Review
Played on: Xbox One X
Released: 2019
Released: 2019
Introduction
Can any modern shooter be as fast, addictive and entertaining as the Doom reboot, review here, from 2016? Apparently, and that's where Rage 2 comes in. I actually played this last year, however, my save got me stuck in an underground bunker and I couldn't progress. Frustrated of such a game breaking bug, I left it be. Recently I bit the bullet and restarted the entire game.
Terrible bug aside, I was reminded how much fun I'd had with Rage 2 and how tremendously overlooked it is. Maybe the reputation of launch bugs harmed it, or that it was the sequel of a somewhat underwhelming first game, made the majority of people skip it. Personally, I quite enjoyed the original Rage, you can read my thoughts from it back in 2012, here.
So, how does this sequel, with a new engine and development team, play? Let's take a look!
Plot and setting
The original Rage, John Carmacks last title with id Software, was an entertaining shooter set in a post-apocalyptic, grand canyon, styled wasteland. At first glance it looked a little underwhelming apart from pushing it's infamous mega texture technology on the id Tech 5 engine. Diving into it, however, showed a cool but underused open world concept, backed up by solid and fast paced shooting. Sadly it featured a forgettable story with a terrible ending.
Rage 2 sets itself many years later with a reworked and largely expanded location of the first game, although the visual appearance of both games are vastly different. The sequel leaves the old id Tech 5 engine and builds upon a newer and impressive open world engine named Apex. Built by Swedish developer Avalanche Studios, of Just Cause fame, and utilised in their Mad Max title from 2015.
Together with id Software, Avalanche have improved gameplay, world detail, the progression system and, importantly, the story. While the story in Rage 2 is better explained and presented this time around, it never outstays the players patience by digging in too deep. It's about helping people out in the wasteland and returning law and order against the wild gangs roaming it. Best done by shooting your way through tons of baddies!
There's nothing mind blowing with the story and it has a lot of typical cliches, but it suits the wild and action orientated style the game is going for. There's a nice share of humour and crazy characters that spice the cutscenes up, a much improvement from the drab presentation in Rage 1.
Gone is the limited, yellow and brown, colour scheme too and in it's place are neon coloured, often pink and purple, effects to really vary the environments and make the enemies and structures stand out. 2019 releases Far Cry: New Dawn, review here, and Rage 2 must have inspired each other with the aesthetics, colours and wild gangs. Although the two titles play very differently.
Gameplay and features
The incredibly fast and satisfying shooting is where Rage 2 shines. I'm playing on an enhanced console, Xbox One X, so it's 60fps, and much like Doom 2016, I'd say it's a must. The responsive framerate combined with the speedy movement really makes the game feel incredible to play.
Firing endless bullets towards enemies while jumping about and avoiding oncoming fire is so satisfying, combined with bloody deaths and animations. The super powerful shotgun coming to mind as incredibly violent. For me, this felt like a continuation of Doom 2016 lightning fast and incredibly fun gameplay, transferred over to an open world title.
Rage 2's open world has impressively no loading between it's wasteland and indoor buildings and towns. The wastelands is mainly traversed in your car, a strong nod to the developers previous title, Mad Max. Surprisingly the cars drive really well and have guns attached, making races and car chases a fun change of pace.
Indoors environments, like bases, bunkers and towns are taken on foot. Going from traditional shooter to driving, back and forth, really helps the game stand out and makes the open world feel more cohesive with indoor sections.
While the weapon assortment isn't exactly large, the cool enhanced upgrades you find in vaults scattered about the landscape make up for it. Giving you abilities to jump up and pound the ground, entering a killing frenzy mode or speed moving in any direction. These, super hero like, abilities really spice up the action in gunfights.
And what gunfights! These wild gang enemies stop at nothing and come at you from everywhere! Shoot outs cause barrels and environments to blow up, resulting in massive explosions blinding the screen. All controlled perfectly with your characters fast manoeuvrability. It just feels and looks perfect to play!
Video
Standard consoles run this at 1080p@30fps, and I must stress that they miss out on the whole point of fast and responsive gameplay the way the enhanced consoles do by delivering the 60fps. Sure, it's maybe disappointing not seeing the game get a resolution boost on my Xbox One X, but if it meant sacrificing the framerate, I'm glad they didn't. The focus on delivering the 60fps smoothness and responsiveness to the gameplay is such a right decision and it pays off when you feel how it controls.
While it might not technically be quite up there with the most detailed shooters, Rage 2 shows an impressive open world engine. How many open world games even are 60fps on this current console generation anyhow?! There's lot of neat visual effects spicing up the show.
The way they've made landscapes like canyons and deserts so appealing is a feat in itself. It's a great looking shooter and stands nicely next to other titles in the genre, while not maybe having the finesse in small details of corridor based shooters.
The visual colouring from yellow stone and sand, futuristic underground labs with blue and red lighting, to lush green jungles and dark, neon lit, towns, sewers and bunkers, is very appealing.
Lighting is a note of it's own, while sadly not HDR enabled, the game uses lighting effects incredibly well. With dynamic day cycles, sunsets and light sources change the look of the open world immensely depending on the time of day. Coloured lighting also really helps vary each scene, just look at the screenshot variation I've provided in this review!
The explosions need mentioning, they are are blinding! Making them feel so powerful each time something blows up, like a fuel tank, barrel or car.
Audio
Gun sounds and explosions have a powerful bass thump. The speakers are literally distorted when a barrel blows up and combined with a glitchy video effect all over your screen, makes a very cool visual and audible impression!
Machine guns sound like they're pounding their shots and there's a satisfying, weighty, sound to the shotgun. Even the handgun sounds like it punches back through the speakers.
Music is also of note, it goes from a energetic and noisy soundtrack during gunfights, to these beautiful ambient melodies playing once the enemies are cleared and the emptiness of the wasteland settles in again.
It's smart and effective usage of dynamic music, changing depending on which setting you're in. There's a fair bit of the small music tracks, especially the ambient ones, that stuck with me and I liked the soothing atmosphere they brought after the intensity and adrenaline of a gunfight settled.
Summary
Apart from my devastating bug, being stuck in a bunker without an elevator working, on my first playthrough attempt, forcing me to restart, I loved it. It's like a continuation of what Doom cleverly brought back in 2016: fast paced and movement skill shooters. It's about firing from the hip while side stepping, moving quickly and jumping away from oncoming fire. Rage 2 goes further and broader than the corridor style of Doom 2016 too, delivering an clever open world design to blast through.
If you're a fan of old school shooters and don't mind a simple, action packed, plot, where you make the experiences by yourself, using your imagination as to how to attack a base, then this Rage 2 is perfect for you. Every fight feels like a new, physics based, ball of action that keeps you at your toes to react quickly and taking decisions on the fly. There's little predictable about the outcome each time you attack a base or settlement.
One of 2019's most overlooked releases, with negatives like launch bugs and franchise reputation, nevertheless it's a shooter you really should play! It won't blow your mind with it's story, but it will definitely satisfy your quick, action packed, shooter cravings immensely!
