Rage (PS3) Review

Posted by Adam Larck on 10.11.2011

id’s long awaited game is finally out. Read inside to see how the shooter handles.



Title: Rage
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: id
Genre: FPS
Players: 1 (1-4 online)
Rated: M for Mature

Get More: GameTrailers.com, RAGE - Uprising Trailer, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The next game from the fathers of the FPS is finally here.

Rage comes from id Software, the makers of Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake and more. The company has already proven that it knows what makes FPS games work good, but can the company do enough to make Rage great?

The game focuses around a survivor of the underground shelter the Ark. The rest of the people in the Ark have become mummified, yet you’ve stayed preserved long enough to see the wasteland the world has become after the Apophis asteroid hit.

After leaving the Ark and getting rescued by Dan Hagar (voiced by John Goodman), the player starts doing quests for the settlers and communities that are left behind. While questing, players will stumble across various gangs that have taken over the area, mutants and the Authority.

At first, the game may remind you of Fallout or Borderlands, and there are some comparisons to be made. After all, the wasteland setting will look all too familiar to fans of those games. However, there are some big differences between those games and Rage.

First off, the game really doesn’t have any RPG elements. Sure, it was touted as a FPS/RPG, but the main RPG elements are just looting enemies, an inventory and questing. There’s no leveling or any kind of experience to speak of. The game is a pure shooter, with only a few artificial RPG elements thrown in.

The other difference this game has over Fallout is the open world. In Fallout, you can basically go anywhere you want to in the huge world. In Rage, there’s a huge open world that normally looks amazing. However, you’ll quickly find out that exploration is limited. Where the quests take place at is very linear, with quest objectives being impossible to miss. While the world may be big, you never get a chance to really explore due to gangs trying to kill you.

The quests in the game are pretty simple as well. The fetch quests you get have objects flashing at you and areas are often blocked until you pick them up. Meanwhile, other quests just have you killing things, or looking for a body before moving back. The quests are all simple and never require too much thought.

As far as the gameplay goes, the controls work great both shooting and driving. They both work as you’ve seen in plenty of other games, but it’s not too often where you see solid driving mechanics and shooting in the same game.

There are some different cars to drive in the game, each with various parts that can be bought and sometimes upgraded. However, you can’t buy parts with money. You have to complete races to get credits to buy parts. The parts are nice to have, but many aren’t needed except for people who want to trick their car out with the best items possible.

Besides the standard guns, there’s also a decent variety of items you can craft to use. There’s the wingstick, a boomerang that can kill enemies and return of not hindered, a sentry-bot, sentry turret, exploding RC car and more. In addition, you can make various things to heal if needed, and unique types of ammo. All you have to do is find the right scrap while questing, or buy some at the vendors.

Speaking of medical supplies, if you do get downed in battle, there’s the option of getting a second chance thanks to the defibrillator. Once your downed, you can play a minigame to see how much health you’ll get revived with, as well as how much damage you’ll do to enemies near you. However, it does have a recharge after use, meaning you need to watch it if you’ve already been downed once.

Outside of what I’ve mentioned, there’s not too much more to tell about the single player. It’ll probably take you around 8-10 hours, depending on how many side quests you do. There are also some minigames to play, if you choose to waste a bit of time that way. Once you’re finished with the single player, though, there are two multiplayer modes to check out.

Considering this is a shooter from id, you’d expect a deathmatch mode, right? Wrong. Instead, we have Road Rage and Legends of the Wasteland.

The first mode has four players using vehicles to destroy each other or reach rally points the fastest. As you level up, you unlock new classes, weapons, equipment and more.

The other mode, Legends, lets you and a partner take on harder missions in co-op. The missions in Legends are ones that you don’t run across during the main game, but are the ones you hear about from people while in the single player, such as how Dan got his sniper rifle. The biggest disappointment for me with this co-op mode is that it’s not extended to the full game. However, the levels are still fun to go through, at least until you beat them all.

Overall, the multiplayer feels a bit tacked on. It’s not really adding much to the game, and the main part of the game, shooting, isn’t really represented here. It may entertain you for some rounds, but it doesn’t feel like anything long lasting.

Let me wrap up the review talking about the graphics. The world looks great…when it loads in. I noticed some problems with textures taking a bit to load in, meaning you’ll see a bit of blur until it does. Once it loads in, though, it does look impressive. The gangs and people look unique, and cities you find are fun to wander around.

Pros

Good number of quests to do.

Controls are solid.

Game looks nice most of the time.

Cons

Lot of linearity in the game.

Sometimes takes a while for textures to load.

Multiplayer modes seem tacked on, not needed.

The 411:

Rage is by no means a bad game. Id has a solid shooter with great graphics and solid controls. However, plenty of other games have done the same things now. Rage is still a good game and will tide shooter fans over until other shooters release later this year. Just don’t expect anything groundbreaking here.

Graphics	9.0	When the graphics load in, they look great. However, points had to be taken here due to the texture issues.
Gameplay	7.5	The controls are solid and the mechanics work great, it’s just nothing you haven’t seen before.
Sound	8.0	The voice acting in the game is good to listen to, as is the soundtrack. Good job overall.
Lasting Appeal	8.0	The single player will take about 8-10 hours, not counting time wasted on minigames. Plus, there’s a multiplayer to check out as well.
Fun Factor	7.5	I enjoyed my time in the wasteland, especially seeing the different type of gangs roaming around.
Overall	8.0   [ Very Good ]

Screenshots
All 14 RAGE Screenshots