Rage 2 (2019)

Having a lot of fun with Rage 2 at the moment. No matter what you think about the narrative, I think it's safe to say that the immersion is pretty spot on. The environments are gorgeous, they have personality, and despite going into the game not caring about the story, I found myself listening to conversations and engaging with characters.

One of the things I'm finding myself paying attention to a lot is just the visuals and the environments. I've spent most of my time in photo mode if I'm honest simply because everywhere I look there's something interesting to see. The style and direction of the game makes it very cinematic in this respect. I also love the callbacks to the original game - particularly an early sewer level that reminded me a lot of the levels in Rage 1.

The open world has a fantastic Mad Max feel to it, whether that be the environments, the buildings, the clothes, or most notably the vehicles. Engines pop and roar, bullets rattle out of machine guns, and flames burst out of exhausts. A small detail that I love is how the engine doesn't start automatically when you enter a vehicle, instead you have to tap the accelerate button to ignite the engine - combine this with the overly distorted overdrive sounds of the game, it gives a really satisfying punchy feeling to the controls.

Combat is in your face and intense. In one word it's meaty. Heads explode and bodies fly as you smash through the various enemies in the game. Think Halo meets Doom. My only gripe is the aiming feels a bit sluggish no matter the sensitivity. Must be some kind of acceleration setting.

If you love pos-apocalyptic settings, if you enjoy the Fallout franchise, if you like the Mad Max films, I think there will be something for you in Rage 2.

Here's a weird one to start off 2021. I don't know why I decided to give it a try, maybe because it's available through PSNow, but I have been playing Rage 2 for the last four days or so.

Is it a good game? Not terribly. It's also not a bad game. It's a perfectly ordinary game with slightly elevated FPS that borrows from a handful of other games to deliver one solidly average game. It's a lot like Far Cry set in a post apocalyptic world (yes, I am aware there are two actual Far Cry games that fit that description). The story fees perfunctory, simply the bare minimum to justify the vast amount of wasteland killing you will do. The gameplay loop is pretty simple, your standard open world game littered with outposts to blast your way through. There are several mission types, but most of them involve shooting your way through crowds and blowing everything up. The actual combat is quite fun. The range of weapons and their abilities are clearly inspired by Doom, even if the game doesn't play like Doom (it is far more standard FPS fare). But you have a handful of kinetic abilities that keep combat lively, as well as some fun to use throwables. Everything is upgradable, giving you a vast arsenal of gadgets to pull from. It's a bit like an Insomniac game in that way (Ratchet & Clank or better yet, Resistance). The combat is enjoyable enough that the gameplay loop hasn't grown stale (yet). Basically I agree with most of the points in this Polygon review.

It's also the first Avalanche game I have played that is only mildly janky, rather than made entirely of jank like Just Cause 3.

Do I recommend Rage 2? No, probably not. I went in with sub-basement level expectations, and it turned out to be a low stakes, low investment way to have fun. I don't feel obligated to see the story through, or even finish the game because I am not particularly interested in the bare bones paint-by-numbers story. Which means I am free to play until the fun wears off. So far, it hasn't and I'm still going. We'll see if that holds up for long.

The game was short. You can skip most of the side missions and get all the characters to over level 5 in no time (which is part of otherwise short time line). The entire game fell flat, the ending was unsatisfying, and took little to no story development through out. Now i know, story may not be the key point of this game. It in large part 'go in guns blazing' type of tale. However, the time line was so generic, I think it is worse than it predecessors and missed an opportunity for even a 'Duke Nukem' type of story, and that was a mother of all misses

Gun play is satisfying and fluid. Selection of weaponry is fair, but I cracked open just half of the arsenal and I can finish the game without a sweat. Just press V for overdrive...

Sure, the first Rage was stifled, but other than +1 graphics, i am not sure the new release has much to offer. This was a miss, sadly, and no DLC will fix this.