RAGE review

RAGE is Id Software's latest game, which is set in a post apocalyptic world a la Fallout and Borderlands. A new graphics engine is featured that allows for breathtaking visuals... assuming you've got the rig to handle it.


Story
As I mentioned earlier, RAGE is set on Earth after a huge asteroid strikes it. You play one of the survivors who emerges from a stasis chamber in one of many vaults hidden throughout the world. You wake up to find yourself weaponless and soon dealing with bandits. You're saved by the head of a local family (voiced by John Goodman), who then explains some of what's going on. Later, you'll learn of other towns, mutants, bandit clans, and The Authority, the strongest group out there with the best technology and hidden motives. Your job is to keep The Authority from finding out who you are, where you come from, and from capturing you.

The folks at Id do pay homage to Fallout via a few Easter eggs, which is highly appropriate as the story is almost a direct copy of [insert Fallout Game here].

Gameplay
RAGE does differ however in gameplay as it is mainly a FPS. There are no stats like strength or cunning, no need to repair weapons, budget storage space, etc.

There are a plethora of weapons and armor, however, each of which can and should be upgraded to help them scale into the late game. In addition, each weapon has multiple types of ammo; some types are just straight upgrades (ex. feltrite rounds for your assualt rifle), while others offer alternative functions (EMP rounds for the shotgun which shut down electronics and enemy shields). All of these extra ammo types can be crafted, bought, and/or found.

Speaking of crafting, there are lots of items that can be built that make your gameplay experience both easier and unique from other FPSes. For instance, you can build RC cars with bombs strapped to them, which can infiltrate buildings and cause mayhem. Sentry bots are another fun tool. They will actually hunt down your enemies even if they're behind cover.

Now, driving is a big part of the game, much like it was with Borderlands. However, you don't drive the same car the whole game nor do your enemies. Each car you get is also customizable, but you do need to be careful with your upgrades as fully upgrading every car is quite tedious and boring. You'll end up choosing maybe 2 or 3 cars that you'll drive and focus your earnings on those few. Tip: If you see a floating drone while you're driving around, there should be a way to do a jump in your car so you can crash into it, giving you lots of spare parts for crafting.

And... yes... this is an Id game so you do get a BFG near the end of the game. Not that you need it with all of the extra money you'll have to buy and make the really powerful ammo. Unfortunately, the BFG does make the last levels a little too easy, even on the harder difficulties. Without going into the nitty gritty details, let's just say that the ending was anticlimactic and unimaginative.

Still, RAGE has some of the most fun gameplay that I've experienced in a while.

Graphics

The graphics on Ultra for this game are almost reason enough to get the game. You'll need a dual 580/6970 set up though. Even off of Ultra, the game looks beautiful. It makes Source games run back to their parents' house to cry.

There was a major issue with textures originally if you had AMD cards: Essentially, textures weren't being cached so when you would spin around, you'd catch textures loading. It made the game almost unplayable. That has since been fixed in a patch.

Oh, and rumor is that Id will be releasing a super HD texture pack sometime in the future... just make sure to have a few dozen extra GB on your game drive.

Sound

The sound is well done but par for the course. Nothing as well done as say, BF3, but still completely fine. Let's be honest though; you aren't going to play RAGE because the sound of the assault rifle makes you think you're in the hood experiencing a drive-by; you're playing for the amazing graphics.

Overall

Pretty fun and awesome game. Amazing, simply amazing graphics. John Carmack really outdid himself. It's definitely worth a buy, but the question is: when? With Christmas so close and the game available on Steam, it might be prudent to wait for the Christmas Steam sales that always happen. There was a steam sale shortly before this article was published, but that time has passed.

My comp
i7-2600k 3.4GHz cooled by a Corsair H100
16 GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance
2x6970
G35 headset
Windows 7

Recommended build
Intel Core 2 Quad or Equivalent AMD
4GB memory
25GB HDD space
GeForce 9800 GTX or Radeon 5550