Hello everyone, hope you're all doing well and welcome to my review of Rage 2! I've been looking forward to finally playing this one for a while now, ever since it was first announced a couple years ago. Since I never played the original I wasn't really sure what to expect from this sequel, but I'm a huge fan of Bethesda and all it's subsidiary development companies, so I had faith that this would be worth checking out. From the trailers I'd seen this looked like a fast paced shooter, similar to Doom and Wolfenstein, set in a Mad Max style environment, with vehicles and a vibrant, pastel color pallet. Now that I've thoroughly scoured every inch of the map and finished the main quest line did it live up to my expectations? Let's get started and I'll tell you all about it.
Rage 2 is a first person shooter developed by Avalanche Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Even though this is a sequel to the 2011 original it's totally fine if you've never played it before. The story isn't the main focus of this series, so you won't be missing much. This game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where a new threat has cropped up, putting everyone's lives in danger. Of course, now it falls on you to put a stop to this and restore balance to this chaotic land. You get to fully explore a fairly large open world environment by using a variety of different vehicles. There are points of interest scattered all over the map for you to investigate, some of which contain vital weapons and upgrades that will give you an edge in combat situations.
The game begins in the small town of Vineland, where you live with you're adopted mother and sister. You play as Walker, a soldier who's training to become a member of the elite Ranger unit, when suddenly a group called The Authority unleashes an attack on your settlement. The Authority was thought to no longer exist, but they've actually been living underground, lying in wait to reclaim the surface world. Vineland is all but wiped out from this attack and every single Ranger is killed in the process. Since you're the only soldier left it's now up to you to avenge the lives of your loved ones and find a way to stop The Authority's evil plans. To do this you will need the help of three important people that are working on something called, Project Dagger.
The leader of The Authority is a seemingly immortal man named General Cross, who was killed long ago, but is somehow still alive all these years later. A small group of people have been anticipating his return and forming a plan to stop him. That's your main objective throughout the course of the game, help these people complete Project Dagger and use it on General Cross. It's a pretty uninspired story that starts off strong with the initial attack on Vineland, but quickly becomes secondary as you head out into the world. Most of the characters are very one dimensional, with little to no development and were ultimately forgettable. Most of the time, who you're killing and why doesn't make any difference, as it all blurs together anyway.
You get a decent sized open world to explore, but there's not much out there of importance, just a bunch of small bases with some goons to take care of. Basically, you go from dot to dot on the map, killing groups of enemies, wash, rinse, repeat. The only reason to really explore outside of the main missions are to find hidden Arks. These are special bunkers that hold new weapons and abilities that you won't want to miss. Other than that everything feels extremely repetitive. I know you could say most games are all repetitive, but if they're done right you don't even notice. Rage 2 doesn't have much to offer other than combat and there's hardly any enemy variety to keep things interesting. The game would have benefited greatly with a more linear structure instead of it's bland open world design.
By far the best aspect of Rage 2 is the combat. Right from the start the guns feel very satisfying to use and the fast paced battles are always chaotic and exciting. There are about ten firearms to find hidden in Arks around the map that each have unique mechanics to them, making each one feel useful. All of these guns can be upgraded in a number of different ways, eventually turning you into a one man army that can wipe out large groups of enemies with no problem. In addition to your arsenal you also will find a nice variety powers and abilities that basically turn you into a superhuman. These are also very satisfying to use, adding a whole new layer of options to combat situations and they can be upgraded just like the guns.
You start off with only a couple basic powers, but by locating the Arks scattered throughout the world you begin to evolve into an unstoppable force. There's a Double Jump power that makes exploring much easier, Shatter lets out a blast of energy that sends enemies flying, you can jump in the air and punch the ground creating an area of effect attack and the list goes on. The combination of different guns and powers reminded me of the combat in Bioshock, only a more refined and in depth version. This is definitely the main highlight of the game for me, but with everything else feeling so empty and generic it just wasn't enough.
The open world structure of this game held it back from being as memorable as it's predecessors. Games like Doom 2016 and the last two Wolfensteins had fantastic combat mechanics, but they also had great characters and a strong narrative driven story that was linear and well paced. Without those other vital components the combat will only take you so far. I started to notice very quickly how shallow and repetitive the gameplay felt, so I tended to focus on completing the main story missions and those don't last very long. It's a shame because the combat is very well done and a lot of fun at first, there just isn't enough variety to keep things interesting. The pacing is all over the place, with periods of action packed battles, then lots of pointless dialog and aimlessly roaming around the open world map. If you love FPS games than maybe check this one out, but I'd wait for a sale. I'm going to give Rage 2 a grade of.................................
C
Thank you for reading my review of Rage 2, I hope you enjoyed it!
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