Some gaming deity must have read my last post because just as I was despairing of modern shooters I happened upon a very sweet deal on Bethseda/id's Rage. I really didn't expect to be having as much fun as I am in this game. It is a huge immersive world with a strong campaign, first class shooting, great driving and a tonne of side-games to play if the main campaign gets tiring (it doesn't). Somehow I expected a new id game to be a very old school no frills shooter, direct descendant of Quake 3, but this game is so much more. Imagine taking Borderlands, Fallout3, Half life2 and Fear extracting the best bits of each and making a new game - that's what Rage feels like to me. Some might complain it borrows too generously from those games, a seasoned gamer cannot help but notice striking similarities. Nevertheless I don't care. It all comes together into a glorious gaming experience, the most fun I have had in a shooter in a long time.
Strangely, in spite of the homage paid to many classic shooters the influence of id's own previous games is less obvious. Id's talent at polishing a game to perfection does show through however. Everything in this game works and works brilliantly. At first I thought it unusual that many of the weapons seem to overlap in functionality, for example the pistol can be equipped with a scope and high damage bullets to rival the sniper rifle. Now I realise that a key feature of the game is the ridiculous surfeit of tools they give you to overcome your foes.There is never one right weapon for the job and playing around with all of them is a blast.
A result of all of this choice of ordnance, particularly when combined with regeneration health and magical resurrection from a defibrillator means that this is not a very difficult game. Fun takes preference over challenge every time. I am not particularly good at driving for example and I doubt I will ever get the hardest driving achievements but the one race I absolutely had to win to progress the game gave me an overpowered ability that literally blew my competitors off the track. Playing on hard mode I find the shooting fights easy enough except for a few bosses and calling in a couple of robotic assistants usually makes short work of those.
Highly recommended.
Strangely, in spite of the homage paid to many classic shooters the influence of id's own previous games is less obvious. Id's talent at polishing a game to perfection does show through however. Everything in this game works and works brilliantly. At first I thought it unusual that many of the weapons seem to overlap in functionality, for example the pistol can be equipped with a scope and high damage bullets to rival the sniper rifle. Now I realise that a key feature of the game is the ridiculous surfeit of tools they give you to overcome your foes.There is never one right weapon for the job and playing around with all of them is a blast.
A result of all of this choice of ordnance, particularly when combined with regeneration health and magical resurrection from a defibrillator means that this is not a very difficult game. Fun takes preference over challenge every time. I am not particularly good at driving for example and I doubt I will ever get the hardest driving achievements but the one race I absolutely had to win to progress the game gave me an overpowered ability that literally blew my competitors off the track. Playing on hard mode I find the shooting fights easy enough except for a few bosses and calling in a couple of robotic assistants usually makes short work of those.
Highly recommended.
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