The Code was made excellent by old time 'C' Programmer wiz and one of ID's founding members: John Carmack. His crew was outstanding. You get solid frame rates and it rarely crashes. Realistic lighting and details that were made more believable by the smoothness. The AI for the opponents varied from group to group...and was solid to the point where it allowed for characteristic idiosyncratic behavior without sacrificing effectiveness. (In other words each group acted unique and was still a challenge)
The Artwork was fine. Nothing wrong. Each 'Dungeon' was uniquely crafted to reflect the inhabitants. No copy and paste here. The shanty towns and settlements...perfectly suited for what they were. All of the virtual world here...I can't complain about any of it. It really is amazing that they could create virtual art of such high quality. This really is where science and art come together.
The gameplay: No problem. Early in the game, you get to choose one kind of suit that you will wear for the rest of the game. In the future...no one can do your laundry. The 'Suit' represents your life choice: You could get discounts at the stores, better protection, or be really good at making the various engineered items. As far as replay value with different choices, it isn't 'Deus Ex' or one of the other Bethesda RPG type games. You don't load up the story and feel that you are in an elaborate tube with a 'Beginning and End'. There is the main story but there are a ton of side missions that you really should do or you will run out of money pronto. Indeed there is no coasting on your check book. Money is easy to spend and hard to get...the way it should be. You don't bog down like you would in many Bethesda games. When you pick something up off a shelf, you take everything off the shelf. Stuff that is pure monetary value alone gets thrown on a 'You can sell this... because that is all it is worth' pile. Useful stuff has an icon to represent itself as such. Selling stuff happens in a few seconds...making stuff is fast with the Engineer interface (I wish they had this for Fallout - New Vegas). You can carry a ton of stuff and a ton of weapons because someone figured that a game should be FUN...not an excercise in Inventory Management. Bethesda!? About fricking time! How many hours sorting between Gummy Bears and Gum Wrappers is only fun for the OCD. Driving? Well...if you die in a race, you come back to life seconds later alive and well and with a car in full health. NPC racers do the same thing. You get the feeling you are playing a computer game rather than driving an actual race and it breaks your immersion.
The voice acting? Can't complain. Among the talent is John Goodman and J Grant Albrecht. Well articulated and natural given the characters. The lines were a little cartoon like but that wasn't the fault of the talent.
So...The Artwork is professionally exquisite. The coding is tight. The gameplay is smooth and balanced. The AI is challenging and eclectic. The voice acting is superb. What is wrong!?
Your honor, I give you exhibit 'A'
Matthew Costello couldn't write his way out of a wet paper bag in the rain. Lets look at the facts, shall we?
The plot to RAGE:
1) "The 'Authority' is bad"
2) There is money for turning you into them.
3) If you are useful then no one will turn you in.
4) You are being too useful; The Authority has noticed and you have to leave
5) Repeat
"Bandits are bad". They are lawless scum who prey on civilized folk...and their numbers seem to be out of control "It's pretty much their world". "The Authority" are officious scum who seek to control everything with an iron fist. Okay Matt...is it global lawlessness with islands of civility, or global oppression by a totalitarian state? "Both" is not really an option.
Despite having servo-prosthetics and nano technology, preserving digital images must have been destroyed in "the big bang" because the "Authority" never knows what you look like, despite having run into them over and over again. Perhaps they should covet the technology JK Stiles is using to record his shows...and maybe steal broadcast technology from him as well. In other words, you could drive a 747 through this plot hole.
Accents seem to vary with different bandit groups. Distinctively British, Russian, First Nation and American within a short distance from each other. It's fun but...it doesn't make sense.
In Half-life 2, you got a real sense that the combine was an oppressive force. They made a huge effort to let you know how people felt about them as well as what they did to earn the hatred and fear they invoked. In Rage, people tell you that the "Authority" is bad. You are "Told" not "Shown". Maybe, near the end, some effort was made...but it could also be construed that they were peace keepers who's members were targeted and the trail led them to the town you were operating from. There was no expression of fear and no scripting. It was more like anger and frustration like a tax auditor showing up.
With so many holes, the meat of the game is...Tofu. It's anemic. The worst part about it is that everything other than the story is clearly great.
1) "The 'Authority' is bad"
2) There is money for turning you into them.
3) If you are useful then no one will turn you in.
4) You are being too useful; The Authority has noticed and you have to leave
5) Repeat
"Bandits are bad". They are lawless scum who prey on civilized folk...and their numbers seem to be out of control "It's pretty much their world". "The Authority" are officious scum who seek to control everything with an iron fist. Okay Matt...is it global lawlessness with islands of civility, or global oppression by a totalitarian state? "Both" is not really an option.
Despite having servo-prosthetics and nano technology, preserving digital images must have been destroyed in "the big bang" because the "Authority" never knows what you look like, despite having run into them over and over again. Perhaps they should covet the technology JK Stiles is using to record his shows...and maybe steal broadcast technology from him as well. In other words, you could drive a 747 through this plot hole.
Accents seem to vary with different bandit groups. Distinctively British, Russian, First Nation and American within a short distance from each other. It's fun but...it doesn't make sense.
In Half-life 2, you got a real sense that the combine was an oppressive force. They made a huge effort to let you know how people felt about them as well as what they did to earn the hatred and fear they invoked. In Rage, people tell you that the "Authority" is bad. You are "Told" not "Shown". Maybe, near the end, some effort was made...but it could also be construed that they were peace keepers who's members were targeted and the trail led them to the town you were operating from. There was no expression of fear and no scripting. It was more like anger and frustration like a tax auditor showing up.
With so many holes, the meat of the game is...Tofu. It's anemic. The worst part about it is that everything other than the story is clearly great.
...and now for the exciting conclusion; Go to this ark (elaborate cryo sleeping device - one of many). Captain Marshall gets the bit of information from this cryo chamber and says quite literally 'This information is quite simply THE KEY TO EVERYTHING'. Whoa! DEUS EX MACHINA! I guess writing this masterpiece turned out to be a little too taxing for our writer and he needed ONE way to wrap it all up.
...Another time you squatted down and crapped out the Crown Jewels was when you brought some toxin the 'Ghost' clan was using to poison Wellspring's water supply to Dr Kvasir. Who exclaimed Eureka! as this random mixture of toxins somehow completes the Kvasir's Nanotrite weapon which causes the exponential growth of nanites in a host. Wow. At this point I have to wonder if the writer is actually trying to be ridiculous. Oddly enough, he describes the failure of the weapon before the "new discovery" as being exactly what the weapon does AFTER.
With this information, you slip into 'Authority' central...(the people who are in charge if you haven't guessed) and use their satelite communication system to wake up every inhabitant of EVERY ark on the planet where there is someone standing by to say: "The Authority is bad."
...Another time you squatted down and crapped out the Crown Jewels was when you brought some toxin the 'Ghost' clan was using to poison Wellspring's water supply to Dr Kvasir. Who exclaimed Eureka! as this random mixture of toxins somehow completes the Kvasir's Nanotrite weapon which causes the exponential growth of nanites in a host. Wow. At this point I have to wonder if the writer is actually trying to be ridiculous. Oddly enough, he describes the failure of the weapon before the "new discovery" as being exactly what the weapon does AFTER.
With this information, you slip into 'Authority' central...(the people who are in charge if you haven't guessed) and use their satelite communication system to wake up every inhabitant of EVERY ark on the planet where there is someone standing by to say: "The Authority is bad."
This is a turkey dinner with all the trimmings served on a shit platter. It would be a 10/10 with a decent story but the plot and story were so bad that it actually lost 3 full points. I couldn't actually find a really good picture of Matthew Costello...but if I got paid good money to write shit this bad? I wouldn't want anyone to see my picture either. (7/10)
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