This review is for the Xbox360 version of rage but I suppose it generally covers all formats in essence as I will mainly be focusing on the game in general rather than the graphics/sound of the release.
Well what is RAGE, The game itself is a first person shooter/RPG set in a sort of Post Apocalyptic wasteland which is well thought out and nicely executed. The apocalypse in question here has been caused by a giant meteorite hitting the Earth and you play as one of a select few humans put into suspended animation and buried in safety deep within the ground.
Its mainly a single player affair with about 10-14 hours of game-play depending on how you decide to play the game and how much you wish to explore the semi openworldness that Bethesda has gifted us with. There are some great buggy type vehicle races to be had and some nice side quests to keep you busy, The game also has alot of re-playability as there are several classes and ways to play the game to get your achievements/trophies.
The game-play is nicely thought through, the graphics are beautiful in places and it does run very smoothly thanks to its 60fps smooth scrolling and the fact that much of the processing power is given over to dealing with this rather than trying to texturise every last thing in the game. Character animations are good and the weapons look nice (if somewhat mundane) and work well within the game.
Sound is surprisingly quiet in the game, there is no background music ingame or in the menu system, only the sound of guns, vehicles and characters break the silence during gameplay, The voice acting however is superb.
So how does it play, Well RAGE is pretty linear overall and there are a variety of sections/types of game-play including buggy racing, which apart from serving as transport between the cities in the wasteland also allows you to gain “money” to help upgrade your ride and fit weapons, armour and turbo’s, which you will need to get past the thugs throughout the game who will try at every opportunity to kill you.
The main part of the game will be spent in city centres, These are the place’s where you will be engaging in your missions and quests, collecting items to sell and bartering for weapons/ammo. Firefights are frequent and IMO quite easily dealt with thanks to the fact its so easy to gain ammo and upgrades to your weapons which are pretty par for the course if you have ever played any FPS (there’s little variety here).
There are also a couple of good Multi-player Options to get stuck into with online buddies if thats your bag, The first of these is the Road Rage mode which sees you competively racing around in games such as Cap the flag and so on. The second and IMO more playable online fare is Wasteland Legends which is a competitive co-op mode in the game, it works like this, You and a friend take on missions in various parts of the game un-related to the single player mode, you conquer the enemies and try to beat your “partners” score. Its much better than the first option.
Overall if you are expecting this game to be anything like Borderlands or Fallout you are going to be extremely disappointed, Its a good game in its own right but lacks variety and innovation which is what should be driving games like these forward, I felt at times I was playing DOOM or QUAKE with updated graphics.
I wont give games scores as I feel that would give false opinions against other reviews what I will say is that I am glad this came to me as a rental game as it would be traded already had I bought it.
Bottom line here – Rent or wait for a price drop!