RAGE: That's it?

Rage is a gorgeous first person shooter that brings rich apocalyptic landscapes and breath-taking skylines. The textures and detail are amazing to look at and even the weapons feel solid and versatile with different ammunition types. Rage also incorporates fun vehicle gameplay and a basic engineering craft to create sentry bots, exploding RC cars, etc. But, once you start mowing down the mutants and bandits throughout the Wasteland, there really isn’t much else. In other words, the lack of story made me want to shoot myself in the face.

The game kicks off with your character being stowed away in a bunker called an ARC to survive the apocalypse. Brought to you by the most glorious asteroid that annihilates almost all life on the planet. Upon waking up years later after impact you find your fellow crewmates dead in their cryo-beds and you step in to a world where no one likes you. A man named Hagar saves your ass shortly after leaving your cocoon and you start running errands for him. Like killing bandits and stuff, no big deal.

You find out early in the game that you are a special class of soldier that has microscopic robots in your body that regenerate your health, called Nanites. You also have a large bounty on your head by the Authority (a corrupt Government agency) because of your special ability. Luckily, you fell into the hands of the rebelling heroes and are the key to winning the fight for the Resistance. Nothing to ground breaking but it works as a basic story.

The main problem I had with Rage after playing for a few hours was that the story really did not go anywhere. I ran around helping Hagar at his settlement, and some other locals around the Wasteland. You eventually make your way to the first protected town called Wellspring (one of two towns in the game) and start to find your way into the Resistance. But that was pretty much it. Throughout the game you know that the Authority want to control the world with a mechanical fist and that the Resistance just want to be free. There is some extra storyline that connects the mutants that were said to be from the asteroid radiation to the Authority, but nothing to surprising.

The only enjoyable part of the game was traveling through Dead City and encountering the countless amounts of mutants, both small and really damn big. It was terrifying and suspenseful and really put you at the edge of your seat. Plus, (Spoiler Alert) the only real boss in the game.

Towards the end of eight hours of gameplay, you start the main mission to destroy the Authority once and for all. You are given a brand new mini gun with secondary BFG rounds (thank you DOOM) and some advice of caution. Without any deep story to drive me, I was revved up to get chaotic with what was ahead of me. It seemed the game was finally going to pick up. It didn’t. I found myself at the top of an Authority stronghold as I blazed through standard enemies ready for the big boss fight. Instead, I was welcomed with a CG cut scene and the end of the game as I cried out “That’s it?”

Overall, if you want to play a fun FPS with solid gameplay, go for it. If you want to play a game with a great story that makes you want more and more, just walk away from this one.

Eric G