RAGE Review

Let me just start out by saying that RAGE is not a great game. It's a good game, that could have been great.

The setting is similar to lots of other games out there. You are trapped in a post apocalyptic wasteland. Yada, yada, yada. If you've played Bioshock, Fallout, Borderlands, Resident Evil, Half-Life 2, Portal 2 etc. You know the score. Lots of decrepit buildings, roads, and machinery. Of course you have good guys, that look like humans, and bad guys that look like horribly deformed mutants/armored thugs.

Various inhabitants of the towns that you visit give you tasks to do. They usually require you to visit an area, make your way through it to a particular item (maybe defeat a boss), fight your way out of the area, and then take the item back to whoever asked you to retrieve it. The story progresses in mostly a linear fashion. There are some side quests that are pretty entertaining. The first few I did were sniper missions, which is always a nice change of pace after killing things in close quarters.

There's a racing component that is a nice addition. Winning races allows you to earn certificates to upgrade your vehicle. The racing is not great, this is no substitute for a good racing game, but it's a nice change of pace from the first person shooter part of the game. It's also a nice way to let you upgrade your vehicle besides dropping a lot of your hard earned cash.

There are also some mini games thrown in. The one I like the best is a game show. Set in a series of treacherous arenas, you have to fight wave after wave of bad guys managing your ammo along the way. If you make it to the end, you are awarded a very nice prize.

While working your way through all of these quests, you can visit Outfitters. These stores allow you to purchase ammo, armor upgrades, and schematics to build things with items that you have found along the way. I won't go into too much detail here, but one of these build-able items is REALLY cool.

It's a Pipe Bender...and it hurts.

A lot of reviews that I read before I bought the game said that it was not a very original concept, and I can see why people would say that. Luckily I hadn't been playing alot of this type of game, so that didn't really effect me.

Most importantly the Game LOOKS amazing.

ID Software has created a new engine, id Tech 5 that allows developers to really utilize the horsepower blah blah blah. It looks awesome!!! Just like the 4 versions before it, this is going to be the best in class gaming engine going forward, and RAGE is the first showcase for it. I can't wait to see what developers do with it going forward!

This is a good game, that looks amazing.