RAGE (video game, review)
I've been playing Rage, the new video game from ID. According to the mission-o-meter, I'm about halfway through it now. It's a beautiful game, taking full advantage of modern graphics cards to deliver an experience more rich and advanced than any other yet delivered to the big screen. But as for the game itself, all I can say is that we've been here before, wearing our clown shoes.
Rage starts off as a post-apocalyptic thriller: the Earth was smashed by a giant meteor. You were part of a crew being frozen in cryogenic suspension in an "ark", one of thousands buried around the Earth. You awaken to find your ark damaged, the rest of your crew dead (convenient that), and your vehicle bay with weapons, ammo, and the rest destroyed (doubly convenient). Stumbling out into the wasteland, you meet Dan, who saves your ass and hauls you to his town.
As an Ark survivor, you have a unique ability to heal wounds insanely fast, as well as recovering from death once in a while. So Dan gives you quick lessons on surviving the wasteland and uses your unique talent for surviving being shot a lot to good use. He's one of the good guys. There are many categories of bad guys, of course.
Rage has two modes: walking and driving. This is straight out of Grand Theft Auto. You accept missions to get ahead, some of which are side-missions. Again, Grand Theft Auto. The walking/first person shooter is very railed-- often there's only one way to go, you walk through various firefights, reach an endpoint and, that's it. Next mission. This, as well as the game engine in its entirety, feels very much like Half Life 2.2, especially with the full-on "Lost Coast" graphics options enabled. You scrounge for things you need, and they glow, just like Bioshock. There are standalone sniper episodes, straight out of every FPS ever written. This is that "you've been here before" feeling.
And then there's the driving game, which is the game's clown shoes: At times, instead of driving to a mission, driving is the mission, mostly races for the entertainment of the townies. The problem with these driving-as-mission episodes is that they're cost free: if you die, it doesn't count against you. The only way to win upgrades to your car for the regular mission games is to enter races and win the respect of other drivers; there is no black market for it. This is so awkwardly not part of the FPS game that it feels tacked on, and completely destroys any consistent suspension of disbelief.
Rage wasn't worth the $49.95 full price, but it was definitely worth the $20 I paid during the Christmas sale. It's definitely beautiful, there's great voice acting, the music is appropriately moody. If you like FPS, Rage is great. But it's quality shines like that of money and effort thrown at something we've all seen before.