite my misgivings about id Software, “RAGE” managed to impress me and slightly edge out it’s wildly popular competitor in certain important categories.
Presentation
Unlike most modern FPSes, “RAGE” doesn’t actually run on the Unreal Engine. Instead, it uses a proprietary engine created by id Software, called the id Tech 5 Engine. Id Tech 5 is capable of rendering some spectacular polygons, but it has significant problems with fast horizontal movement. “RAGE” is prone to severe screen tearing unless v-synch is enabled in the option menu, and, regardless of the graphical settings used, has significant polygon pop-in at the edges of the screen when the player’s view shifts side-to-side. When I was almost finished with the game, I did come across a support thread on its Steam Community forum that detailed how to create a custom .cfg file to smooth out id Tech 5’s quirks, but without employing this kind of hackery (which isn’t detailed anywhere in the actual game menus and not available for the console versions), the engine will always have flaws.
Regarless of the engine’s quirks, though, “RAGE” is a very pretty game… provided the viewer finds browns and grays to be pretty. Like most other modern FPSes, “RAGE” opts for hyperrealism as its aesthetic, and manages to pull it off quite well. The huge environments are breathtakingly detailed (though I did notice that the beautiful clouds in the beautiful sky never move, because the sky is actually a static object), however the textures used on these detailed polygon models aren’t particularly high-resolution, resulting in a “Borderlands”-esque inability to read signs and pick out small details through a scope. The character models used in the game are numerous, providing a lot of unique-looking characters for the player to interact with. These unique characters also have a lot of visual personality and incredibly well-animated faces, though sometimes their lip-synch gets off a tiny bit. The characters also have a tendency to relocate themselves between missions, giving the illusion that the people in the world of “RAGE” actually do things beside stand around and wait for the player’s character to talk to them. Enemy models, on the other hand, look relatively uniform. Of course, the majority of enemies in the game are members of bandit gangs who, apparently, wear gang-related uniforms (including masks/helmets), which helps to explain why they all look alike.
“RAGE” has impressive audio to go along with its impressive – if not a bit quirky – graphics. The soundtrack is very similar to the one in “Borderlands,” providing mostly ambiance to let the player know whether or not there are hostiles in the immediate area. However, there are also some pieces of background music that mostly occur in the non-combat areas of the game and help contribute to the character of the game’s world. The voiceacting is incredibly well done and features a number of big-name Hollywood types (like John Goodman) that mostly just inflated the game’s budget. I appreciate a good VA performance, but paying Hollywood prices for a game’s cast when there are plenty of talented starving actor-wannabes out there just seems like a waste of money on production values that could have been spent making id Tech 5 less quirky. Regardless of the quality of the VA, I was impressed that the stereo/surround mixing in the game makes it possible to identify where enemies are in relation to the player’s character just by listening to them chatter at each other.
Story
Coming off of id Software’s previous games, I was not actually expecting much of anything. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to learn that “RAGE” does actually have a backstory and narrative, and that – unlike “Borderlands” – all of the important information about the game’s story elements are actually included IN THE GAME!
The opening cinematic details the final moments of the Ark Project before an asteroid, dubbed Apophis – slams into the Earth. The Ark Project itself involved submerging numerous spherical pods beneath the surface of the Earth, each filled with a number of nano-trite injected humans who would re-emerge and rebuild society on the surface once the asteroid’s aftermath had passed.
Our hero, who is nameless, voiceless, and largely personality-free, emerges after 104 years as the sole-survivor of his Ark to discover that the surface of the Earth (it is unclear exactly where the game’s events take place, but it seems to be somewhere in North America) is now a ravaged wasteland populated by bandits. In addition to the bandits, a few families of survivors have managed to eek out an existence in the wasteland, banding together in fortified settlements. After being rescued from bandits by a man named Dan Hagar (who apparently stole the sunglasses off Bono’s corpse), our hero soon learns that the nano-trites in his system make him a valuable resource in the wasteland: He’s a man who is difficult to kill. Thus our hero sets out making a figurative name and literal reputation for himself in the wasteland as the bandit-slaying hero of the settlements.
Before long, our hero’s reputation allows him access to two other towns and his actions reveal the existence of two other forces in the wasteland that are fare worse than bandits: Mutants and The Authority. The not-so-cleverly-named Authority is directly opposed by resistance forces in The even-less-cleverly-named Resistance, who need our hero’s unique non-dying abilities to break The Authority’s grip on the wasteland and to uncover the sinister secrets held by that agency.
I have read a lot of complaints that “RAGE’s” story ends abruptly and anti-climatically. I disagree. I found that the game’s narrative, which took me about 30 hours to get through (including all side quests and DLC) was just the right length, progressed logically, and tied up enough story threads to resolve itself, while leaving enough story threads open for a sequel. However, I will complain that the ending cinematic is far too short and doesn’t go into enough detail about the repercussions of our hero’s final mission. Speaking of our hero’s final mission, I think many of the complaints about the game’s ending might boil down to the fact that there is no epic final confrontation with a final boss, as most id Software fans have come to expect.
“RAGE” also has a little bit of DLC, specifically a bonus set of Sewer Missions (included in the Steam version for free) and an add-on set of missions dealing with a bandit gang called The Scorchers. While the Sewer Missions are uninspired and boring, The Scorchers mission set is quite interesting. Even better, The Scorchers missions can be played either as a coda after beating the main game or interspersed among the main story missions, making this particular piece of DLC feel far more integrated than most others.
Gameplay
“RAGE” is a pretty straight forward FPS, but also includes a significant number of action/adventure elements. Whereas “Borderlands” tried to freshen up a stagnant genre with RPG-style grinding and random loot, “RAGE” has static locations for every item in the game. One thing I found a bit frustrating about “RAGE’s” insistence on static item locations is that, early on, I killed some bandits who had shotguns, but the game wouldn’t actually let me take their shotguns – only the shotgun shells. I had to progress through the story missions until I earned THE shotgun before I could actually put those shells to use.
Exploration in the wasteland is somewhat limited, as well. While the environments look huge and “Borderlands”-esque, they actually are filled with invisible blocking volumes that herd the player into specific paths. While “RAGE” does have a mini-map when exploring the wasteland (usually by vehicle), there is no larger map to give any perspective about the actual size of the game world, and in mission locations, even the mini-map disappears. The lack of a map isn’t really a big deal, though, as the mission locations are fairly linear, but incredibly well-designed shooting galleries.
The FPS mechanics in “RAGE” are thoroughly modern and well executed. Our hero can quick-swap between four active weapons in his ‘loadout,’ as well as four ‘quick use’ items (including grenades and boomerang-like wingsticks). Thanks to his nano-trites, our hero has regenerating health. Instead of a health bar, the screen turns red as he takes damage, and the redness lessens if he avoids damage for a while. Upon dying, our hero can be shocked back to life by an internal defibrillator that slowly recharges over time, effectively incorporating the traditional videogame ‘lives’ mechanic into a genre that never really used it (dying without a defibrillator charge results in a Game Over and reload from the last save – and the player can save anywhere). The defibrillator also has the added bonus of electrocuting any enemies that decide to gloat over our hero’s apparent corpse.
Enemies in “RAGE” fall into two basic categories: melee and ranged. Melee enemies bob and weave a lot, making them challenging targets, while ranged enemies make effective use of cover. The player can make liberal use of cover as well, without the game actually including any kind of annoying ‘stick to cover’ mechanic. Enemy accuracy is appropriate to their shooting style, with greater accuracy when they have a clear shot and horrible accuracy when they are firing blind from behind cover. As an id Software game, I was expecting “RAGE” to make heavy use of ‘monster closets’ to produce enemies from previously-clear areas the player has already passed. While “RAGE” doesn’t put all enemies into play at once, I was pleased to see that the ‘closets’ they spawn from are almost always in front of the player, or in a logical location when no in front.
Honestly, I have never been more impressed with straight-up FPS gameplay than I was with “RAGE.” Not only are the aiming and shooting mechanics smooth and accurate, the variety of weapons available in the game is just right, including standards like a pistol, assault rifle, and shotgun, alongside more exotic fare like a crossbow, laser cannon, and (included in The Scorchers DLC) a nail gun that can launch nails, rebar, or wall-penetrating rail-gun slugs. The only dark cloud inside the gameplay’s silver lining is the fact that the hero has inexplicably floaty movement. While the aiming and shooting mechanics are perfect, I always felt like the main character moved further than he should with a single tap of a direction, almost as if he were wearing Luigi-style (of “Super Mario Bros.” fame) slippery shoes.
In addition to finding weapons and gathering ammo, our hero can scavenge salable goods in the wasteland. Each major ‘town’ area has a shop that allows the player to exchange cash for ammo, bandages (which restore all health instantly) or crafting materials. Crafting materials require recipes (these can be bought, earned as mission rewards, or found), which can be used to make upgraded versions of ammo, a handful of automated defense machines (like turrets or remote controlled cars with bombs on them), lock grinders (to access bonus rooms full of goodies), and permanent health increases, among other things.
The only form of grinding included in “RAGE” is the entirely optional mini-games that the player can whack-away at if they run short of cash. Most of these mini-games are heavily luck-based, so I avoided them… and never found myself running low on cash.
The one non-optional mini-game in “RAGE” is racing. Racing is integrated fairly deeply into “RAGE’s” gameplay mechanics, since the same vehicles are used in races as are used to explore the wasteland. By racing, the player can earn ‘racing certificates’ (these can also be earned by taking infinite-duration missions that pay certificates and cash for each enemy vehicle destroyed in the wasteland), which can be used to buy upgraded parts (and weapons) for most of the game’s stable of cars (a buggy, pickup, and… some kind of hotrod SUV-thing). I found the racing in “RAGE” to be pretty well-done. While it starts out challenging, most of the challenge in early races comes from the fact that the player’s vehicle has awful parts and thus awful handling and traction. After buying all the vehicle upgrades, every race becomes a cake-walk… The only problem is that not all of the races are actually ‘races.’ Many of the end-game ‘race’ missions are actually ‘MarioKart’ style arenas that focus less on scoring points by destroying opponent’s vehicles and more on scoring points by driving through randomly-appearing rally points. While this type of race would be find in theory, the fact that rally points are completely random and that AI-controlled racers always know exactly where to be when a rally point appears, means that these so-called ‘rocket rallies’ are more a function of luck than skill, and that is always a bad thing.
Overall
The title, “RAGE,” seems to be a misnomer. While that is definitely the emotion I felt when playing any of id Software’s older FPSes, their latest effort is actually an incredibly pleasant experience and plays very well with a Razer Hydra. By incorporating much more genre-appropriate action/adventure elements instead of aping “Borderlands’” poorly-integrated RPG elements, “RAGE” manages to be a modern FPS with plenty of gameplay depth, great shooting, reasonably fun racing, and a competent narrative. It’s a shame more id Software fanboys didn’t like “RAGE,” as it seems that they aren’t currently planning a sequel, but are instead going back to their wheelhouse of crap to make “DOOM 4.”
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 3.5/5
Gameplay: 4.5/5
Overall (not an average): 4/5
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