RAGE 2 offers non stop, no holds barred, open world insanity, with mild super powers, but does it deliver on this offering? Javier delves deep into Bethesda’s latest open world adventure…
Being a humongous Bethesda fan (Fallout 3, oblivion and skyrim easily being in my top 10 games list) I really had a lot of hype for this game, despite missing the first installment. After a quick catch up on the game (that you can read here) I was all prepped for this big exciting open world. First up I’m streaming my entire experience of this game which you can view here:
This game was developed by the same guys who did Mad Max (Avalanche Studios) and Bethesda, famous for games like Doom, and you can definitely tell as it just feels like a combination of the 2 with super powers – Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but there are times where it just feels like an upscaled sequel to Mad Max. The game centres around your ranger character (Walker if you’re a male) driving around the wasteland and taking down bases; these bases are full of enemies, and there are certain tasks that you need to complete in each place such as… Kill everyone in a base, blow up all the fuel containers, find power ups, compete in mutant bash TV, take on the mutant lair, etc… But really it all revolves around killing everyone and everything in site… The game offers a large open world full of craziness and excitement, but it was rarely I’d encounter something I wanted to get involved in when travelling from one base to another; the occasional race or random group of enemies don’t offer much in the way of xp or fun, so I found myself just driving from mission to mission to really get through it – Even this in itself got tiresome as there wasn’t much in terms of music, so really a fast travel system needs to be introduced and needs to be more expansive than just travelling to the main towns. I think maybe some sacrifices were made elsewhere as the game super heavily leans on it’s combat system…
Now I can’t deny that the combat and gameplay is where the game really shines (As you can check out from our YT channel); everything you do to destroy the raiders and muties before you is really smooth and enjoyable. It’s so easy to switch from one gun to another, throw your wing stick, and then send someone flying with a power blast (You can then lead into another power and repeat if you’ve upgraded your cool down time enough); quite often you’ll need to combine all of these elements to take down bigger enemies, and you definitely will when taking on large tough groups – I even found a few times when I was really struggling I could use the powers to tactically take out the enemies one by one. Additionally just using the guns feels really tactical and fun, you need to find cover, lean out and take your time; there’s no charging in aimlessly. When using the powers they all have different input commands so it’s also really easy to use one then another. For example, you can dash to dodge someone’s attack, and then use warp shatter to close the gap – Then destroy them and then turn to the next lot of enemies to use the smash move to take down the group; depending on how much you’ve brought down your cool down you may be able to repeat this immediately… And that’s the idea, that you’re constantly on the go, taking down enemies in a non stop furious fashion. The gameplay has a lot going on, but you never feel like it’s too much; it just adds to the crazy full-on feel that the combat does pull off. Combining the powers with the guns and throwable weapons results in a lot of chaos and fun! You can also upgrade everything to be more powerful. The only issue really is that this is the only real reason to play the game – I personally need more than just a good fighting system, and whilst this is definitely important it’s not the be all and end all.
So I was hoping that meeting the main characters of the game would change this, unfortunately it doesn’t – They give you one slightly story driven mission then it’s “go and kill this base of raiders”; off you drive in your truck to the very bleak wasteland laid out before you, continuing with everything you’ve been doing already. I never really got why these people you had to meet were so important. or why doing their tasks helped me out except that it was some way for the devs to make you marginally care about getting things done. The gameplay and mechanics working smoothly (Oh so smoothly) is absolutely fantastic, but there isn’t much else behind or in front of this. RAGE 2 promises crazy open world fun, and for the most part definitely delivers, but it seems to lean too heavily on this mental gameplay and not enough on character or story, if at all really. I think it’s too big a world with not enough character to keep you invested for a long period of time – Like I’ve said several times, it’s a very fun game when you’re tasked with taking down a base of enemies, going at a horde of enemies with everything you’ve got, but this wasn’t enough to keep me glued to the screen or wanting to keep it on for more than a couple hours. I want to keep writing about this game but honestly there isn’t a lot else to say.
If you’re looking for a simple sandbox game with a different take on combat and gunplay, then this will definitely be for you… But if you need a bit more meat than this, then I’d say this is one to avoid. It kind of counts on you just wanting to blow up and kill everything in sight, whilst not offering a lot else. It’s definitely fun but not one you’d play for days at a time. Unfortunately it’s another average game from Bethesda…
I give RAGE 2 a: