Rage for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

After the last Doom game I was cautiously optimistic about Rage. id really needed to create an exciting new franchise and make something other than a corridor shooter. Rage features the tight and precise controls of an id shooter, but moves them out into the open for a fun new experience. The story and environments are all reminiscent of Fallout, albeit with much better graphics. You loot items from fallen enemies and can create customized items from the gear you acquire. You get to and from the various locations in the game with a vehicle customized with performance upgrades and weapons. You do battle with other enemy vehicles (like in Twisted Metal) and also compete in races.

Rage is a game that takes the best things from multiple games (such as Fallout, Borderlands, Twisted Metal, and Doom) and puts them together to make a fantastic new game.

Pros
+Incredible graphics
+Great story
+Tight gun play as expected from an id shooter
+Vehicle racing and combat is fun

Cons
-Takes up a lot of space on the 360 hard drive (optional install)
-Sewers available only to people who buy the game new
-Game not as long as Fallout 3 or New Vegas (might be a good thing for some people)
-Rage 2 not announced yet :)

RAGE has excellent graphics, although without installing it on my xbox there was significant texture pop-in.

The enemy AI is good and their behavior varies. Enemies respond to specific types of damage, like a boomerang ("wingstick") to the feet trips them up, etc. It is best to turn the difficulty up to 'hard'.

Mid-way through the game, on hard, the combat can get frenetic and it is fun to switch between different odd weapons depending on the enemy and your ammo supply.

However, this game doesn't have much in the way of story, world exploration, or emotional engagement. If you have played borderlands and/or fallout, you will be constantly reminded of those games.

I was disappointed when I picked up some books in game, and it told me their titles, but wasn't able to read the text of the book, and the game just labels them (literally) as junk that you can get money for. This seemed like a frivolous game mechanic.

Also, you can't see your character in third person, except only rarely in cut-scenes and in a little window in the menu system. This was annoying, since I couldn't enjoy looking at my armor upgrades in any detail etc. It also removed any attachment to your player-character. This wasn't like Metro 2033, where they used this lack of third person view for good effect.

I try to enjoy games for what they are, but when this game is so similar in theme/art to fallout ('you step out of the vault, er . . . ark, and fight the enclave . . . i mean the authority'), you keep expecting to have more chances to explore freely and learn about the backstory.