Post by Bytor on May 18, 2012 17:27:36 GMT -5
-Visuals- 9.9/10
Stunning! Overwhelming! Fantastic! Ridiculous good! These are just a few adjectives which come to mind when I think if the visual feast that is Rage. It is unreal how good pretty much everything looks. The attention to detail is remarkable to say the least and what makes it all even more phenomenal is the almost total lack of clipping, fade-ins/outs and up close texture issues, or lack thereof actually! I seriously kept waiting for the graphics to break down and I guess I must say I was disappointed, lol, because the game looked as good at the end as it did from the start. No matter what the environs, although to be honest pretty much all of the wasteland looked the same, the spot on renditions where a true beauty to behold. Heck, even the NPC's and enemies where great to look at, especially the NPC's with each looking so apt for the environment they inhabited. This game is for all intensive purposes a visual masterpiece.
-Sound- 8.8/10
The voice acting is solid, the soundtrack complimentary and the gun sounds are fantastic. What more could anyone ask for? I especially loved the sound of the battles. The various explosions of the firearms combined with the thud as they went into the enemies really gave the game a certainly wonderful realistic feel, as much as shooting can feel realistic in a video game, lol. The various NPC's voices also shined, being acted very well without being too over the top or too typical RPG cliches. Overall simply a very solid job.
-Gameplay- 8.8/10
This is a solid shooter. It aims where you aim, you move where you mean to go and the driving is as responsive as any racer out there. The only real issue is because of the slightly dis-jointed, and somewhat less than convoluted, story the battle as simply fetch and kill quests. I never really got any emotional attachment to anyone, enemy or ally, and this made the battles seem less important. Still, overall it's hard to detract because the story suffered a bit as this game has some of the most solid and responsive controls of any game I have ever played. The various weapons are also fun to use, easy to upgrade and offer enough variety to make using them simply to use then a lot of fun. The responsiveness of the enemies is wonderful as well. Take one out with a sniper head shot and he may simply crumple to the ground, use a shotgun up close and watch as his body contorts and is thrown back by the impact. Shoot a leg and watch them limp, it really is wonderful AI on the part of the programmers used on the various rushing enemies. They actually try and avoid your fire and react wonderfully when shot. Like I said, overall simply a solid production.
-Story- 8.0/10
OK...well...it does have one. And to be honest I think it's a pretty darn good story. The earth is going to be hit by an E.L.E. but scientists have prepared arks to protect some people who will hopefully revive civilization once they are awakened. You play as one of the awakened enhanced humans in a barren world ravaged by the asteroid and overthrown by mutants, thugs and small redoubts attempting to hold civilization somewhat together. The problem is the story never really goes anywhere and there is never much vested interest in whatever is really going on. Instead the game plays as many small missions which are fun, but never really flesh out what could have been an interesting premise.
-Overall- 8.8/10
This is a game of "what ifs". What if the story had been stronger. What if there had been (more) character development. What if the game had more substance. What if, what if, what if. As it is it's a seriously fun game and will give you 15 or so hours of solid gameplay, just not 15 or so hours of a phenomenal experience. That being said I still highly recommend the game, as it really is a lot of fun, but just that, fun.