RAGE 2

Rage 2’s nonsensical story is unbearable, and the unskippable exploration parts are mostly irritating and boring. Luckily, the shooting gameplay is so amazing that it’s easy to forgive these flaws. And while encounters can become repetitive, new weapons and abilities make sure there’s always some fun to be had.

A pretty well done FPS game, with some problems with its structure as an open world game.

Rage 2 is one of the year’s most disappointing titles. However, the shooting is some of the best this generation when you’ve finally dedicated enough time to unlock different abilities and poured a couple of upgrades into one of the best shotguns in gaming. Unfortunately, the middle chapter is full to the brim with busywork that taints the entire experience. At one stage, I was spending 10 minutes driving for a five minute firefight before getting back in a car for another 10 minute drive and a stilted vehicular combat section. Shooter fans deserve better.

There simultaneously needed to be a lot more of Rage 2 and lot less; a lot more depth in its driving, story, and missions and a lot less repeated content and long stretches of empty landscape. With all of the fluff in between frenetic firefights, most of Rage 2‘s incredible moments are bookended by elements that are underbaked by comparison. But id’s knack for making impeccable first-person shooting mechanics makes Rage 2 succeed despite having faults that would doom a lesser shooter.

If narratively shallow yet entertaining movies are popcorn flicks, Rage 2 is the ultimate popcorn game, and that’s okay. At no point during my 15 hours running rampant around its post-apocalyptic wasteland did I feel the need to know more about a character’s subplot, or question the antagonist’s motives. I was too caught up in the spectacle of carnage to care.

Rage 2 is ugly, silly, and dated, and yet, I still enjoyed the hell out of most of my time with it. The game delivers the kind of low-stress, high-satisfaction fun you don’t often get from big-budget games these days. If you’re willing to check your brain at the title screen, I suggest you jump into this apocalypse now.

Rage 2 sticks to its own nature of an open world sandbox game, offering a short plot but at the same time an incredible, genuine quality of action.

RAGE 2 is probably one of Avalanche’s best games since Mad Max came out in 2015. The wildland offers plenty of content, and the fun is always there, thanks to the input of id software for everything FPS related, and Bethesda’s trademark humour (including those hilarious cheats).

Overall, Rage 2 is definitely a step up from the original, with a bigger world that feels a lot more desolate (in a good way). It has a variety of lands to explore, unique bosses to run into, and a bevy of leveling trees that will keep you motivated throughout the gameplay. What it needed and didn’t get were a better story and less repetition. The game has grown, but it still has more than enough room to continue to grow.

RAGE 2's unique visual style and genuinely fun gameplay mechanics ultimately outweigh a bit uninspired mission design, a disappointing story and at times flawed technical execution. If you can live with that, you'll absolutely have fun.

Rage 2 has room to grow, but it's also a great game to pick up and play. Combat is visceral in all the right ways, and exploration is always rewarding. A few technical issues and a general sense of sameness keep it from pure excellence, but Rage 2 still represents a good time.

Rage 2 is a great game for the right reasons. If you’re looking for a game with a phenomenal story, you’re in the wrong place. The story is boring to me, and rather short at 13 hours of leisurely gameplay. At the very least it doesn’t drop off the planet like Rage did. Gameplay is fun, and vehicle combat works well, giving you an open world Mad Max-esque experience that is simply enjoyable and hard to put down.

RAGE 2 is bigger, more beautiful and more explosive than its predecessor, but at the same time more generic and monotonous. The shooting action is once again top notch, including a shotgun to die for, so it's functions as a fine appetizer before DOOM: Eternal arrives.

Rage 2 makes it very hard to befriend the game.

Classic Id gunplay is attached to an old-fashioned, noisy but danger-free open world. There’s fun to be had but it’s limited and we’ve seen and blown apart these goons before. [Issue#163, p.81]

Whilst Rage 2 offers an intense wave of combat, the open world is dull, and the story and missions rarely excite.

Rage 2 is a truly excellent shooter with big, beefy weapons and some huge, challenging battles to participate in. However, it is wrapped up in an open world which is quite bland and too generic to separate it from all the post-apocalyptic sandbox shooters that have come before it.

Over all, Rage 2 is a good game, but not worth buying if you’re already an established fan of open world games.

Rage 2 has some of the most rewarding and impactful combat in the genre. However, the bland world, repetitive missions, and weak story make it hard to care about the lives you take or the lives you save. Driving controls well, but ends up feeling completely unnecessary other than getting you from point A to B. Fortunately, shooting things never gets old, and the combat shotgun will surely put a smile on your face.

RAGE 2's on-foot action is some of the most fun we've had this generation. As a shooter it's undeniably top tier, but the combat constantly has to fight for its rightful place in the spotlight. All the bright pink paint in the apocalypse couldn't stop the game's open world from feeling lacklustre, and the vehicular stuff struggles throughout. RAGE 2 needed the chaos and insanity that its marketing campaign was so eager to push, because we've ended up with a disappointingly safe objective-based grind, in which the excellent combat is the only thing strong enough to string you along.

The satisfying action and relentless chaos of Rage 2 peppers a formulaic open world with thrills.

The list of things I don’t like about Rage 2 is much longer than the things I like about it, but the one thing it does better than I even expected is combat. Once you’ve filled up your toolbox of weapons and powers, you have seemingly endless ways to take on the game’s foes. Unfortunately, its bland story, drab tone, and scattered open world drag it down, but the fierce firefights kept me engaged the whole way.

The up-close-and-personal style of combat that id Software games are known for was the first milestone in Rage 2 and that’s reflected in the overall package. When you’re fighting, the game is at its absolute best. The elements around it don’t feel as if they received the same amount of love and drag the experience down a few notches. Fans of id Software games or anyone looking for a good old fashion Doom shooter will find it in Rage 2. Fans of Avalanche Studios’ sandbox games will want to stick with Just Cause 3 or 4.

Rage 2 is buggy and features a by-the-numbers open world, but the core shooting mechanics are exemplary and the progression systems are a ton of fun.

Rage 2 is a chaotic, fun, and rewarding adventure that combines a light but interesting narrative with explosive combat and a well-structured open world. It won't blow you off your feet, but you'll have plenty of fun blowing everyone else off theirs.

Rage 2 is a victim of a wave of technical issues and painfully average story but still manages to be one of the most fun FPS you can encounter and can provide you with your adrenaline shot for the day if needed.

It's a game that's definitely worth playing, but it could have been so much better than it really is. For all the vibrant pink and yellow, it's the game equivalent of beige.

id Software's magic touch with the old ultra-violence isn't quite enough to completely save Rage 2 from the rest of its sloppy and seemingly rushed trimmings, but if you want to play as a superhero who isn't fussy about killing, you're well set here.

RAGE 2 is a culmination of many gameplay tropes we’ve seen year after year. That isn’t inherently negative, but when it doesn’t do many of them particularly well, it makes you just want to go play better games. Traveling across the map is a slog, the menus are slow and clunky, and there were significant texture issues that broke the immersion for me.

The relentless thrill of one half of it dragged down by the barren, boring needless sprawl of the other. [Issue#334, p.110]

Rage 2 sadly epitomises everything that’s stale about the gaming market today, and while it’s by no means a bad game, it’s just one that should have released years ago, if at all.

Rage 2 is a satisfying FPS. Even if if the whole weapon and powers' package feel generous in order to fight dozens and dozens of enemies, campaign feels very short, and its world is not what we can call very lively and full of interesting things to do.

Underneath it all, RAGE 2 is one of the most energetic and frenetic shooters I’ve played since DOOM. But you must, unfortunately, wade through a poorly paced story, a drab open world, and a few locks and progression gates to even experience the best it has to offer. Those who persist will adore RAGE 2, but it’s such a bizarrely inconsistent journey to get there that it’s hard to recommend to everyone.

The combat of Rage 2 is its saving grace, and depending on how many gibs you’re producing it can be a blast. Like a string of neon pink Christmas lights, there are fleeting moments of brilliance, but every moment in between feels dull.

A special kind of frustration swells up from playing a game that delivers pristine action mechanics set within a creatively vapid world.

The story is dreadful and short with no personality, charm or consistent tone. The Wasteland is vast but feels empty with repetitive side activities and large sections of the map underutilized. There’s a lot of great ideas and ambition here, but the excellent combat never quite gels together with the game’s other elements. Rage 2 kicks off with a bang of explosions and personality but ends with a whimper.

Rage 2 is a short game with a weak story and dull open world elements. However, the core shooting gameplay is strong enough that hardcore FPS fans may still want to give it a look once the price goes down.

As a first person shooter, Rage 2 has some of the best action of the year but as an open world adventure it squanders everything on a listless story campaign and banal mission design.

It’s hard not to be disappointed in how little use the Wasteland has for you when you're not dealing in lead.

Rage 2 tries to do so many things in such a small timeframe that it forgets to do anything original or inventive with its many unfocused components. Its combat alleviates these issues in short spurts, but it's not enough to weave a cohesive thread through this confused trip through a familiar wasteland.

Rage 2 works when there is lots of shooting, but struggles heavily with uninteresting activities, repetitive boss fights and with a story that isn't really a story. [Issue#295]