Brain Hood

Video gaming news and review sites once had a cynosure in the form of id Software and justifiably so. These were the guys who’d literally given the world of video gaming a new perspective by pioneering the first person shooter; those of us born before the 90s have fond memories of Wolfenstein 3D. id didn’t stop there, going on to further define the genre they’d created. The highly successful Doom and Quake franchises shaped the FPS genre and symbolized an entire era in video gaming. Simply put, they pretty much established themselves as the elder statesmen of video gaming, and were now looking for an ‘unretirement’ of sorts.

The intense combat experience, weapons that were innovative as much as they were fun, and a dark, twisted sense of humor were the stand-out traits of these games and that is the formula that id is looking to revive with Rage.

Rage Review: Redefining Video Gaming Graphics

Enemies come in all varieties in Rage. Some are harder to kill than others

And what makes it really stand out is that, as they’ve done before, id have somehow managed to revisit the art of redefining standards for graphical brilliance. Of course, you’ve heard that before, what with every new game that come out aiming to mediocrity with sheer eye-candy. Rage is among the exceptions where the graphics aren’t just there for the thrills, but serve to bring alive a truly beautiful, true-to-life animated, near photo-realistic world. Yes, this world does get into your face every now and then and tries to rip your throat out, but we’re not talking about gameplay right now, are we?

Gameplay

Speaking of which, Rage scores well here too. The combat is intense, immersive and unbelievably satisfying (okay, not quite in the I-need-a-shrink way) and not just because there’s a generous dose of good old video gaming blood-&-guts. The weapons are innovative, and with multiple ammo-types, the shooting never really gets old as you keep finding new ways to wreak havoc upon all who stand in your way. Suffice it to say that Rage will make you a veritable video gaming angel of death. Some weapons are pretty much standard FPS fare, and then there are others, like the bladed boomerang, that make you feel like a kid holding a brand new flavor of (virtual, of course) candy.  The races that also allow you to shoot your opponents into oblivion make us want to dig up our old Death RaceVHS tapes and weep tears of joy.

Enemy AI

Traveling on foot, encounters with the enemy are likely to leave you shaken; make no mistake, they’re not going to roll over and die just to make you feel good about yourself. Melee enemies will try take you down with the sheer weight of numbers, while the ones with ranged weapons know how to use them to deadly effect. Not only is the AI good, different kinds of enemies have their characteristic strengths, and use those strengths as well as the video gaming environment frighteningly well. Enemies tend to utilize cover effectively, so you’re always on your toes trying to deal with different enemies and it isn’t quite Serious Sam. Every encounter, especially when you encounter a new kind of enemy, turns into a dash to safety whichever way you can manage it, trying to kill the enemy at the same time. All in all, the adrenaline pumping gameplay keeps punching you in the guts to remind you that id Software is back.

Story

The storyline is where Rage flatters to deceive. That is not to say that it is bad. It’s also not just that the overall awesomeness warrants a better story, but more than that, it’s the story itself that’s promising and yet feels underdeveloped. You meet quite a few quirky and memorable characters on your quests, and while they feel nicely fleshed out, their storylines aren’t quite. Most of them are characters that send you, the player, on various quests. However, they have a tendency to simply vanish once their quests are completed. All the same, the story keeps you involved for the duration of the campaign—which can take anything between 10 and 20 hours—and is quite interesting but again, it just ends abruptly. Also, with all the stupendous arsenal you have on you by the time the final level rolls along, one does wish—classic corridor FPS action though it does showcase—that the final fight could have made you use your death dealing contraptions a little more and offered a challenging fight, instead of ending it as it does (see, no spoilers!)

Multiplayer Video Gaming

The multiplayer was clearly not the focal point for the developers who decided to go for a superlative single-player campaign instead. That said, it gets the job done by providing a more than decent multiplayer FPS experience. So our final verdict is that Rage is a must play game for the simple fact that it’s a fun game. It seamless blends a hardcore FPS video gaming experience with some basic and interesting features of an action RPG without letting that go so far as to detract from the chief fun  element, the sheer delight of carnage-filled fighting. That it’s easy on eyes at the same time only goes on to check another box with players still looking for more reasons to buy this game. Seriously folks, buy this fine specimen of video gaming multimedia already!

It’s not every day that your friendly neighborhood video gaming news blog gets up in the middle of a great game and decides to dash out a preliminary review of sorts, just to holler out to all you video gaming crazies just what a great time we’re having with this game. This is one of those times, when we meet a game that makes us send up a prayer of thanks (not always silent) to the patron saint of video gaming, if there’s one. So let us give you a look-in on Rage, the latest FPS offering from id Software, the people who brought us the Doom and Quake video gaming franchises. Rage continues in the same vein as the last Doom and Quake iterations to come out of the id Software Stable, particularly the dark humor and the visceral combat.

Attention Video Gaming Fans: Introducing Rage

At its most basic, Rage tries to bridge two popular video gaming genres: there’s the FPS fun we mentioned, but there’s also generous sprinklings of all the hallmark features of a role-playing-game. With a game world that’s larger than your average FPS, and the stark landscape lending credence to the setting being in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, you’ll find yourself driving from one centre of civilization to another and yet the video gaming experience hardly wanes. You’ll meet strangers who give you quests to complete in return for unique items and weapon/ armor upgrades.

A Sight for Sore Eyes

One could be forgiven for thinking that the large and beautifully done game-world could have also accommodated some good sandbox action. Agreed, that is one popular subgenre of the action gaming world that might have fit quite well into this already interesting blend, but the omission would seem rather deliberate on part of the developers. The open-world gameplay pioneered by the GTA franchise has been done to death, and yet, few games have managed to pull it off with any degree of success in what has become a veritable deathtrap for otherwise decent games, now that there’s also Red Dead Redemption setting a standard in the sandbox video gaming sub-genre. What we have instead is a fairly linear, corridor action first person shooter with the character and arsenal development afforded by the RPG-esque features lending the game a degree of video gaming immersion as well as a faux-sandbox aura of freedom. To add to that the game world is, quite simply, gorgeous. The skies change hue as per the time of the day, with colors of heartbreaking beauty  and with clouds so beautifully rendered you’d think it’s the real deal.

An All New Approach Down a Familiar Path

The game world’s sprawling dimensions notwithstanding, you mostly travel down a narrow valley, and the combat action is predominantly close-quarters (wouldn’t be much of a “rage” otherwise, would it?).

Quite similar to Gearbox Software’s 2009 hit Borderlands, the over-world, which you’ll need a vehicle to navigate, has little by way of resources or missions but simply connects you to the different combat spots or quest sources you need to reach.

Rage is in no way the first game to be set in a post-apocalyptic scenario; as a matter of fact it borrows freely from similar titles such as Fallout: New Vegas and Borderlands. What makes it absolutely rollicking fun, however, is the freakishly innovative and absurdly gory combat that is complemented by the insanely good graphics, thus making for an insanely good video gaming experience.

Our Final Word (for now) on Rage

It is a thoroughly enjoyable game that you’ll learn to love warts and all. That holds especially true if, like us, you swore undying loyalty to any game coming from id when you were an impressionable teenager fragging anything that moves to gory bits of virtual blood, flesh and bone with that railgun.

It will be a while before we can really get into the game and dissect it with all the surgical precision we can muster and give you a comprehensive video game review, analyzing the various aspects in greater depth. For that, wait for the next post on this video game blog, while we return to what has so far been a great video gaming experience.