Trust no one. Except these guys. Maybe. You were selected to carry on the knowledge and greatness that humanity squandered. Now others want to use your knowledge and the information that you carry. You have to make your way through the wasteland and try to figure out who you are and why you're so.... "popular".
1. Gameplay
RAGE was supposed to be the ultimate shooter. It was marketed as a combination first-person shooter and role playing game, meaning that players would choose a class, unlock different class-based abilities, and use those abilities to complete missions in the player’s preferred style. Unfortunately, RAGE felt like half of what it should have been in every way. The mechanics of the game were well designed. The shooting and driving were both smooth and offered a good game experience. There were very few sections where I ever felt frustrated, since most of the problems could be solved with a rudimentary understanding of shooter strategy. Enclosed areas require shotguns, open areas require snipers. The end. But what really disappointed me was the lack of missions. The campaign was a good length even if the story was totally nonexistent, but there were almost no side missions. Every mission that should have been a side mission (and probably was at some point) ended up being included in the main campaign. That’s fine, but I felt like most of the settlements and cities had far too little to do and too few people with whom I could converse. I can’t emphasize that enough. RAGE had just a handful of towns and settlements, but the amount of time I spent in each one of the towns was very brief. In one settlement I completed only two missions before I was whisked off to another area. This game may have been a victim of my expectations. When I see a game where the player emerges from a vault-like structure into a world that has been ravaged to the point of being a total wasteland, I’m going to expect Fallout 3. When I’m not given a huge open-world environment and 100+ hours of gameplay, I’m going to be disappointed. Well, I was disappointed. I expected more, but RAGE never delivered.
I spent a lot of time getting achievements and doing all of the possible side missions in this game, so it took me around 17 hours to fully complete. There were still a few small achievements I had left to unlock, so I did miss one or two things along the way. But none of the stuff that I missed was interesting enough to warrant a second playthrough. Players that take their time, complete every side mission, and complete every race will most likely get a similar length as I did. Those that rush through the main campaign will likely finish the game in half that time. There is almost no replay value and the multiplayer was completely dead when I attempted to play. So I don’t expect to go back and play this game again anytime soon, if ever.
The only frustration I had with this game was the absurd lag I would get on the PC version. My computer would get maybe 3 to 5 frames per second (normally games run around 30 frames per second) for a minute while all of the textures loaded. Then, once everything was loaded in, the framerate would return to normal and everything would be fine. This only ever happened in the large, outdoor areas of the game where there were a lot of different textures to load. The result was that, when I had to go to the outdoor areas, I would have to let my computer sit and load for a minute. I wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway, so I found something outside of the game to occupy myself while everything loaded. My computer is nothing to scoff at either, so the fact that I had to wait so long for the level to load after completing a loading screen was really annoying. The only other frustrating element was that the weapons were so underpowered. It took an absurdly long time to kill even the weakest of enemies. Fortunately, ammunition was never in short supply, but the weakness of weapons meant that I stayed away from some weapons. I ended up favoring the shotgun for close range and the sniper for long range and that was about it. There were some better weapons later in the game, but they came far too late to be of much use. 2. Parental Notices
As this is a first-person shooter, violence is to be expected. The gritty nature of the setting fits with the amount of blood and gore this game includes, but I never really felt like anything was over-the-top. Hits from pretty much every weapon, with few exceptions, would release a small amount of blood that would splatter the enemy and the environment. The one thing that I did like, and that I think was one of the marketing points for the game, was that enemies would react when you shot them. In most games, enemies might flinch or fall after being hit, but the reaction is the same no matter where you hit them. With RAGE, the enemies will react differently depending on where they get hit. They’ll still chase you while stumbling or holding their arm, but they definitely react. There are some instances when the violence increases. If the player manages to get a headshot with a powerful weapon like the sniper or shotgun, then the enemy’s head will likely blow apart into chunks. If an enemy is too close to an explosion, the enemy will dissolve into blood and a few red chunks. It’s a very fast process though and thus easy to miss. Some areas feature blood, gore, and dead bodies as part of the environment. Usually these are areas where something big and nasty has been residing. Overall these are fairly infrequent.
Sexuality was almost completely nonexistent in this game. Towards the end there were a few female characters who were wearing bras / bikinis or exuded sexuality in some way, but it wasn’t overt enough to be a factor. Sexuality is never even remotely present anywhere else in the game.
Some characters do smoke, but it’s a somewhat rare occurrence. I’m actually surprised that people still smoke, considering the wasteland doesn’t seem conducive to crop growth, so why waste the space on a luxury when food is extremely scarce? One person even smokes Hookah. There are bars in the game, but no one is actually seen drinking.
There a number of different gambling games that the player can participate in to make some extra cash. Some of the games are based on skill, others are based entirely on luck. One of the luck games is called “Roll ‘Em”. The player bets money on whether or not he will get four crosshairs in three turns. It pays out more than it takes in, but it’s not a great source of income. There is a card game that works a bit like Magic the Gathering, but on a smaller scale. The player picks a small deck of cards that represent creatures with different attack and defense powers. The player fights against an AI and whoever still has creatures left at the end of the game wins. It’s pretty simple and wouldn’t even be gambling if it weren’t for the fact that the player has to pay money to enter and gets money for winning. The one gambling game that would be the most dangerous to attempt in real life is known as “Five Finger Filet”. The player takes control of a knife and puts his hand down on the table. The game will light up gaps in between the player’s fingers, which the player has to stab. It starts out slow but ends up getting absurdly fast paced and, at the last level, completely random. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
Since this is a post-apocalyptic game, the idea of “law enforcement” is a bit loose. There is a mysterious government known as “The Authority”, but they don’t make much of a presence until the very end of the game. Even then, their motives are left entirely unclear and there is never a specific leader of the authority. You only see (and fight) the enforcement members of the Authority. I never really saw them as a ruling organization since they never seemed to have any real structure. Towns and settlements were ruled by citizens of those respective places and had little to do with the Authority. In reality, the Authority was more like an organized crime ring engaging in extortion than some sort of law enforcement branch of a larger government. Therefore, anti-law is not a factor in this game.
I attempted to play online multiple times but the community seems to be fairly dead. As a result, the online community is not a factor in this game.
The player will have access to a number of vehicles, most of which have been heavily modified to deal with the dangerousness of the wasteland. The player will drive around at some intense speeds and do some insane jumps, but there isn’t really much driving in the game. For the most part, it’s a side element to get where the player needs to go. The exceptions are the “races” that the player can participate in. The player is able to participate in vehicle-based competitions. Some of the races are actually races where the player goes around a set track and tries to end in first. But some of the races are “rallies”, where the player just has to get to the most points as fast as possible. Those are a bit more chaotic and set in an open environment. Other than races and driving cars, extreme sports are not a factor.
Magic was not a factor in this game.
Human Disfigurement Some of the enemies were clearly, at one time, human. However, some sort of infection has disfigured them so badly that they are more mutant than human. Still, some of the characters do discuss the fact that these creatures were at once human.
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