RAGE 2

Rage 2 isn’t the biggest game in the world. Nor is it the prettiest, or the most polished. Once you’ve explored its tame open world enough to open up your combat options however, it doesn’t really matter. In the heat of battle, the only thing you’ll be experiencing while playing Rage 2 is sheer joy. And it’s good enough to make all the boring bits in between feel worthwhile. It’s not perfect, but it shows that id’s brilliant brand of combat can be enhanced and implanted into an open world.

RAGE 2 is a pure power fantasy and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. It serves up some awesome powers and skills at an irresistible pace and makes the player feel like they're ready to take on the whole wasteland in one go. The problem is the story is over so quickly that you're soon left with nothing to do but exactly that — drive around the world, stop at every icon on your map, blow up everything inside, and move on. The amazing gunplay and combat of RAGE 2 shouldn't easily get so stale, but because of an open world all too familiar and a story that hardly gets going before it ends, players are left to rule over a kingdom of dirt.

Rage 2 is presented as a wild ride through a post-apocalyptic playground, with people invited to attend a festival of blood, guts, and spray paint. Wacky characters and bright colors adorn the box art and marketing materials, but the reality of the game is much less colorful. Were the outside trimmings more accurate, they would feature a grey supercop holding an assault rifle. The pizzazz and graffiti are merely background decoration for a collection of tropes and mechanics we’ve seen elsewhere, done better by the same developers to boot. It’s certainly fun to play, and shooter diehards who love open worlds will likely have a blast checking off objectives and discovering new powers, but anyone looking for more style or substance will be disappointed.

As a shooter Rage 2 is incredible. It's everything around that core competency that brings the game down. A lack of narrative, world building, and questionable design decisions in terms of progression leave the experience feeling flat.

Rage 2 might be fun for newcomers or fans of crazy shooters, but it certainly disappoints the fans of the original Rage.

RAGE 2 held plenty of potential, but even considering how great the combat is, falls well short of that goal. The sequel is hampered by the same issues that cropped up in the original. The campaign is a non-factor and the open-world needed more life in it. Third time's the charm?

A solid FPS that delivers on the shooting, but fails to provide much else worth doing. [Issue#179, p.75]

For everything Rage 2 does right, there’s another thing hindering it from being great.