Review: Rage

Rage was quite the undertaking over at id software. The project was ambitious from the start, and went alongside development of id software’s new idtech 5 engine, utilizing a new concept called ‘mega-textures,’ a high resolution paging system if you will, allowing developers to make levels look much more unique, rather than using a repeating texture that is often very noticeable. idtech 5 allows for textures to stream from a file, rather than require to be loaded into the video memory, eliminating this constraint from development.

idtech 5 also transforms the way builds are done, as the engine was created with ‘all systems’ in mind. id software’s creative director, Tim Willits, has given insight on how the game actually comes to be. Tim states that the studio uses their own 64-bit PC systems to create a build of Rage, which upon completion is sent to a build system, where all builds of the game for both console and PC are created simultaniously.

The drawback that is apparent to me with this system of development is that the development of PC’s and Consoles need to be different, rather than the same. In the initial release of Rage on Launch Day; Rage, performance aside, had absolutely no user configurable video or graphics options, other than the ability to change the resolution. Lack of vsync options and other graphical enhancements specific to the PC, left Rage feeling incredibly console-like. Like I stated before, one build makes all, and when it comes to PC, being incredibly more diverse than consoles in the range of graphics solutions available, leaves the user at a loss.

id realized this mistake within a week after launch date, and have slowly begun to correct most of the major graphics performance issues that plagued PC users. Because of “Graphics Card Driver Problems,” PC users were unable to experience the performance the game ought to bring. Mega-texture streaming was a huge problem, as PC users were left out in the dust. (However I learned later on after the first initial patch for PC was released, that drivers were not really a major issue at all, as I reverted my drivers to Catalyst 11.8, the drivers I used during launch, and experienced much better performance than I had before.)

    However, after days of waiting on bug fixes, driver enhancements, and gamer commentary, Rage has been fixed, and most of the PC users that were experiencing issues, are no longer being plagued by these problems. Now, on that note, onto the Review!

    In 2029, 99942 Apophis will be in close proximity to earth, and is believed to have a 1 in 250,000th chance of striking Earth. The Story of Rage begins on the assumption that Apophis were to collide with Earth, thrusting the world into a global winter. Scientists months prior had been trying to preserve civilization with the Ark project, preserving the best and brightest inside dense rock with life support systems to last hundreds of years. However a problem had arisen with the life support systems of the protagonist’s Ark. Thrusting him into the new world, a world devoured by a new de facto government, called The Authority, which was known to pay big money for Ark survivors, as they were part of the old world, not the new that they wanted.

    The story continues on with the player being re-introduced into a dark society featuring mutants, bandits, and townships. The player begins to accept missions and tasks in order to establish themselves. However there is limited direction in the storyline of Rage, as the player appears to be given tasks that do not clearly align the story’s plot, which will make Rage confusing on first play through. However the storyline at that is a good one, one that brings the player to the deepest depths of the new idtech 5 technology, and allows the player to experience the dynamic AI that Rage has to offer. (Enemies are not static, they’re essentially not scripted, if there is a balcony in the way between you and them, they WILL find a way to jump over it, lunge at you, and pack a fierce punch.)

Overall, the graphics in Rage are much nicer than anything I’ve seen before, Rage is really able to bring out the power of the idtech 5 engine, and highlight some nice scenes from the game. Most graphics cards will have no issue playing Rage, the game is designed to be heavily optimized OpenGL, and ran at 60fps 8xAA 1920×1200 on my 6870 with no problem! That is, after the ordeal and patches mentioned before.

    The game play in Rage is quite a deal limiting from what id’s games have brought in the past, the game is definitely shooting oriented, with only a few opportunities to stop and talk to someone, the game appears to throw AI bandits out at you left and right, top and down, quite literally, as many bandits appear to just fly out of open doors, featuring a dark black interior, in which you can not see, and can not enter, something I feel really doesn’t showcase the game’s potential well, and could have been done much better. Although the occasional bandit may crawl out of a sewer and surprise you. Overall some of the bandit’s movements are a bit predictable, but the way in which they move is never so, as obstacles are no match for them, they climb, crawl, and bite quite a bit. Yet Rage still proves to bring some incredibly immerse game play, throwing wave after wave of people for you to kill, so if you’re a gun nut, the game probably has a big fat target on the box for you.

   Another note I should make is that Rage allows you to sneak, something that one wouldn’t expect out of a shooter like this, but ultimately, whether sneaking for fighting, you’re going to have to shoot someone. The game does offer a few various paths in order to accomplish a path, however this is mostly limited to “Do I choose path A, or B?” Unfortunately I think Red Faction was the only game to let you make your own path by blasting into rock (lol).

    Sound is quite an important factor in rage. The featured ambient music is dynamic, and will change based on your present situation, whether in a fight scene, searching for an object, or walking through a bloodied hallway mess (See Below). The soundtrack of Rage is nothing out of the ordinary, and features several nice scores to keep my attention throughout the game.

I think that Rage is a game worth playing, but also worth holding off on for a bit longer until the game is more stable. The game definitely features some unique game play that you would not find in most other games, and that makes it worth taking a look at. Therefore I am rating Rage, a 7 of 10.

Video Coming Soon!

Review: Rage, 6.5 out of 10 based on 2 ratings

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