just makes me want to play OLD id games
The game barely gets 5 stars from me. I am a huge id fan so that that probably tipped the scales for me.
The game is short. Many people were worried it was going to be too much like Borderlands or Fallout 3. No worries there. Those games are EPIC. This game is VERY short single player experience. it will take between 10 and 20 hours to beat depending if you do the unnecessary sewer missions and/or try to collect everything.
What this game REALLY does is wet my appetite for Doom 4. I understand that id wanted a new IP. They dont want to be just "the company who only makes Doom." Every game id developed (wolf 3d, doom 1,2,3 quake 1,2,3) they brought something new to the not only the FPS world but the entire gaming world. They are credited with making a full 3d engine reality, they made multiplayer mainstream. Each game and game engine brought new playable features, graphical upgrades like dynamic perpixel lighting. They are even single handily credited with giving life to both AMD and Nvidia becuase they caused the entire world to start investing in 3d accelerators with the advent of quake 1 and 2.
The first thing you will notice about Rage is graphics. id definitely succeeded in that department. the new id tech 5 game engine is astounding and is probably the best thing to come out of id (their other engines have been used make over 20 blockbuster AAA titles such as nearly the entire COD series) .
There is also noticeable texture pop-in. The hd textures are just too much for instant rendering. That is a bummer. but lets over look that.
The gameplay is not original, but feels more fresh than other FPS titles. You do have some choice and freedom in how to progress the game, but the main story missions must be done in order.
The have car combat, that is okay. Not bad, but pretty simple. They have a cool card game that is worth an hour or two of your time at the most. The sound is amazing. The animations are amazing. the AI is amazing. When you kill enemies they dont use simple rag-dog physics. For example I shot a guy in the face while he was running, his body went limp, but he kept the moment, his head hit the wall and face dragged the hole way down. They dont just go limp and drop to ground and fly around like the magically weigh 10 lbs (5kg) all of a sudden.
I went into this game with pretty low exectations. I had a feeling it would be hard for id software to enter the FPS world at the point in its evolution and give us something that sticks out. Its too hard. The FPS genre is the most prevalent genre now. Every major publisher is trying to make the best AAA original FPS game there is. When id was making their games, they were the only dev in town until Unreal hit the scene. Doom 3 was their graphical tour-De-fource. What was left to improve? not much.
what ever your thoughts. this game should be played, but go in with AA expectation rather than AAA.
