Rage

The Good
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Rage is the first major FPS game since Doom 3 made by id Software as everyone already probably knows. Given the company's history this should pretty much be a case of "a name, a guarantee". It's been a long time since Doom 3 was released and Carmack has tried to redeem the errors he had done for that game.

So what's this all about? Rage is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland controlled by various marauder clans, cities and corporations. You were sealed in an Ark before the Earth was devastated and, since you come from the past, the Authority, the name of the biggest corporation on the planet, is interested in capturing you. The wasteland pretty much follows a "You help me, I help you" philosophy: you'll have to do jobs for some of the clans you'll work for which involve fighting other clans, fighting mutants (mutated humans that showed up after Earth's destruction) as well as the Authority. Once you complete missions you can earn respect and most importantly money with which you can buy better weapons and equipment, and you can also obtain new vehicles. In a way, this is very much like Jak 3, except with less platforming and more shooting. I can also safely say that, thankfully, this game is 100% RPG-free, so you'll find nothing that will stop the action.

To move from one area to another you'll need to use your vehicle. The game itself has a large focus on vehicles as there's also various racing missions and car combat ones. But in reality most of these are too easy and there aren't enough of them, unfortunately. Better than nothing I guess. The wasteland looks pretty good, although obviously it's not exactly the most colorful area you'll see in a videogame, but it does its job. Most of the effects are also nice.

The shooting parts are very intense, often with many enemies attacking you at once, and for this you'll have to use almost every object in your inventory if you want to stay alive...

The Bad
..... But then when you thought this game was almost flawless, then Redstone gets captured near the beginning of CD 2. This is pretty much where the game becomes a joke and at this point the only salvageable mission is the one in the Jackals' canyon. After that you almost immediately get to the final mission which by the way is TERRIBLE. It's called "Capital Prime" so you'd expect to attack a huge city, but instead you start in some air conducts and then shoot enforcers in ultra boring sci-fi corridors until you find and press a switch and then the game ends with the most confusing ending ever. Yeah, there's no final boss or anything, just a switch and then the game ends.

This wouldn't be so much of a problem if the game didn't feel as if it should have been 3 times bigger than it is now. Considering Rage has been in development for... How long was it, 6 years? you'd expect something a bit more polished in this regard... Then again after Duke Nukem Forever I guess we shouldn't be surprised.

However it's still incredibly disappointing. Even the racing missions feel as if they're just filler material and ID failed to make them a central part of the game. The early ones are, well, too easy (except for the checkpoint gamemode which is retarded because you can't tell a checkpoint's height by looking at the automap) and I was expecting some huge and very difficult races by the third disk... Too bad the third disk is only about the multiplayer.

Also, the soundtrack was very weak.

The Bottom Line
Oh well. One thing's for sure, Rage is really, really fun for as long as it lasts. But if you're expecting the game to fullfil all of your expectations then you'll end up being disappointed. So just keep your expectations low when playing this game and you'll surely enjoy it.