"HEYYY YOU GUYSSSSS!"
This was a game I've been waiting years for. I remember being in my highschool graphic design class when I first heard about it. I saw the screen shots and was beyond impressed. Trust me when I say that I had never seen more impressive looking rocks than in those few screens. What had me confused though was the racing focus and teen-rating. Luckily those 2 things changed. And my god was it the best choice they could have made. Id has a reputation with quality. And this game is no different.
The game technically starts in the year 2029. The earth ending asteroid Apophis is on a collision course with Earth and YOU are being cryogenically frozen deep underground in a vessel called an Ark that is meant to save a chosen few who will rebuild society after everything is over. You wake up 106 years later to a violently changed planet Earth. From here on out you are on your own in this wasteland. John Goodman saves your ass, and he's the last person to ever do it. I wish I could live in the world of Rage. It's beautiful and unforgiving. I love it. Here's the review :
A-Atmosphere
G-Gameplay
G-Graphics
S-Sound
G-Gameplay
G-Graphics
S-Sound
A- As soon as this game starts, you're overwhelmed with the game's atmosphere. As soon as the Ark doors open you're thrust into the wastes. About 5 seconds after that, you're attacked. It honestly scared the shit out of me. It doesn't take long to get sucked in. The environments are beautiful (despite texture pop-ins) and well designed. No two areas look the same, which is VERY common of post-apocalyptic games. All of the characters in the towns have something to say and no two look alike. It's truly something else to see. The world is vibrant, colorful, and altogether well designed. All of the enemies are frightening as well. From the savage bandit clans to the organized and tactical authority, a fire-fight in Rage always manages to get your blood pumping. The years spent fine-tuning this game really do show. A couple of things I wish they'd change however is the fact that once you're done doing with the missions involved with an area in the game, enemies don't respawn. And some you're not even allowed to traverse again(Dead City.). Despite the vastness of this game, there isn't too much to expore in it. Regardless, the tone and feeling I get from Rage far surpasses most. -9/10
G- The game play is the star of the show in Rage. It shows that Id has not lost it's touch when it comes to making a really-fucking-fun-to-play fps. When I watched all of those game play videos I thought that this game was going to be a cake walk. I was beyond wrong. The enemies are EXTREMELY intelligent. They hide from you and rush you at proper times. At no point in the game did I think to myself "Why would he think that's a good place to hide?". Which is almost always a question you have to ask yourself when you're playing an fps. More than once I was cornered and stabbed to death. It's fun and frantic. The guns and ammo add a whole new dimension to this game. In any game I don't use alternate ammo types, but in this game you have to. Not only that, but the different ammo types make the weapon feel entirely different. Seeing your enemies faces explode after firing a fatboy round right in their face is one of the most satisfying feelings. Ever. On top of the flawless fps gameplay is a racing mechanic on the scale of Twisted Metal. Which is a good thing, because you have to do a whole lot of driving. The races in between all of the action is fluid and FUN. It's really really fun. Upgrading your car adds even more to the gameplay. You'll want to have the most bad ass car on the wastes just because you have that option. On top of the fantastic single player gameplay is a co-op option. It's called Wasteland Legends. It's a series of stories that intertwine with the single player story. It plays just a bit different from single player in that it's point based and there's no free roaming. It can be a lot of fun to partner up with one of your friends and take on the many challenges. In my opinion it's a lot of fun to go back and try and beat your scores and/or friend's scores. It adds tons to the replay value. As of the time I wrote this review I had barely touched the online. It's fun, but unfortunately it's all vehicle based and there isn't any fps based games. Despite all of that it's a nice add-on to the single player's multiple difficulty settings. Which do add a lot. Nightmare mode is like a completely different game. But it's hard in a fun way and will add hours upon hours to your experience if you give it a chance. This has the best gameplay over every fps. It's fluid at a constant 60 fps no matter what is happening and it's a hell of a lot of fun -10/10
G- By now I'm sure that everyone has heard of the massive texture pop-ins that this game has in it. Yeah. It does. And it really does take away from what could be a perfect game here. Upon first emerging from the Ark it's obvious. The quarry is VERY blurry and takes a moment to snap all of the textures together. It's ugly and unsettling. It really aggravates me that they weren't able to figure out a solution to this. What makes this hurt so much more is that every area is really cool looking. All of the environments are unique and beautiful when properly working. But I suppose on the hardware of this generation's consoles it's impossible for a game to look as good as Rage is supposed to. Luckily, these pop-ins aren't too bad in set areas like bandit hide-outs. You'll also be too engaged with the flawless game play to care too much about the pop-ins. Outside of obvious terrain texture errors, everything else in the game looks flawless. The gun models are great, the armor is great, and no two people in towns look alike. Once again, the effort put into Rage shows. Despite the massive pop-ins.. -8.5/10
Verdict : 9.5/10
Despite this game's obvious short comings, it's a god damned classic. It's gameplay is PERFECT and that's what really matters with a game. The ending is a bit disappointing and it fizzles, but the amounts of replay-ability and the promise of future DLC solve that shit. You can tell that Id fine tuned this game to be as fun as it possibly can. If you're turned off by the texture pop-ins to the point of passing this up completely.. Go fuck yourself. Seriously. Do it. This game has everything an fps fan would want. If this is an indication of what the next generation of gaming will be like (it is) than we should be really excited starting now. Id has done it again. And I'm sure Doom4 will be even more impressive.
Next up :
God damn right. It's time for classic reviews.
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