RAGE is running on the new Id Tech 5 engine, an engine that will also be used later for the highly anticipated (by me at least) Doom 4 game, which is currently under development. The engine is performing very well on my PC and I only experienced 2 crashes throughout the entire single player campaign which is not so bad.
My current config is this, for comparison:
- Intel Core I7 2.66ghz
- GTX 285 overclocked black edition
- 12 Gb RAM
- Raid-0 WD Raptor discs
The game is a mix between a 1st person shooter and a 3rd person buggy racing game, spiced up with some role-playing elements (buy/sell etc.) The environment is post-apocalyptic and it looks a lot like Mad Max II. The plot could be written on the back of a very small stamp, but that could be said for most shooters.
The game comes on a massive 3 DVDs and takes quite a while to install. It is however much cheaper to buy on physical dvds instead of buying from Steam. After you've installed it, it hooks up with Steam anyway. It makes no sense that it should be a lot cheaper to buy on physical discs than buying as a download, but that kind of logic has never meant much to Steam.
The graphics ranges from great to somewhat mediocre, and I'm not totally happy with the way the levels were designed. It is simply impossible to stray half an inch from the defined path in the 1st person shooter episodes, and you feel rather constrained compared to e.g. Crysis 2 and incredibly constrained compared to Crysis 1.
The mutants are however awesome and their behavior and movement are very different between the various mutant clans. The driving scenes which mostly function as transport between the various missions become a bit monotonous over time, but still they do provide some fun and great pace and action.
The interaction with other characters in the game becomes rather tire-some after a while (especially if you repeat the game), because you can't skip them, but will have to listen to all their bullshit talking.
After a while you'd also wish you could have an "auto stock level" function that would keep your shotgun, sniper rifle, and RPG rounds at a certain level with an added bunch of hand grenades and ammunition for the buggy. Buying and selling the same crap over and over bored me to death.
While I'm not 100% happy with neither the game nor the engine, I must say that I actually enjoyed a lot of the experience, I'm just pointing out, that it could have been even better. It is well addictive enough as it is though and I played through the entire game this weekend. That said, I doubt I'll repeat the experience even if there are still a lot of side missions I never saw or played. The multiplayer part I'll leave to others to explore, it ain't for me.
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Content Type: Game Review
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Updated: 2011-10-30 10:22
Created: 2011-10-30 09:14
