RAGE

Solid gameplay

It's a cool game.

A bit too "on rails" for my liking level design-wise. Shooting is fun with nice location based damage, enemies aren't dumb, mutant animations are especially cool, kinda like in Left4Dead.
The racing is "eh", it's there and it (mostly) works. Story-wise it isn't anything to write home about, the ending is VERY abrupt and the last mission a bit underwhelming.

Look up some console commands and launch options for FOV and QoL stuff. Also launch the "64 bits with mods" thing, otherwise your game will crash when trying to enter new areas.

angry

pretty middling shooter, very much lacking in the sword of islam category

i wish there was more content. good game,

RAGE is such an incredible and underrated FPS. The atmosphere and game-play looks stunning on 4k if you can get the settings right. I totally recommend it to every Bethesda fan looking to explore a unique post apocalyptic world.

8/10.

Highly underrated FPS. Great visuals for the time, works well on a cheap gaming system at max settings
Simple, but keeps you entertained for sure. The voice acting is great.
I freakin' loved it, but I'm over 40.

ok

rage because angry

This game genuinely had so much potential. The concept itself is quite cool. Your character is part of a program to preserve humans underground, to be awoken to restart the human race after it is wiped by an asteroid? That sounds so cool!

Unfortunately, besides the premise of the game, there is nothing else that's good about this game.

The gunplay is boring. Bullet spread is so comedically big, that you end up wasting a lot of ammo. Guns also do barely any damage to enemies, you sometimes need to unload a full magazine to kill one enemy.

Enemy variety is also very lackluster. There is really only two types of enemies. Melee and ranged. Besides those two, there is literally no other enemy type.

Gameplay loop is also extremely boring. It's basically get a quest, drive to quest, kill bullet-sponges called enemies, return to base and resupply. Every quest is literally "go to this place and kill, grab an item, or activate something".

The vehicles are really under-utilized in this game. Why would I upgrade my vehicles to have the best stats possible if I can just simply boost and avoid all combat encounters? And why would I feel the need to upgrade armor when repair costs are so low? Besides driving and racing, the vehicles serve no other purpose. There are NO missions where you have to use your vehicle to actually complete something.

The plot is also extremely generic. Please tell me why, instead of creating a story AROUND the apocalypse and survival, the writers created a generic story about rebelling against authority (the bad guys are literally called "the authority"). It's also very hard to emphatize with the resistance in this game, because we are never shown the authority doing anything inherently horrible. We are only ever told how bad the authority is, which is never an effective way to get the audience to emphatize with the character's cause.

One of my go to games in high school. The game itself is nothing major but its atmosphere is amazing. if you are looking for some post apoc Mad Max style kind of game, you'll like it a lot. I wish the game would get a remaster.

I'm having an absolute blast in Bethesda's Rage world! What a fun game. This is how good games used to be

TLDR - not worth the price neither the time invested. I won`t by it even for 1$.

Cons - weird destabilized textures loading
Weird half backed game mechanics
Mediocre abrupt story
You cant not turn off screen shake
Atrocious crosshair in a core shooter game...
Spongy enemies, majority could not be killed via headshot making killing them annoying even on easy!
Audio loss and performance problems on modern hardware.
Clunky weapon special ammo/quick menu swtitch
BS expansion.

Pros -
The best rocket launcher behavior that I saw in any game.
Not bad enemies scripting and behavior diminished by sponginess of the prior.

Megatexture: The Game

I consider it a classic. Runs great now in 64bit, and looks excellent considering it's age.
Just pure, shooting, driving (over muties) crazy fun.

This one stood the test of time. Easy to play for hours, plenty to do, but not over the top like some newer games.

It's still great after all these years. Could use a remaster though, as the textures are decent in some ways and abysmal in others. Rage is in my top 150 games of all time. 8.5/10

Childhood game that brings the good vibes :)

Such Anger
Much Rage
Wow!

Interesting case where the final value of the game is less than the sum of all its ingredients. 

The famous megatexture really does the job and makes a difference compared to similar titles from the same time... if you even know what you're looking at ;p 
The game streams a huge texture atlas in real time, which is used by all the static assets around you. Because of that, the environmental variety is just unmatched by any other title of the time and holds up even today. 
If you pay attention to detail, you will notice that dirt and rust patterns on the metal tiles under your feet are unique for each tile. The dirty benches in the ruined underground aren't just copy-pasted instances of the same asset—each one is dirty in a slightly different way. The columns that you pass by in a ruined city have unique destruction patterns on them. You will see more unique rocks in this game than in all Fallout games combined... 

Yeah, let me hammer that point home - when other games from the same era show you 1 (one) rock asset copy-pasted houndreads of times (just rotated and re-scaled so you won't notice) Rage hits you with a hundred different rocks.
Hundred different trash piles.
Hundred different rust patterns.
etc. 

Impressive, Mr. Carmack - You got my attention - but what is the game really about?

Well... 
The whole plot is just a generic, shallow justification for the post-apocaliptic world. All missions in this game feel like randomly generated side quests; there's no real motivation for you to push forward other than your own curiosity to check out the next mission. And then the next one. And maybe one more. Until the technical novelty wears off and you're no longer impressed by another nice-looking panorama of a post-apocaliptic world. 
But the game has some really NICE looking apocaliptic panoramas, believe me! 

Interestingly, the mission design is scripted and linear. You enter some underground dark hole and the entrance crumbles behind you. Now you can only push forward, looking for some very important item buried somewhere in the ruins. You don't need a map for that, bc the only open way in front of you is the right way. Like in any linear shooter. 

And then suddenly (un)organized grup of mutated midgets jumps in your face - they display some very impressive acrobatic abilities. 
And that is probably the second best thing about Rage - animation of the enemy mutants is some seriously high quality stuff. They can detect obstacles, jump over trash cans, grab onto railings and ceiling pipes, hang on doorframes and much more - all that combined into smooth sequences.

I can't even imagine how much skill it took from the programmers and animators in ID Software to craft this perfectly synchronized system, so when some mutant grabs the pipe, his hands are actually on the pipe instead of hovering somewhere close to it. And the whole group of mutants is fully capable of jumping around you at the same time without clipping through each other or getting stuck on obstacles.
Many of today's developers, who frequently use pre-made blueprints and asset packs, can't even dream about having something like that in their projects. 

There's so much more to write about - character models are very well designed and animated... weapons are very cool and fun to use... car racing is surprisingly pretty fun... boss battles are simple but still interesting to experience... and there's just a certain artistic vibe in design of the game that makes it look unique, memorable, one of a kind.

BUT

When you zoom out, stop admiring every impressive technical thing separately and just look at the bigger picture - it's not that great - everything you do here feels rather empty and purposeless...
The game just lacks something to hook you in, it's sad ID Software could not figure out a way to get the player invested in their universe.

Angry

Fallout from Wish.

I honestly quite amazed by this game. Its engaging, beautiful and lots of fun. With the ammo swapping mechanic the whole arsenal is useful even in the late game. Just give me the pistol and the buckshot ammo or the shotgun plus the pop rockets and whoa momma! The enemy ai is great, animation is top notch and the levels are freaking gorgeous. As long as you don't go in expecting Shakespeare and the openess of a Bethesda game you will have a good time.

That was fun :)

Good game

An interesting shooter. Not ID Software's best work, but also not the worst
Pros:
-The interesting premise
-Some environments are fun to explore into
-The many choices of the arsenal you can use
-Atmosphere is pretty good
-A lot of the design itself, like the subway bar, the wasteland cities, the difference between them and the high-tech Authority, that still resorts to using mutants to do their dirty work

Cons:
-It tries to be an open world, but it is pretty bland
-The Bethesda-like dungeon system, which also adds nothing interesting and new to what ID software could have done
-Lots of the NPC's have a good design, but they are mostly just to be there, without a certain personality or playing an important role in the story
-The world itself could be expanded upon, having some interesting concepts but were not developed to their potential
-One or two side missions have a story of their own, the rest being pretty basic and not changing much
-There are two boss fights, one of them being extremely weirdly placed. We have the big monster in a city ruin, without too much of a reason of being there and the leader of the Gearheads, which was the only known leader of an antagonistic faction in the game.
-The final mission was dull, without a boss-fight where it should've been, to amp-up the final sequence, the game only throwing at you a couple of mutants while doing something supposedly world-changing in the game.
-The ending was open, pointing up to a sequel which could've been something, but sadly it wasnt

All in all, a solid 6/10 in my opinion. The firefights being the only interesting aspect of the game, having so many choices of disposing of your enemies, but the lack of substance drags it down.
Like someone's review said: a 2010's tech demo.
Worth picking up at a sale though

Fun, though its short.

ID Software's take at Post-Apocalypse Openworld FPS.

RAGE is a FPS game developed by ID software of Doom and Quake fame, running on the 5th version of their fabled inhouse engine, ID Tech 5. The game combines both Open world vehicle exploration with Linear FPS gameplay within it's own flavor of post-apocalypse with a pretty solid artstyle. While the FPS combat isn't anything that would blow minds, it provides a simple yet satisfying gameplay loop that kept me engaged all the way to the end. Plus it isn't exactly 100% open world so it lacks the issue of busy work to get to place to place, making the gameplay flow feel tight and resonable.

Starting with the FPS gameplay, as mentioned earlier, RAGE's combat is quite simple, you aim, you shoot, and you also have ironsights. The weapons you get also somewhat follow the classic Id archetypes, you have a Pistol, Shotgun, some kinda of Automatic Weapon, Eventually a Rocket Launcher, and some others like a Crossbow and Sniper Rifle. You also have a bunch of alternative ammo types that gives drastically different effects between each weapon, like making your Pistol more powerful, turning your Shotgun into a grenade launcher, or making your Crossbow Bolts electric, there's a ton of variety here. Furthermore you also have quick use items. These are gadgets that you can activate at a button's press to assist in battle. You have bandages to completely refresh the regenerating health since unfortunately the game does have that instead of pickups. Mechanical companions like a Turrent or Drone to help out with crowds control. RC Bomb Cars for the obvious. Grenades and most importantly the Wingsticks, auto-lock on boomerangs than can kill a enemy near instantly at the press of a button. Speaking of the enemy variety excels in appears but suffers in variety. You got a basic melee type, one that shoots you, and one with tougher armor. Other that a few outlier that's basically all the enemy times you're fighting through out the whole game. While at first that sounds like a bad thing I think RAGE knows how to pace their fights well enough and with new locations and coats paint to the point it becomes sort of addicting. It's simple and satisfying and as long you don't burn yourself out there's a lot of fun to be had. One major thing to not about the on foot gameplay is the light aspect of scavenging. Throughout the levels you're able to pick up random objects, ammo, etc through the levels, some being locked behind doors that need a item. It's kinda like the looting in games like Fallout 4 but distilled down to it's most basic form. While it is mainly use just for a extra way to get the game's curreny and items for crafting quickitems, ammo, etc. It's pretty nice to pick a location clean of items.

Now RAGE isn't just a basic FPS, the game also features a lot of driving between areas using a variety of vehicles, and such also has it's own combat. At it's core, the vehicles you get your hand on are servicable, the steering is a bit floating but as a game where it's mostly about the FPS combat the driving ain't half bad, especially as you'll be using it to travel across the overworld. Most of the time you are going from point A to point B but there are some attempts to get you to explore a bit but for the most part a lot of vehicle time is fairly linear. Combat against other enemy drivers is.... interesting as your car has specific weapons for car combat, which also need their own ammo. As all the car's handling is a bit wonky even with upgrades it can be a bit tricky getting the drop on foes but more often than not you are rewarded for completing combat encounters. Speaking of you are able to upgrade your cars with better engines, wheels, and even paint jobs among other things. Although you don't buy these with cash, but with Race Certificates you get from, well.., Racing! (As well as a optional repeatable quest) Races for the most part are completely optional minus a few story races, if you feel like you want some quick certificates to upgrade your ride it's not a bad time. Personally I didn't complete all of them, mostly in the early game before I found out about that one quest that rewards Certificates.

Now for something I haven't noted in a while, RAGE's story is fairly generic but gets the job done and allows you to mean interesting characters and visit likewise interesting locations. The whole setting of the game's world is from a Asteroid crashing into Earth, cause the apocalyptic wasteland you play in. The player character was put into one of many Arks devices. Think of like the Vaults from Fallout except they were actually meant to be what they said on the tin. They emerge years after the impact and are thrust into this scary new world. Thankfully you aren't completely in the dark as you're quickly saved by the friendly locals and taught the ropes of the land through multiple quests. Evetunally you make it to the town of Wellspring which is basically your hub for a big chunk of the game. Later on you learn about the Authority, basically the high tech super power in this world. I think for a easy comparison, they reminded me a lot of the Combine from Half Life 2 with their motives and how they occupy the wasteland. This leads your player to joining a resistance for the second half of the game in a brand new hub. It is fairly cut and stone for games at the time but you are given a lot of fun characters to interact with because of the story. I do think the ending is fairly underwhelming as there's no real final boss, just a pretty easy raid of the Authority's main base and a cutscene showing all the other Arks emerging out of the ground. Which I assume has something to do with the game's sequel.

Now Style Wise, RAGE is fairly unqiue but also dated, but then again still pretty at times. This was the first title to use ID's new at the time ID Tech 5 engine as well as using this "megatextures" technology. From what I gather this basically means that every area will use unique textures to prevent areas from looking the same, and the cost of the resolution of the textures. This is a double edged sword as while it does provide very richly detailed environments with a lot of different things, it is absolutely blurry as all hell. It also doesn't help that RAGE is one of those games that deloads stuff when you're not looking at it, I assume it rarely shows up normal but if you're using a highly FOV. Which I do recommend as the default is pretty tight, it's way more common to notice. though I don't really know if it is a fault of the game since it was designed for that specific default FOV. More so in just general artstyle the game has a very nice blend of realism and stylized characters. Think of Mad Max crossed with a fainter animation style you would see in the TimeSplitters games. Character dialogue animations have that noticeable handcrafted feel and it's genuine such a treat watching them talk as we mostly get canned animations nowadays when it comes to open world games.


RAGE: The Scorchers DLC Review.

Overall, RAGE is one of those games that isn't mindblowing insane but one of those feel good games that's fun to play. Hilariously the two games I would compare the feeling to is Doom 3 and Quake 4, two other games running on other IdTech Engines. If you have a itch for a FPS game that's simple but provides a interesting world to explore while not talking too long to beat, I would highly recommend RAGE. Granted the game hasn't aged perfectly in the tech department with the FOV and texture blurriness mentioned previously but otherwise it worked without a hitch on a clean install. This has now given me a interest to check out the sequel as that game is way different than it's predecessor and from what I heard not actually that bad of a game.

GRAPHICS

🔘 MS-DOS graphic
🔘 Ugly, but still bearable
🔵 Fine, nothing too fancy
🔘 Pretty good
🔘 Next gen graphic or art
[hr][/hr]
STORY

🔘 What is the story?
🔵 Written by 5 years old child
🔘 Something that'll hook you up with the game
🔘 You can remember the story after you finished the game for a while
🔘 You cannot get it out of your head
[hr][/hr]
FUN

🔘 You want to delete it after a few minutes
🔘 It's not for everyone
🔵 Could be bored after a while
🔘 Can keep you entertained for hours straight
🔘 It's already morning?
[hr][/hr]
MUSIC

🔘 Just mute it
🔘 Few of them are good
🔘 Not the best, but it's good
🔵 You get immersed in the game
🔘 Sometimes you will need to stop playing the game to hear it.
[hr][/hr]

TOTAL SCORE: 12/20

its iggghhttt

do you want to play a really long 2010's tech demo?

Pretty good game

Bought this game on sale and thought to myself "I remember this game being alright when I played it on console back in the day. Let's give it another go on a system that can run fps games properly this time." I must've been on something back then cause this game sucks.
Nothing says "quality FPS gameplay" quite like regular enemies taking nearly an entire magazine to put down...on the second easiest difficulty...at the mid point of the game...
The game menu UI is also blatantly built for console and hasn't been adapted for PC properly so it feels like a chore to engage with the crafting mechanic. A mechanic that is one of the core concepts of the game.
To complete this trilogy of dogwater core mechanics there is also driving which gives you three cars to use: One that works fine but the game keeps pushing you to not use it, one that feels like shit to drive, and a third car which is just the second car but with a third weapon option. The driving missions are extremely samey and blatantly there to pad for playtime.
All in all RAGE is a perfect reminder of why id software needed Bethesda to buy them and save them from going under.

It's really not the best game id has ever made, frankly it's mid. And yet there's still parts of it that are fun to play around with, it's interesting how the game ended up like this.

Regardless i will sooner recommend this over RAGE 2 because of how bland that game is in comparison.

the authority in their armour are still as hot as they were when i was 13. teague is even hotter. the guy who runs the strum game will absolutely put you down with a shotgun if you beat him at his own game. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE FAT MAMMAS. half of my in game hours are hours i spent gambling, its equally as addictive as irl gambling. 10/10

I love it when games use good quality hand made animation. It gives a game real character and personality of its own. Which is especially important considering its basically the only thing in RAGE that isnt ripped poorly off from a much better game. I still had fun though.

RAGE is another ID classic, i would recommend this game to anyone i know. the gameplay and mini games make for hours of fun.

Sure I'd recommend it. If you like indie "boomer shooters" you'll like this. It is made by a AAA developer in 2010's and as such has way better production value and a similar price.

Now in 2024 this was my 2nd playthrough, first one was at launch about 13 years earlier. Back then this game was a big letdown. Consolification was worse then ever. Here you had Id-Software a hardcore PC-development team making a game XBOX first and PC got a port that wasn't all that good. Add to that the forced vehicular combat and racing. Bullet spongie enemies. Bad optimization. Content was sparse and the story inconsequential.

Now the second time around with overkill hardware and being a middle aged casual gamer I don't really care about the shortcomings. In fact I'd say this game is an underrated title worth a whirl. The DLC adds a little more content which is worth while too.

There are plenty of guides how to make the game look better with custom .cfg files and launch commands. I'd recommend looking in to that. I hear there are also mods etc but I didn't feel it was necessary. One annoying issue was mouse movement in menues, there is a are stratup commands to aid with that too. I never got it to work well, still usable.

My son recommended this. It has been fun. Lots of parts to the game.
8/10.

Rage is basically the love union between Borderlands and Doom, while Fallout watches through the window. It is fun, but not a game that deserves an applause.
Beyond crafting(engineering), upgrades and supplies, there really aren't any optional parts of the game. As far as customization goes, there aren't any changes to your gear other than just a few gun and armor upgrades that you spend in-game credits on. There is no in-game map other than the mini-map on your HUD. You can have some fun racing your wasteland vehicles for some sweet upgrades, which will be necessary as you traverse a world chock full of pesky motorized bandits. The races are super easy, but they are fun. I would estimate that you could spend around 3-4 hours of gameplay on the races. For the scavvies out there, there are plenty of things to find as you roam the wasteland. This includes a few upgrades, a variety of ammo, and crafting material. After a certain point in the game, when the player dies, they can come back with a defib. While the weapons aren't anything new(other than the boomarang), It may take some skill to master them. This is good because even on hard mode, Rage is a pretty easy game.
While the story line isn't boring, it also isn't very captivating. I took my time because I scavenge like crazy and pie every corner, but I imagine this game could be beat on hard mode much faster than my 26 hours. The story also ended very suddenly, and the cut-scene at the end seemed like a cliff-hanger for a sequel which is just bad taste IMO.
TL;DR:
Fun graphics, familiar mechanics, lackluster story. I give it a 6/10. It is basically a generic Fallout-themed, G-rated version of Doom, with Borderlands graphics. If you have beaten any of those games, Rage will probably be mildly disappointing. It's worth playing, but catch it on a discount.

A terrible game from the worst period of ID Software's history. Poor controls, dumb meaningless minigames, a wonkey engine, and barebones story with meh voice acting and a tone of characters that just may as well not even be there. Its an interesting game for say...$5...to see why ID Sotware got bought out before Doom 2016 and just why such a horrible company like Bethesda and later Microsoft took bought them out.

It wasn't good when it came out and it ages terribly to today's standards as well. Worth it if you're super bored and it is super cheap only.

Rage is a pretty great game, I dont get why people shtt on it.

Rage is pretty awesome, some great enemies, awesome weapons, great level design and art, great voice acting and some cool characters. One of the only issues is texture pop in, which is honestly pretty easy to fix with the right settings, I think its less of a problem today, than it was back when the game came out because the graphics cards are better today. But you can just pick the right settings and it almost goes away completely. I think a lot of people make the mistake of turning the Anti-Aliasing up too high. High Anti-Aliasing is a big deal in Id-tech games. I dont think a lot of people realize that.

If you want the game to run VERY well. Check out Idtech-Tweaker, with the right settings, the game runs rock solid over 100 frames a second, with a great refresh rate, with almost no pop in. I honestly think this game engine was ahead of its time for sure. I mean Id basically uses the same game engine today. Thats awesome.

The very-ending is a bit lack luster, but thats alright, the rest of the game is pretty freakin awesome. Tho it would of been nice if the game went on another couple of hours, but I think the only reason they didnt do that, is because they literally didnt have room for it, trying to fit the game on game consoles at the time.

If you havent played Rage before, check it out, its a good game when you get the graphic settings right.








And I just have to say, I cant get behind Rage 2. Im sorry but they blew it with Rage 2. ha

Juegazo, una joya oculta

RAGE is very good, and it's most definitely worth playing, but there are a few things that make it fall short from the iconic Bethesda and ID titles.

RAGE has a compelling sci-fi/post-apocalypse tale to tell, as long as you don't prod it's plotholes to much. There were a lot of storyline elements in this game that had me wanting more, and while you are able to get some answers, the story was overall very short and the last mission just didn't have the crescendo I would expect from a final mission.

The three additional sources of new missions outside the main story are: talking to people in town, getting jobs from the job board, and doing races. The missions you can pick up from talking to people in the towns are relatively scarce, but they are there and are worth doing. The job board is kind of a disappointment since all the missions are just repeat missions that make you go back through the levels you do for other missions but with different enemies. The regular races are pretty easy, but the rally's were genuinely difficult had me sweating quite a few times.

Upgrading your weapons and vehicles and buying schematics for new items and ammo is definitely a crucial aspect of the game. Money and vehicle upgrade certificates are not plentiful but if you're a loot goblin like me there is enough to keep you well stocked with the special ammo which is truly what you will want to invest in as quickly as possible.

Enemies move in some different ways depending on what faction they are from. There are multiple different bandit factions, the authority, and mutants. Even the way they interact with the environment and move in consistently unpredictable ways was probably my favorite part of this game after the story and environmental design.

For 2011 the graphics are not bad at all. You can tell passion was put in to the animations, character designs, and environments. The biggest downfall is just lower resolution textures which can sometimes be disorienting when navigating some smaller spaces and can break the immersion on some of the epic landscapes. The layouts of the levels are pretty linear, but you can tell effort was put into the level designs to accommodate different play styles and items like the RC bomb car.

Overall I wish this game was longer and more fleshed-out, but for what it is I am glad I played and I would recommend giving it a shot because what it has to offer is definitely entertaining if you like the sound of a combat racer and doom style shooter in a borderlands/mad max atmosphere.

great game holds up in 2024

Great game that still works well enough 13 years after release, both story, graphics and technically.

Do you know the feeling of taking off the heads off of multiple foes with a wingstick?

pelpol hate but I like, fun bang-bangs! nad have john good-man is bonur

Really Good RPG, lots of different mini games and stuff to do that is achuly well made. fallout+madmax+boarderlands=RAGE great game.

Carmack made the right decision to retire after Rage.