Rage PS3 Review - PAGE 1

Imagine being buried underground in a cryogenic chamber to wait out an impending disaster. Unfortunately an asteroid the size of a large city is hurling towards Earth, and only a few members of the human race were handpicked to wait it out in these chambers dubbed "Arks". After approximately six years, your Ark determines it's time to head back to the surface and see how things panned out.

No one else aboard has survived. As you stumble into the new world, now known as the Wasteland, the locals decide to give you a not-so-warm welcome. Not all of them are out for blood though, and a man named Dan Hagar takes you under his wing. Riding back to his settlement, it's hard not to notice the comical bobble-head on the dash of his armor plated dune buggy.

Welcome to Rage.

Characters, music, movement, visuals

The first thing I noticed about Hagar was his voice. There's no way in the world I could mistake the voice of one of my all-time favorite actors: John Goodman. He does an impeccable job, and sets the stage for the superior voice acting found throughout the game. Unfortunately the majority of the characters are stereotypical for what you'd find in a post-apocalyptic game and are easily forgettable.

The music in the game is pretty generic, and a lot of it is put on short loops. The tracks help to set the mood (especially in the Ghost Clan hideout -- creepy bastards!), but tend to get annoying rather quickly.

Movement is extremely fluid, and the majority of the graphics are quite sharp. Look closely enough though and you're liable to see some jagged edges here and there, but essentially, Rage is definitely one of the prettier games out there, and surprisingly vibrant for a post-apocalyptic world.

Adventures in the Wasteland

Traversing the world is extremely simple. You drive from point A to point B, get out of your vehicle, perform a quest, and jump back into your vehicle to make it back to point A to wrap it up.

The only map available is the quest map when you're wandering the Wasteland, and the two drawn maps of the major towns in the game manual. There's a very good reason for this, because the world is rather small. While the idea of being in an open world is there (you are free to explore), the illusion is quickly pierced when you realize the game is set up to be a linear experience.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of missions and quests to keep you busy through out the game without the need for an ungodly open world. A lot of them will reward you with upgrades to your weapons, and perhaps a new schematic to help make you more of a menace in the Wasteland. As I mentioned, the movement is extremely fluid, making combat very slick. Even though too many enemies are 'bullet sponges', the various ammunition found through out the game helps to keep your weapons deadly.

Some of the missions are extremely fun and well thought out, while others lack a solid punch. I had thought the first mission of eradicating the Ghost Clan would set the pace for the rest of the game, but I was let down.

The mission is spooky, frightening, and a bit nerve wracking at times. Enemies strut their stuff and will come running at you in suicidal fashion, wildly swinging knives and bouncing off walls towards you, making them difficult targets. The task is daunting at first because you're fresh meat, and don't have much in the way of weapons.

Within a couple hours of playing though, you'll be a jaded survivalist ready to take on even the hardened bandit in open combat with a small armory at your disposal. Even the driving portions are a bit scary at first as you rush to the next town. Again, after a couple of missions you're picking up a new ride with better armor and weapons, making you a menace in the Wasteland.

Mini-games, multiplayer

I found a lot of fun in Rage in the various mini-games. It took a lot of effort to pry me away from the holographic gambling game called "Tombstones". The object is deliciously simple, and yet agonizingly difficult.

A sheriff is located in the center of a mat, and there's four bandits surrounding him. You roll four dice which have two sides; one is a target giving the sheriff a shot and one is a skull giving the bandits a step towards the sheriff. You have three chances to roll four targets and "kill" each bandit before they reach the sheriff. You can bet up to $25 (in $5 increments), and each round has a bonus where you can win 10, 4, and 0 times the amount of your bet depending on which round you roll four targets. Besides Tombstones, there's also racing, job boards, five finger filet, and a card game played with cards you find around the Wasteland. They're fun, but nowhere near as addictive.

The online portion of Rage is actually pretty entertaining. Road Rage allows you to access different modes across a variety of maps on which you battle against online opponents. There is a leveling system which unlocks various car designs, vehicle mods, and of course weapons to increase your online prowess.

In 'Wasteland Legends' (another great online mode), you play online co-op or local split-screen co-op short missions, in which you challenge high scores and cement your name as a Legend of the Wasteland.

A little too familiar

I can't really seem to place it, but I swear I've played this game numerous times before. Hmmmm, let's see: we have a group of people stashed underground for the sake rekindling the human race in the future, a Wasteland that was once the United States, mutants, little rag-tag towns of survivors set-up and thriving, and an authority faction. You even have the ability to collect schematics to create your own items with. Oh right, now I remember: Fallout.

At least you won't be trekking through the Wasteland on foot: in Rage you can outfit a vehicle with weapons and armor. You're going to need it in the Wasteland, too, as the bandits are ruthless thugs hell bent on attacking you with their own armed dune buggies. Wait, you did that in Borderlands.

Well, the fast paced side mission races and multiplayer vehicular combat is fresh. Racing around a track, collecting special power-ups such as shields, mines, rockets, and health to give you an upper hand in the race is going to be the next best thing in gaming. No, hold on -- we've seen that before as well. See any kart racing game, or Twisted Metal, for starters.

Brass Tacks

Let's face it, id Software hasn't set out to break the mold. What they've done is borrow heavily from various games to show off their new id Tech 5 engine. Unfortunately, this makes Rage feel overly familiar right out the gate. Some players will have a hard time connecting with Rage due to the lack of story, as there's much better and deeper games already released that fit the full bill.

Rage isn't a bad game at all. The graphics are excellent, the movement is so sleek you may forget you're controlling a character on a screen, and id has shown their new engine is capable of handling a wide array of genres without missing a beat. Unfortunately, because the game itself borrows so much, it often feels as if Rage is nothing more than a sales demo to sell the new engine to other developers with, or perhaps a test run for an upcoming Doom game.