With the upcoming MAD MAX game, I felt the need to finish this review as I feel this game deserves it's portion of popularity. RAGE from id Software (guys from Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein series) is a fine depiction of how a post-apocalyptic wasteland could look like. If you feel the nostalgia of Fallout and MAD MAX, this game will certainly grip your attention.
The graphics were awesome when it was released, and it still keeps up even in 2015. The textures size was mind-boggling at the time and still is. This, unfortunately, lead to the worst downside that's haunting the game - texture load lag. Every time you enter a new landscape or turn your head - all the texture pop in and there really not much you can do about it. No patch for it has ever been released and all the fixes you may find on the net are lacking. SSD is the best way you can struggle with it.
Regardless, the game looks really nice and the sandy, crippled desert with the ruins of civilization lying around is pretty convincing. The game revolves around the struggle between the mutants living in the outskirts and more civilized people gathered in the few settlements to be found in the Wastelands.
As seen in the game trailer, you are a revenant, an Earthling that has been sent into space to return when the dust and ashes from the nuclear conflict had settled, and a new beginning could commence. That moment is now.
The game is an open-world FPP adventure. There are several settlements where you may restock your ammo, items, weapons and take on quests. You may find various crypts, hideouts and whatnot in the Wasteland, most of which are linked to the side-quests. The entire game took me 18 hours to finish, but I believe I could invest about 2 more hours to unravel every bit of it, but I focused on the main plot.
The gameplay is quite simple but id Software has made it incredibly fun by combining standard shooter scheme of emptying the magazine, reloading, taking cover etc. with throwing items (mainly so called Wingsticks - a 3-tip blade-boomerang) which takes little time to get a hang of it, but once you do - it's absolutely great to use. Just imagine taking on 5 mutants that charge up on you by killing 2 of them with a series of bullets from the good-old Kalashnikov, tossing up two Wingsticks to bury in the skulls of another 2 uglies, and finalize the massacre with a buckshot from a shotgun - pure awesomeness!
The world is quite diverse and some missions are in the Wasteland, some deep underground in the ravaged sewers or train stations, others in the abandoned (well, not so much...) metropoly. The plot is entertaining, but I found it lacking epicness - nevertheless, it is still much better than most of the cliché settings of the games we encounter nowadays.
I would love to give this game an 8, but the lagging texture loads just don't let me. The fun is great and the atmosphere deserves a big thumbs-up to the developers, but this port is just poorly made and the code could use some chiselling.
All things considered - RAGE is an underestimated game in my opinion, but I understand that the bugs may not be acceptable to some gamers. However, some fixes minimize them and the game is definitely worth trying out!
