Hands-On With Rage

When Rage is released this October, it will be the end of a long journey for the game. It has been four years since ID Software first announced their large demo project for their new proprietary ID Tech 5 Engine. Nevertheless, the popularity of the project has never waned.

Two weeks ago at gamescom, we were finally able to try the game out ourselves at the Bethesda stand and gain our own impression of the exciting FPS/Racing/RPG crossover.

Our gaming session begins right at the start of the game. As one of the few survivors of a meteorite strike, we are fighting our way on foot and in exhilarating dune buggies through an inhospitable world, when we are suddenly attacked by a mutant, and quickly believe we are in a realm of the dead, when a nice, human-looking inhabitant saves us at the last moment. Very friendly! Naturally, we feel indebted and are prepared to carry out some assignments for him.

This means getting rid of deformed mutants from certain buildings, and we do this in classic shoot’em up gameplay fashion, which is really enjoyable, but Rage would only be half as fun if you didn’t have to race your way through the Wasteland to the missions in some cool and upgradable vehicles. Similar to the cleverly designed action gameplay, the racing sections are also very intuitive. The rides are fluid and quick and the vehicles handle really well.

ID Software does what all Bethesda developers are famous for: they throw the player into a post-apocalyptic society, where they are confronted with the sometimes perverse relics of civilisation. It would be a decent enough challenge if was just a question of survival, but without a mission you would miss all these sick and yet unsettling attractions in all their misery and grisliness.

You could now expect the game to employ a familiar FPS convention whereby the player is plucked out of the story to be sent alone into this curious world. Yet from the moment the player wanders unsuspectingly through seemingly abandoned ruins and is suddenly and totally unexpectedly attacked by a mutant, who drags them into his camp and creates a totally new starting point in the level, it becomes clear that the game does everything to draw the player deeply into the plot.

This plot hints at what the gameplay then confirms: Rage is wholeheartedly committed to constant variety. This essentially means that the player develops and modifies their character and vehicles in RPG tradition to proceed to cut down a few mutants in best and effective FPS style, before escaping in the form of a Racer. ID Software doesn’t even allow the player to die without getting stuck into a small mini-game. When the health bar is empty, players can still revive themselves with a little game of skill using both sticks.

Rage is thrilling and dense: the perfect way to spend those long winter nights. We are looking forward to the October release on PlayStation 3.