An Angry World

That's one angry, ugly fellow.
(image courtesy of Gameinformer)

Rage is the latest game by ID Software, a company famous for their first person shooters - a genre they made famous with games like Wolfenstein and Doom.

As with the rest of their games, Rage as a first person shooter. As that’s my favourite genre, and the game was on offer, I decided to pick it up. But it’s all a bit meh. The world is your typical, Mad Max style post apocalyptic future, akin to games like Fallout and Borderlands, and, to be honest, better in both.

Your character wakes up in an Ark to this ruined world, and in minutes you’re rescued from a band of mutants, and press-ganged into helping a local settlement. Why? Because you’re new, and they don’t want to get their hands dirty (read, lazy buggers). And so begins a series of fetch quests. You go there, kill enemies, return with the goods.

So far, so generic. Even the combat, which could have enlivened the game no end, is also a bit dull. Enemies often take a lot of bullets before succumbing, rendering many of your early weapons useless a few hours in, leaving you with a few fallback pieces to get you through. Plus the mutants seem to have springs attached to their shoes, because they certainly bounce around. A lot.

The driving however, is much more stimulating. Early on, you get access to a buggy, with which you can tear around the vaguely open world, and even take part in races, winning tickets to spend on vehicle upgrades. The vehicles are decently responsive, though bounce around like they’re on the moon.

Graphically, the game is very pretty, providing a lovely portrayal of a post-apocalyptic world (if a little dusty), however the audio is a little lacklustre, with the guns feeling a little weak.

As I’m sure you’ve gathered by now, I’m a little disappointed in Rage. To be fair, I’m only a few hours into the game, so perhaps it’ll pick up, but I’m not that sure it will.

I think I might play some Jak and Daxter instead.