RAGE Reviews

With a little bit of modding the 64 bit version holds up pretty well due to the top tier art and atmosphere building. The structure of the game is a Deus Ex style hub world where you take on missions, then directed to go somewhere in the world to complete them. However, It's effectively a corridor shooter bolstered by some solid AI that will use the environment for navigation and evasion. They'll take cover, flank, try to flush you out with grenades and try to rush you if they see you retreat when you need to heal. Stuff that's not guaranteed even in a modern shooter. There are also racing and car combat elements but these can be avoided for the most part if they're not your thing. Although, they are perfectly serviceable. As others have noted, it does seem like the game was being developed with a bigger scope in mind as the size of the game world and some locked off areas suggest. There's even an abrupt end that might disappoint some who got emotionally invested in this universe. Personally, I felt what is there is well enjoyable and there's enough of it. It also has a good balance of being engaging without getting frustrating.

A fever dream. Its like Mad Max and the early Borderland games.

RAGE is a pseudo looter-shooter that tries to do many things, but unfortunately falls short on most fronts. It's weighed down by its half-baked mechanics, and repetitive gameplay. However, underneath its identity crisis and underdeveloped systems lies a very solid FPS well worth a playthrough. Moreover, the thing about this game is that many of its issues work in its favor, such as its dull aesthetics, which serve to reinforce the gritty and post-apocalyptic feel of the world, the claustrophobic dungeons, which work in pairs with the machete-wielding maniacs constantly charging at you, and the short and concise writing, which doesn't get in the way of the gameplay. Ok, the last one is pushing it, but I'm a bit biased, as I'd rather kill people, than to romance them. Jokes aside, the game has quite a few positives, and not just incidental ones. The gunplay is by far its best feature, being fast-paced and engaging, and featuring few but satisfying weapons, with different ammo types for each situation (although admittedly some of them are gimmicky). Enemies are reactive, and are actually quite competent, as some of the humanoid NPCs use cover strategically and then bumrush you, only to run back to their friends as they take damage; likewise, some of the more 'feral' ones use the environment by climbing the walls and ceiling in order to overwhelm you. The game features a basic gore system, and they also react in various ways after being shot at by, for instance, kneeling if they've taken enough damage, or limping instead of running if their legs are hurt, and so on. On top of that, there are numerous constructs and tools you can craft to aid you in combat, such as EMP grenades, turrets, mechanical spiders armed with machine guns, and so on. Even outside of shooting and looting, the game has a few other game modes, some basic like dice, others more intricate like a card game that lets you collect cards and then battle NPCs. The one you'll definitely want to play is racing, which is the main way to gain the special currency required to upgrade your vehicle. Or, you can explore the town hubs, and talk to the people, who are surprisingly charismatic, and sometimes offer you quests. Now, to elaborate on some of the aforementioned issues: For starters, most of the things not immediately related to shooting enemies are quite barebones, like the crafting system. The game in general is very basic at its core and can become quite repetitive, especially considering it peaks relatively early and the gameplay loop barely evolves past the first hour or so, and the writing is barely an incentive to keep going (and if it is for you, prepare to be disappointed). There is also very little actual playable space in this game. The "open-world" really only serves to connect the towns and dungeons, and there is almost nothing to do when driving from point A to B. Interior cells aren't better off, either - the vast majority of doors are inaccessible, and occasionally you might as well be walking in a straight line most of the time. Invisible walls are a staple in most videogames, but in this case, it's literally all around you, everywhere, all the time, to the point where it hurts the gameplay. The game encourages you to explore in order to find loot, but only when it lets you. Anyway, some other issues I can think of are: spongey enemies, passable writing at best, clunky inventory, no map (!!!), fixed camera while driving, muddy textures/somewhat constant pop-ins, and weird soundtrack choices (as in, the melodies are okay, just not how they're used). None of these really spoiled the experience to me, and I actually quite enjoyed it. Buy it on sale.

This is when ID Realms studios tries to cosplay Fallout or Bordelands series franchise. It does not compare when it's RPG and choices of routes but still a good play if you either are a fan of both series. 7.5 out of 10.

Decent game but it’s too generic. Then again it came out during the worst days of FPS genre do could have been worse. At least it’s not a call of duty or gears of war clone. The setting is boring. Just typical post-apocalypse with Mad Max bandits vs New Wild West. The second half of the game is more norm and cyberpunk but that’s not too original either. Lacks unique weapons too. Could really use some memorable NPCs. The only one who stood out was Steve Bloom resistance leader and he only stood out because I recognised the voice actor. Also it's way too easy. Guess folks expected a lot more from the legendary Id. New Doom i was not. Though the devs clearly wanted it to become a big new franchise considering the ending promising a lot more. Still better than almost any modern FPS.

the ending was sick and if you complete story mode you get to roam freely at the end and explore places they wouldn't let you explore in the campaign. Overall i would rate this game an easy 9.9/10

3 thing s i love in a game. Post-apocaliptic scenario. Enemy, guns. rage has all of them. Approved!

7.7/10 Rage is an extremely detailed and stylish game that feels like a fever dream and far from finished. And yet the more I played it, the more I loved it. The inventory & crafting is weird. Main quests feel like strange side quests from a different game than itself. Rendering & optimization is horrible and good at the same time. Resource gathering & management feels slightly off like something obvious is missing. The racing events are so easy and repetitive. The "open world" is hardly an open world but it's honestly better that way. The dlc feels like it shouldn't exist. For the first half of the game it's setting up a much larger world and story but then very quickly takes a turn into being just a short story with a forgettable ending. It's definitely the weirdest 1st person shooter I've ever played but also with some of the best world building I've ever seen.

Ultra-Nightmare Mode. Properly balanced low brightness for real darks Check your corners Stop, Look, Listen, Smell (SLLS) ... No HUD Team approved game and design. The game levels include a touch of quality represented from the possibility not only to move back again in already cleared areas but also when you finish a mission, game design makes you "back track towards the exit" for a limited journey back from where you entered the area (this has a specific definition I miss now) priceless high quality stuff that unfortunately has been lost in many games and has very big value for a player and the quality of the experience. Negatives: Fixed FPS limit (standard) solvable via modding only. Settings do not allow full no HUD. ([spoiler]a sort of lackluster hurried up final [/spoiler], level can be seen as repetitive but still they offer different challenges and are quite well designed. Will try to record some levels or sessions, but this game gets fun and interesting to play from the very frist 2 missions I took: the first one and one in a cave. There are babes and also cool guys so there is for all tastes I guess. Great atmospheric design, I keep music low but it's up to you. English of most character is North American (USA) midlands I'd say. understandable also without sub-titles. What can I say more? It's a game that doesn't make bullet spongy characters for the sake of your grind, consuming your time and energies and also difficulty doesn't ruin it all making them just rubber-wall targets to fill with magazines (pointlessness of The Division and tons of other RPG on steroid stuff) This is a game from the "far" time when games were made good and is waiting just your interpretation to shine, despite the darkness of our times. NHT - Serious Bronco seal of approval

Firstly, any game that lets you have a walking sentry turret that swiss-cheeses bad guys and then returns to you and looks up at you like a dog asking if he was a good boy is, at the very least, a decent game, but beyond that, this is a really, really tough game to recommend. I will warn people that I recommend games just as much for being historical curiosities or notable artistic works as for being must-play titles, and as far as game history is concerned, the game that nearly killed a legendary studio like id software is worth a look-around. In many ways, Rage is a bizarre step back from the technology in Doom 3: with id Tech 4 in the rear view mirror, Carmack came to believe that real-time lighting was a mistake, and baked lighting was, in fact, the only way to get a visually appealing experience in a gaming landscape that was seeking out more open spaces. I feel his heart was in the right place in that megatextures were intended to give artists a kind of freedom they'd never had in developing games before: every surface in a virtual world being unique, every pixel placed with intentionality. Sadly, Carmack doesn't understand artists, and speaking as an artist, I feel this is partly responsible for dev time ballooning to an absurd degree, leading to the studio's eventual buy-out by Zenimax/Bethesda. Don't get me wrong, the game does look good, but you start to see the sacrifices along the way: the world is far more static, and despite being an "open" world, it feels even more claustrophobic than wandering around demon-infested bases on Mars. Invisible collision meshes abound throughout hide-outs and in the Wastes preventing you from leaping into places you were never intended to be, but they are installed to such an extreme degree that it feels like you're getting stuck on everything. It even affects gunplay, as certain obstacles you would think you can squeeze a shot through will instead block the shot. Mirrors and transparent surfaces have also been discarded, which one could argue does not add significantly to gameplay, but with Doom 3 offering mirrors in every restroom, dust-blasted windows, and even video feeds from security cameras, one can't help but feel opportunities were lost, especially in a story with an over-arching "Authority" that has deployed surveillance throughout the Wastes. As a shooter, Rage is passable, but suffers from common missteps in many other shooters, with enemies being bullet sponges for no real reason at all. While the start of the game is thin on resources, the player will quickly amass enough cash and pick-ups in what should be a desolate, resource-starved future to be no significant obstacle to progress, which goes hand-in-hand with the bullet sponge problem. Having instead enemy encounters be quick, but with calculated consideration of the expenditure of precious resources would have been a better move, but I feel there was pressure due to the studio's history to let the player go full-ham on the trigger to fulfill a power fantasy that doesn't actually exist. And I feel therein lies the core problem with Rage: what are the thoughts and emotions this game is meant to invoke? Every game prior to Rage has a fairly solid idea of what role the player should fill, but Rage itself offers ammo and weapons aplenty (many of which are simply handed to you by individuals you've only known for twenty minutes), but over-tanked enemies who leap and roll and duck behind pillars, resulting in an excessive expenditure of bullets or rockets. You don't feel powerful. You just feel incompetent for the task at hand. Clearing out hide-outs and bases is tedious, with enemies having greater accuracy than you by simply holding their guns over or around obstacles to fire blindly at you. You are clearly an elite individual in a population that does not have defibrillators installed inside their bodies to revive them, but you're not a superhero; you're an errand boy and nothing more, progressing through a series of missions that offer no clear benefit to you, a random survivor from the past who literally just got there. In that sense, the overarching story with the Authority was a mistake, and Wasteland errands are not compelling enough to warrant an on-foot experience. Frankly, this game would have been better as a post-apocalyptic racer, as one of the selling points was players being able to customize and become attached to a buggy, though as it turns out it's only to a very limited degree. It should have been something they leaned into, but again, id's reputation as "the shooter studio" compelled them to create a middling experience that took far too long to kick out the door. The racing feels like the most polished aspect of this game. This should have been a pure racing game, damn the expectations. Ah well. It still looks great, and as a game artist, there's still plenty of imagery to admire. If only you could pet the sentry bots and feed them a little oil, I could recommend this game beyond being a piece of gorgeous historical folly.