Rage Review

Rage is the new shooter from id, for those of you who don't know who id are; they are the company that invented the first person shooter. Their newest venture has been compared a lot to Fallout and Borderlands, and even slated for it, but I don't think this comparison is fair.

Story: The story is big, really big. However is doesn't feel fresh, I never felt like I was doing something that had not been done before, but this doesn't take away from the overall atmosphere of the game. Characters don't seem to have distinct personalities (with a few exceptions) and enemies don't vary, but there is never a sense of dejavu when moving through the game's many 'dungeons'. The only thing that was enough of a problem to make me lose some interest in the game is the ease of acquiring the weapons at the start of the game. Aside from that the story is polished and well written, even though the player is never properly motivated to finish. 6/10

Graphics and Sound: This has to be the best looking shooter I have seen in my life. Everything from the huge backdrops to the detail on armour looks perfect. There has been a massive amount of work put into varied textures and character models and this does not go unnoticed. The sound is what really immersed me into the game, from every different gunshot to engine noise all the way to the sounds of the mutants, all creates an amazing atmosphere. 10/10

Gameplay: This is where rage really gets noticed in the post apocalyptic crowd. Weapons may not be as varied as the competition but ammo types really feel like they make a difference, especially in how you work through particular situation, plus other things like sentry turrets and bomb cars make all the difference. Everything you do causes a reaction from enemies: if you start laying down heavy fire from your assault rifle, enemies will stay in cover, making pop shots at you at every opportunity, if you're sniping mutants they will duck and weave while moving towards you as fast as possible, this is the point where rage excels more than any other. 9/10

Multiplayer: I was so disappointed when I found out that the coop was in standalone missions and not the campaign, that really put me off, especially when one of its competitors offers 4 player coop through the whole campaign. These missions are fun but feel like something to mess around in rather than do seriously, which is not necessarily a bad thing, it just doesn't feel right for me personally. The competitive multiplayer pleasantly surprised me, the vehicle combat is addictively fun and races are a great time killer. 8/10

Overall: Rage is a fantastically polished game which, technologically, exceeds all its competition. Playing the game however, falls short of the mark, I quickly lost interest in the campaign but there didn't feel like anything else to do. To be quite honest, playing this game immediately made me want to go play borderlands, which isn't a good sign for long life. I'd say this is the perfect game for those who enjoy RPGs and have ran out of games to play at the moment, but for anyone else it seems like a bad option. Im not saying don't buy it, Im saying wait till the price drops and you have nothing left to play. 7/10