Developer: id Software, Avalanche Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4
Tested On: PS4
Rage 2 – Review
A few months ago, we had the honor to try out an early build of Rage 2 and boy, were we excited for the release of the completed game. Months have gone by with many sleepless nights waiting for this title to hit the shelves like a kid wanting to open his Christmas presents. Finally, the day has come and minutes after booting up the game many questions arose. Since we got dropped somewhere in-game with the beta, it will take a bit of time to get back on track and piece together the events.
Story
Rage 2 starts with a nice introduction of the planet because as you may or may not know, Rage 2 is set in a post-post apocalyptic world. The first mayhem started when the meteor named Apophis crashed on the world. As society was slowly regaining itself thanks to the Arks and Ecopods deployed by Nicholas Raine, there was one leader not happy about it. General Cross had other plans for the Earth and while he was starting the second apocalypse, he retreated underground so humans thought they had won the fight. However, Cross’ army regained composure and decided to go for another push, which was more effective since the world still lays in waste. Your character (either male or female) gets pushed into action when Vineland, your home base, is attacked. After the death of a key character, you are put up to the test to take revenge on General Cross and his army ‘The Authority’. To do so, you must activate Project Dagger by finding the three surviving assault leaders that successfully forced back the evil mastermind the first time. Vineland may lay in waste, but you are determined to take down evil for once and for all. Well, you are the last hope since all first gen fighters are kidnapped or killed and you are the last surviving ranger of the world.
Overall story progression is quite slow as you have to start out by clearing areas and this can take quite some time. If you want to play Rage 2 for the story, don’t, if you want free roaming in a large map then this game is ideal.
Graphics
As mentioned earlier, we have already previewed this title and will therefore use the beta version as a reference and compare it to the full game. In the beta version the graphics were already amazing yet with some bugs present and it seems that while bugs have all been fixed, graphical issues remain. As it is typical for an open world game, some elements are made very simple and seem to load on the spot, which is done to save memory and ensure a stable frame rate. Combat is spectacular with explosions lighting up the sky and put a large smile on your face. If that doesn’t seem enjoyable, wait until you dismember various raiders. Overall, the game has very good and lovely graphics. The developers also had an eye for detail when it comes to weapons and vehicles as these have many cool features.
Sound
With Rage 2 being a Bethesda title, you know that there will be many voice-acted characters, and yes, the people of the wasteland speak, scream, insult and beg. Each encounter is unique and combat never gets old with the intense music blasting through the speakers while blowing up a raider’s hideout. Hence, the music is good, the voices are good, and this quality sound makes the overall experience much better.
Gameplay
Rage 2 is a First Person Shooter with RPG elements set in an open post-post apocalyptic world. The minds at ID software (known for Doom and Wolfenstein) combined forces with the developers from the Just Cause series to create a strong FPS title with open world elements that’s named Rage 2. This means that the gunplay is the same as in Doom and Wolfenstein, which makes it feel very familiar. In addition, the engine used is tried and true for having a great shooter experience. In order to couple it with the open world, they had Avalanche Studios create the roaming partition, especially the vehicle handling. As this was still very botched while we were previewing the game (we were told that this was the case and not to pay too much attention to it), it is good to see that they have greatly improved the driving mechanics, making traversing the giant wasteland more fun and less of a hassle.
The game starts with The Authority attacking the Vineland, this is your home base and as a normal soldier you aren’t worth that much. Suddenly a ranger dies in front of you and you manage to steal his armor, giving you a better chance in battle against the Doom-like enemies. After General Cross destroys the last opposition in the base you are left for dead and in the aftermath, you get found by your comrade and have the mission to check out the Ark. These are preserved bunkers only accessible for Rangers and hold either new powers or weapons. In Rage 2 you get a wide range of superpowers to make you fight like a monster. These skills include a double jump, a defibrillator to get you back up after being knocked down, a smash move and a dash. Sadly, you cannot pick up weapons from fallen enemies, but this is compensated by the immensely elaborate upgrade system.
Rage 2 uses many RPG elements to make the player stronger and this has been done in a way to make it flow better in line with the story. You won’t level up or gain experience, but when clearing out bases or finding caches, you will find upgrade nodes to invest into specific parts. You can upgrade your weapons, character and abilities. Weapons are the typical upgrades, where as your character has many branches to choose from; you want to invest into stealth or first upgrade health and damage, it’s all your choice. In the harsh wasteland you won’t make it out alive by just being a basic soldier. After meeting the leaders of Project Dagger, you will unlock projects to upgrade your character to have more combat prowess.
In towns you will find traders to supply you all your needs and if you have the cash, you can buy those upgrade nodes as well, for a hefty price that is. In the post-post apocalypse nothing is free, and you will notice this when you want to call in your car as you will have to pay a valet to bring it around. Don’t worry because you will find plenty of money and earn a decent buck from missions and you have the luxury to be never stranded since you can just call in your car to be delivered to your location.
The open world means that there is a strong emphasis on vehicles. Your main car can be upgraded in many ways with a large arsenal of weapons and won’t explode, it will only be disabled so you have to fix it (like in Far Cry for example). Other vehicles can be stolen and stored in Trader Towns to be collected at a later moment in time (great tip: steal a tank). This is essential because the open world is very lively and you will see people fighting at all kinds of locations, so you can run them over or blast them to pieces. While wandering around you will never have a dull moment. It’s fun that you won’t be driving from point A to B, without anything happening in the meantime. Hostiles will attack the civilians and as a Ranger you must secure these people to raise the safety of the wasteland. Overall, it’s a large open world where you will have many things to do from clearing out camps, opening roadblocks and collecting bounties to street racing and destroying mutants.
Conclusion
When we first played the beta of Rage 2, we got addicted. The amazing world and fun gameplay will have you playing for hours on end thanks to the mighty combination of the insanely fun FPS engine, a large open world that has so much to do in it, a boat load of upgrades to choose from and many things to unlock. The graphical prowess of the game is impressive, but you’ll notice a lot of popping textures when playing. The sound design is superb, but the story portion of the game might be somewhat lacking. Nonetheless, Rage 2 is certainly worth checking out if you’re a gun-nut.
Rage 2 - Review,
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