Rage

First off, I love FPSs. Second, it's 2012, not 1992. Why this game harps on about being from the developers of Doom and Quake, I don't know.Those games were back in the day, I expect something a LOT more these days. And that is my biggest gripe about Rage, it feels like a flat PC game. Everyone raves about the graphics; are you nuts? Compared to Halo, compared to Fallout 3, compared to Borderlands, this game falls well short. You cannot interact with the environment except where ID says so. Jump on a barrel, table or over a low balcony? No, not unless we let you in a specific place. Pick up a can? Only the ones we designate. Go up a flight of stairs with a broken step? No. Go up a completely busted escalator? Sure, because it is a channel we want you to follow. The environment looks and feels painted on, and you have occasional permission to interact. Incredibly frustrating. "Explore the environment - you never know what you might find!" Yeah, nothing. Boring. Driving is a large part of the game and the control system is difficult to use. Unlike other driving games, where the controls are intuitive, Rage's are awkward and not much fun. With automatic homing, bandits fall at the touch of a button. Not a lot of fun, just a chore. And that is what most of the game felt like to me, a chore. There are a few intense battle arenas, swarms of nasties and big baddie out to get you, but for the most part the arenas feel derivative and stale. Want environment and collecting things? Fallout 3. Lush environment and fun jumping and exploring? Halo. Huge range of customisable weapons and ammo? Borderlands. Rage does not do anything better than any other game, and falls short of others in every department. Bring on Borderlands 2.

I don't know what game the guy who claims to have played through RAGE in nine hours played, because it took me thirty hours to get through all the gameplay in RAGE. Maybe he skipped all the races and side quests. I don't know. This is definitely on the top list of my all time favorite first person shooters, right up there with the original Doom (a masterpiece once you get used to the pixelated imagery), Half Life and Halo. The racing reminds me of, but isn't as good as, the wonderfully entertaining desert buggy stuff from Jak 3. There isn't enough variation in the buggy stuff in RAGE; you get to do a couple of postal runs but then there are no more, the speedway has too many chaotic reach-the-frag-point levels where luck is your only friend, and the second chapter at the subway city had no wasteland to explore at all. But nevertheless, the racing is just an added bonus to what is a really remarkable first person shooter. I jumped out of my seat at least a half dozen times as mutants popped out of every nook and cranny at me. On normal difficulty level it's a perfect combination of strategy and just massacring everything around you. My only qualms are that the driving is not fully realized and the money that you receive for each mission could be a bit more so that you can stock up on more items. The graphics are top notch. I played it using a projector and felt like I was right there in the game at times. Can't wait to play RAGE 2.

Short review Not going to give a detailed review of the story or anything, since it lacked anything important, mostly just doing b-tch work for other people. I have some pretty big issues with this game, mainly with the fact that it feels like we got only half of a game. The racing multi-player was just a dumb idea, I didn't even bother touching it. The co-op was not fun at all. The multi-player could have been something like the last of us multi-player, since both games revolve around scavenging and crafting supplies. Seriously, this whole game seems to be designed around racing cars around, almost like the FPS elements were an afterthought. I would have preferred more explorable areas and missions. When you break it down, the map is incredibly small. There is no reward for exploring, mainly for the lack of anything to explore. The graphics really aren't that great compared to other 2011 games.

Gameplay: I played through the story twice, first on normal, and finished on Nightmare the second time. After those back to back playthroughs, I haven't touched it since. The first play-through offered a challenge, but it's all smoke and mirrors. The game is incredibly easy, the first play-through took me 12 hours to complete. My nightmare play-through took around 8, if my memory serves me correct. Seriously, I don't think I died once on Nightmare difficulty. The game is a joke if you can master it after one just one play-through. Compare it to Fallout 3, something I played through 4 times, and accumulated 750 hours of play time, just to master it to the point where you know every single detail about the game.

It's a unfinished product, it's fun as all hell, but not worth paying full price for.