I’m almost tempted by your impressions TurinTur. Then I think back on trying to get through the demo and that boring opening town and that boring dungeon you’re asked to go to. Ugh. I don’t think I have the willpower to make it through that. I wish modern games still had cheat codes like in the Doom days so you could skip straight to later levels to check out the good parts.
The start is very slow. Several back and forth missions doing silly stuff, having to get the buggy, the boring npcs that you can’t skip their lines… It really starts when you do the main missions in Wellspring (well mission, gearvault mission, dead city mission, mutant bash mission) and it continues with another good set in the second city (power plant, blue metro, distillery, canyon, final base).
It makes you think that sometimes, less is more, and the game would have been better with the typical level-after-level of fps structure.
I love Rage. It might start slow, but god damn the beginning canyons looks so utterly gorgeous on PC (and especially on 55" plasma), it looks like living art work, I just could not get enough. And the constant 60fps powered gameplay/gunplay is just so incredibly enjoyable, those animations, those weapons, wingsticks…pure joy. Sure, story has a whimper bossless ending and mute protagonist sucks as always, and some sidequests repeat locations, but I still loved both my playthroughs. And Scorchers DLC was awesome, the last location (the temple) just looked stunning.
Thanks for the heads up on the DLC. I added it to my limbo backlog if I ever find myself with free time from the family. I figure I will wait a couple years and play the one best linear shooter released in that time, and this is a candidate.
Rock8man
2045
When I play RAGE, it asks me if I want to play Rage, or 64 bit Rage with mods. Anything I should know about that? Shouldn’t I be playing 64-bit even if I’m not interested in mods?
wumpus
2046
I dunno man I’d suggest not playing Rage. Or maybe play Rage with a mod that breaks the game so you can’t play it.
tomchick
2047
Yeah, Rage is pretty much superfluous in a world with Borderlands.
That said, don’t you always want to play the 64-bit version of something if you’re running a 64-bit OS? Actually, I have no idea what 32-bit and 64-bit even mean, but I’m pretty sure one is twice as good as the other.
-Tom
64 bits is what happens when you pick up a nest of freshly hatched baby crocodiles.
I’m kind of enjoying it so far. It’s not in the same league as the new DOOM, but once you get the shotgun, the actual gunplay isn’t bad.
Besides, I loved Borderlands @tomchick but that was more of an inventory management game, and so far this is more of a shooter. That’s the main reason I could never work up the energy to play much Borderlands 2. All that inventory management to look forward to. Yuck. No thanks.
It has a weightiness that Borderlands didn’t have. It kind of wrong footed me and I imagine others by sort of looking like it was going to be an open world rpg/shooter thing, while never quite bringing its parts together. I did enjoy it enough to play through a few times, and it also took me that long to work out crafting, which was an enjoyable part. Seriously, build some spiders. They are beyond cute.
stusser
2051
I really loved the wingstick in Rage. It felt great.
Other than that, pretty forgettable.
Forgettable is the right word for Rage. People act like it was bad and it wasn’t, it’s just not particularly inspired. Aside from some really gorgeous vistas.
Greadle
2053
My feelings exactly! I picked up and finished Rage this year and loved the “feel” of the engine. For some reason, I’ve always preferred movement in id engines over all the others. Enemy movement and animation was top notch as well. All that jumping and rolling made headshotting quite hard, at least for my deterioriating reflexes.
Throughout my playthrough, I kept thinking of all the wasted potential in this game. I loved the world and character design, for example. That weird scientist guy? Or that TV showmaster? Really cool! Too bad they really didn’t have much of an impact on just about anything! The overall story was completely dull and uninspired. Rage also had the most anticlimactic ending I’ve ever seen. What the hell were they thinking?
Overall, I’d chose Rage’s movement, graphics, animation, sound design, and weapon design over Borderlands any day. Unfortunately, all these elements don’t quite come together to make for a superior game. Such a waste!
How can anyone hate Rage? It plays wonderfully and looks like concept artwork come alive. Such a great game, apart from the story and nonexistent ending.
geggis
2055
Yeah this, only I didn’t love Borderlands because of the gear management. God, I finished the first game with friends and don’t remember anything other than endlessly comparing gear and turning quests in.
I have not played Rage yet.
TimJames
2056
I wouldn’t call the game forgettable, but I completely forgot about the wingstick. Hah!
I think you answered your own question. I think it also didn’t help that Borderlands stole a lot of Rage’s thunder.
Fair enough, but I didn’t go into new id Software game expecting great narrative. This does not excuse its lack of quality, but with the gameplay and visual design so strong, I didn’t mind that much. I liked Rage enough to finish it twice, actually, including its Scorchers DLC (which also contains some georgeous locations). I definitely like it more than Borderlands, but then again I am in the minority that hated Borderlands 1 so much I never even tried the sequel. Hated how everything was levelled and how bulletspongey everyone was.
I didn’t hate Rage, but I can see why it wasn’t as well received as it could’ve been. The narrative was dreadful, multiplayer was not what people expected from id, and the post-apocalyptic theme was a victim of unfortunate timing.
I’ve always felt the shooting and movement in id games are a cut above the norm. It’s just so crisp and satisfying. Rage was no exception. Spot-on gunplay, and I thought the environments and enemies were gorgeous in a way that predicted the Fury Road aesthetic. Deep blue skies and sun-blasted desert with riotous color on clothing and vehicles.
Yeah, so far I agree. One of the reasons I hated the demo so much is that it drops you without context into a town where you’re forced to go around the place, clicking on people just to get a quest, and then when you get the quest, the weapons feel inaccurate and weird.
In the full game, that’s all put into context. In the full game you start off in a much smaller town so you don’t have to go around and discover quest givers, you can go straight to John Goodman (or at least someone who sounds just like him). And the weapons feel shitty initially because they’re supposed to. You buy mods that improve the weapon spread on your assault rifle, for instance. But once you know that, the weapons are really good at what they’re supposed to be.
I’m not saying it’s an exceptional game, but it is much better than the demo led me to believe.
