Rage [M] COMPLETE Microsoft XBOX 360 Game

I need to pipe in as I felt the reviews from the gaming press have been a little unfair. As with most people, I was waiting patiently for the reviews to start pouring in before I made the ultimate choice to buy the game but I'm very happy I pulled the trigger and bought it, cause this game rocks. I was literally at Game Stop, Rage anarchy edition in one hand, Dark souls in the other, conflicted, because most of the reviews I read for RAGE pretty much were a rinse and repeat of "Amazing graphics, gameplay sucks and the story is fatally flawed"...however I went with my gut and happy I did, because these reviews were either too harsh or simply just not true.

Honestly, the only reason why I gave the game 4 stars instead of 5 is that the game does give a gratuitous amount of hints at a deeper story without ever actually realizing it, like they dangle the carrot right out in front of you, always just out of reach...it leaves you with the who/what/when/where/why never actually realizing its full potential. That IMO, is a legitimate grievance to ID, "Hey guys, if you're going to do something, do it." With Doom, the simple story arch merely served to set the tone, this they can get a way with since the game was ultimately about some fool opening up the gates of hell and you're there to stop it, return to castle wolfenstein played exactly the same way, which is fine. However, the world of RAGE is deeper and nuanced, with a lot more things going on...was it an EPIC fail, HELL NO! They have so much to work with on future iterations to make this another long standing gem of an IP hopefully. But, if they nail down that one gripe, this game can easily go from very good to excellent!!

If you can get past that one caveat, this game certainly has everything else, the graphics and game play are all top notch and this game sports some of the best character animations I have EVER seen...i thought uncharted 2 and red dead redemption had the best animations and they're still awesome, but RAGE took it a step further...you cant help to be amazed at what youre looking at, every NPC has their own personality and unique facial expressions and the frame rate is impeccable.

Also Ive seen a lot of comparisons to Borderlands and Fallout3, I love both of those games for very different reasons. If you look at RAGE from a birds eye view, its more like Borderlands in terms of story, in that, there is one, its there, albeit vague and never fully realized and really just ends up being second to the actual game play. But, did that totally detract from Borderlands being a great game? Its 2 years old and I'm still grinding away at it with my friends because it was just plain fun to play...RAGE is also just plain fun to play.

So, at the end of the day, its all about what you want to play right? Do you want something youre not going to put much thought into, but want all the FPS awesomeness and great graphics? If so, RAGE is for you and you will have fun!

The AI is challenging, there are shades of Aliens 2 (or just ALIENS lol) where you'll be scavenging around a derelict hospital or subway station, you'll see mutants scurrying around, you know youre not alone and then mutants will start appearing out of nowhere, climbing on ledges, swing off rafters, busting down through drop ceilings, they'll be running around, jumping off pillars, dodging your bullets...theyre hard to target, the gun play is frantic and its difficult to predict where theyre going to come from next. It does get creepy at times, and like Doom, you can be confident in the fact you're going to get ambushed...often. It should also be noted that the human AI is considerably easier to predict since theyre more likely to duck and cover though they have more tactical advantages, they'll talk to each other and if your not careful, they will try to surround and flank you. Of course, a well placed turret will help you in these types of situations :)

But on the flip side, if story is your thing over game play and you want something thats going to have a deep intriguing experience like Fallout, this game isnt for you, because youre probably going to get annoyed at the gaps the game leaves in the story.

**I also want to note I did give this game a 5 star FUN rating, because with the exception of the deeper story, ID's bread and butter is and always has been FPS plain and simple, and the game plays out exactly what I've come to expect from ID over the years. The story is no after thought and its obvious ID is trying to do something new and branch out and start developing games with deeper more satisfying story archs. i really hope they nail that one down eventually, but they've never let me down in the fun department. From Doom 1 to Doom with the Simpsons mod to RTCW to RAGE, their games and tech get better with time!

First, my message to every-day gamers who play games for fun and don't critique games based on company pedigree or comparison to better games... Rage is a gorgeous game and quite a bit of fun. The weapons look and feel good (always helpful for an FPS) and the three varieties of enemies (bandits, mutants, Authority) keep things interesting most of the time.

However, Rage is also very linear and God only knows what happened during the development cycle to result in the terrible final level and embarrassingly bad ending. It's painfully obvious that the game was cut short and/or truncated quite a bit to either meet a deadline or because Id's publisher wouldn't let them ship more than three DVDs in the XBOX version of the game package.

From a pure price perspective, Rage is worth $30 - $40 in my mind. If I could go back in time I'd wait for it to drop down from its $60 price point (or rent it).

Now, on to a more detailed critique from the perspective of someone who has played every Id game starting with DOOM shareware (though I'm more of a casual family-man gamer now)...

Rage has a few major issues, but I'll focus on three:

One, of course, is the terrible final level and ending. Like I said... it's obvious that Id cut down on the amount of content per area as you get further into the game. The first wasteland around Wellspring is quite large and interesting, with sewers, mailboxes, Mutant TV, etc. all to explore. The second wasteland around Subway town is smaller and less interesting. And then it seems as if there's going to be a third area (or third act, if you want to call it that) which never occurs. Instead, you get one final level that's so bland and linear that I actually feel embarrassed for the designers at Id that I imagine put a lot of heart into this game's design.

The second problem with Rage is that it can't decide what type of game it is and it does not succeed particularly well in any specific type of game-play. Was I playing an action game with racing elements? And RPG with action elements? Borderlands and Fallout 3 already did post-apoc action-RPG, and they both did it better. Id needs to get their pure, hardcore action-game mojo back, plain and simple, before branching out to other areas.

Third issue... I hate to sound like a consolized gamer, but why no auto-saving check-points? PC games have quick-save, which would be fine for Rage if I were playing it on PC. You can't publicly state that the consoles are your primary market and then not include auto-save... no one with half a brain likes punching out to the main menu repeatedly to save their game.

All in all, I feel like I bought an unfinished product. Also, this game had to beat out Red Faction: Armageddon to win my `biggest letdown of 2011' award.

....but I really like this game.

Graphically, Rage is the best looking game on Xbox360 to date. The "id Tech 5" engine is truly impressive and even the HD videos on the Internet cannot do it justice. To truly appreciate the graphical beauty of this game you must play or watch it in real life not on the Internet.

The lighting alone in this game is spectacular. I've heard people mention things like pop ups and screen tearing, but to be honest I haven't seen anything like that and I've played through multiple times now. From the very beginning I was looking around stunned at what I was seeing and that there could be this much of a graphics leap on a console that was released six years ago. The id 5 engine has definitely pushed the graphics envelope up a notch and proved the 360 has hardly reached its graphical limit. Gamers should be excited about this because as soon as they start selling the code for this engine to other developers it's going to make the beginning of this gaming generation and end of this generation look like night and day.

Fighting and driving in a wasteland has never been so fun. Transition to and from vehicles and from area to area is seamless. Combat is fun and fast and urges you react to your aggressors immediately by whatever lethal means possible. In the beginning you can obtain different weapons from main/side quests and later on buy them at the store. They are upgradable and you can make them better assuming you have the cash. There are also a bunch of things automated and non-automated that you can craft to help you in the wasteland- Of these my favorite is the sentry bot. There is nothing as satisfying as switching weapons on the fly to deal out death in a dozen different ways and looting everything you can get your hands on.

Driving is tight and precise and honestly far more fun than I thought I would ever have driving in an FPS. It's very satisfying ripping across the wasteland from town to town blowing up bandits along the way. Outfitting your buggy with weapons is as much fun as outfitting yourself. There are missiles, mini guns, and all types of toys to drop all over the place to screw up anybody who's trying to screw you while you're cruising along.

As far as the story is concerned it does its job well and is furthered by interaction with other characters whether by talking to them directly or overhearing their conversions. They have done an admirable job of placing interesting, if not very deeply developed, characters throughout the game that are believable and sympathetic in their views and their causes. The story is solid, easy to follow, and makes sense. It doesn't drag you along kicking and screaming or forcing plot advancement before you're ready (especially if you're a side mission type of player). It is up to the player whether or not they want to unravel some of the story or all of it. However, make no mistake... this game is a shooter first and foremost. Anyone going in looking for a role playing game or a 1000 page novel or a movie is looking in the wrong place.
Overall Rage is not just an ok FPS or a good FPS. It's great and definitely worth picking up if you like great games.