http://officialrageinc.webs.com/rage%20avatar.png
I think I'm about halfway through Rage, and I have learned three things.

* Don't trust game demos.
* Don't trust gamers.
* Don't trust reviewers.

I played the demo and decided to skip it, but decided to buy it on a whim and I am having so much fun with this game. Apparently the PC version was buggy as hell at launch, but I have yet to see a single bug.

I know one of the big complaints people have is that the graphics weren't great, but honestly I've been blown away by the graphics a few times. If you zoom in on a wall it's going to look bad, sure, but in general gameplay the environment is fantastic.

The AI is pretty good, the enemies will react to changes in the battle. Some will charge you in desperation, some will flee. If things aren't going well for them, they'll fall back to regroup. They do tend to fall into somewhat predictable routines at times, but the varied enemy combat types keep it fresh.

The gunplay is excellent. It's an id game, so that should come as no surprise.

There are some downsides though. It seems like it tried to do too much. The racing mechanics aren't that great, and racing is forced on you at least a couple times in the game. Often the game feels more linear than it lets on, but I don't mind linear. For some reason, a few updates ago they decided to disable console commands, making this the first id game I can remember where you can't turn on god mode. I guess that's good or bad depending on your view of it, but I always liked to go on a rampage run after I'd finished a game, turning it up to nightmare difficulty and having a rocket-fest. Certainly not a show-stopper, but a strange decision from Carmack and Co. The story is probably the worst offender-- truth be told, there's very little story to it. Some games don't need story, but this one could have benefited from it.

Overall the game reminds me of a mix of Half-Life 2, Borderlands, Fallout 3, and Motorstorm, and in a very few cases it does better than these games, but trying to do too much they may have spread themselves thin. It never achieves the greatness of any of those games. It's fun, tons of fun, but it didn't quite gel into the perfect storm of post-apocalyptic greatness they were shooting for.

I don't know. It had years of development and a lot of hype, so I assume it was bound to get criticized more heavily than normal, but I think this is a fantastic game that is overly criticized, often for unfounded reasons. It isn't everything it's cracked up to be, but it's a ton of fun, and I can see myself replaying it years from now in the same way I do the early id games.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 05/11/2012 at 02:10am

For me, you got it on the best platform, the PC. I pre-ordered this on the PS3 and was disappoint. The PS3 version does have spit-screen Legends of the Wasteland which is awesome to play with friends though. That said, the single player wasnt great as it took way too long to save and death was way too costly with so much save game load time. Since I suck at twitch shooter controls on controller, it was hard to kill guys and do well at the PS3 copy.

I played it on the PC and it was like a much better game for me. I could shoot people, quick save existed and loading didn't take forever. The graphics looked better and everything. I know they spent quite a long time on the PS3 copy and it reviewed well but in my experience it wasn't as good as the PC version.

That said, the game is fun but I think my expectations were too high for it to meet them all. Its a great game, no question, but my initial console experience and a few other niggly things left me liking it but not loving it.

Still haven't beat it yet, but its fun to play it off and on through time. Graphics look fantastic on the PC too.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 05/28/2012 at 09:50pm

You beat Rage yet? I still have yet to do it as I am playing it a little bit at a time.

Travis   Admin   Post Author wrote on 05/29/2012 at 01:25pm

Haha, nope. Diablo 3 happened.

I was starting to get a little bored with it, though. I got to Subway Town and realized this was going to open up into an entirely new map that I had never seen yet, that I needed to race for a new car, etc etc... I feel like the game should be ramping up to a finish, but it's stepping backward to stuff I've already done in a different setting.

I guess it's just a pacing problem. After I have some time with Diablo 3 it will probably feel fresher.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 05/29/2012 at 02:06pm

Yep. I'm in Subway town too and I have the same thoughts. Thing is I clocked 14 hours on my game to Subway town and it feels like it should be the end but it's not. Plus it's only been 14 hours and I've done everything I could.

Travis   Admin   Post Author wrote on 05/29/2012 at 02:13pm

Yeah, I felt the same way. Going back to Diablo 3, because I find it hard not to think about it lately, pacing is damned important. The pacing in Diablo 3 is so amazing. Rage making you kinda start over to a point is really, really not.

jdodson   Admin wrote on 05/30/2012 at 01:27am

I agree. Kind of want to say more about Rage, but I am not sure how to approach it. Its the game I want to love but have a hard time expressing it.

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