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.

Here are some thoughts I am having:

First of all, it wants to be Borderlands in a Fallout setting and it doesn't do either very well.

Secondly, the game is so linear that it's painful. I'm okay with a shooter on rails, but I want some illusion of agency. When I'm running through a map and I can't go through a door until I've killed four guys, and then the door opens, can't you at least give me some idea of WHY the door chose that moment to open? Otherwise it's just "because we said so" and that takes me way out of the experience and it's annoying.

Third, and compounded with #2, the main character has no personality. No voice, a totally generic appearance that we barely ever see, and no agency. He wakes up and does what he's told with never so much as a batted eye. If you give the protagonist a backstory, you need to demonstrate a REASON for him to do things, even if it's rudimentary.

Finally, if I've got a bandit--an essentially normal human being--standing DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME, and I'm firing BUCKSHOT, and I MISS, there is something wrong with your game. He is DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF ME. I am firing BUCKSHOT. DO I NEED TO DRAW YOU A PICTURE OF WHY THIS SHOULD WORK.

Blurgh. Look, the game is not entirely without joy. But they spent way too much time on those piles of bodies that look just exactly like the ones from all the old Doom games, and nowhere near enough time on the actual gameplay experience. It's disappointing.

Let's get one thing straight. The gameplay is lots of fun. Enemies actually jump around instead of charging at you, the AI is pretty good, the weapons all feel heavy, you feel and see the impact of every bullet that hits the enemy. The game looks astounding. It also has ADHD. It can't seem to focus, you have shooting, kart racing, a magic the gathering type game (seriously guys, please stop putting card games in as minigames) and minigames, so many minigames. The game has a strong (if abrupt) beginning. You're rescued and are immediately told to go kill some bandits without any explanation. That's ok though, it's what I expect from Id. The ending however, is the worst offense in building up to nothing since Halo 2. You get to that final buildup moment, and then bam, roll credits. And the game really grinds to a halt in the last few missions, I almost stopped playing right before the final mission.

It's worth a playthrough, but by no means does it deserve all the praise it's getting from official review sites. Yes, it looks good. Really good. Like best graphics I've seen on my xbox good. Some of the vistas actually made me stop and go "whoa," which is a rarity. Especially subway town, the design is just super cool. The human animations are amazing (especially faces, they finally got them right). But I couldn't shake that "I feel like I'm playing borderlands with better graphics" vibe. It also feels like they ran out of money and had to chop the last act of the game out, which is really sad.

The graphics are really top notch in this game. When I first looked up at the sky it looked like a movie and not a video game. The story is really weak though and the ending is horrible. The length of the campaign was very disappointing as well. I got tired of driving everywhere after about two hours, but when the shooting did start it was really fun. The advance wingsticks were my favorite weapon and I thought the normal enemies were tougher then the bosses in this game. The game reminds me of Borderlands a lot except you don't level up and the story is a lot shorter. Great for a rental. Graphics wise it lives up to the hype, but I didn't see anything new as far as a shooter. If they make another they need to focus more on a better story and ending and extend the campaign twofold.

awesome graphics
really fun weapons and great ammo types
very smooth action when in gun fights
great enemies

very poor story and ending
way too short of a campaign (like 12 hrs.)
if you expect Fallout you will be very disappointed
needs a lot more shooting action...after all it is a "shooter" not a "driving game"

I had a lot of fun playing the game but i felt it could have been a lot better. when i saw 3 discs i thought it was going to be an awesome time consumer but when i got through the entire game in 2 days it was heavily disappointing. Plus the multi player really wasnt that exiting. all in all still a good game dont get me wrong it was worth the time i just wish that time was longer

Bethesda should be ashamed of themselves and IDs men should be placed in front of a firing squad (WHO MAKES A GAME THAT DOESNT AUTOSAVE ANYMORE!!)

people keep saying this game is like mixing borderlands, fallout, and other games but all i see, if anything, is a mix of EVERYTHING in borderlands and an enemy design similar to bulletstorm - thats all. as a longtime fan and self proclaimed expert on fallout 1-NV i can say without a doubt that this game has NO fallout elements just a few terms here & there even the traversable areas are built to resemble borderlands

PLAYED ON HARDEST DIFFICULTY:
it opens up well - pretty to look at and it kinda makes you wonder whats gunna happen.... but that all goes down hill very fast. when you take over the character you walk out side and almost instantly attacked n saved then you get to drive and that when you learn this game has the worst driving mechanics since the first Grand Turismo. then you get to shoot people which is amazingly fun at first - they jump around, hide, the works - but by the 3rd shooting mission i already had the AIs thought process figured out and the flaws stuck out like a basketball center surrounded by midgets - enemies regularly go "hide" (half the time hiding means leaving 60% of their body exposed) right where their buddy JUST DIED and no it not just one like most shooters its pretty much all of them (in the gearhead vault i got my count to 7). melees make a mad rush at you sometime jumping around, shotgunners run up and shoot, and everyone else just kinda "hides" & either looks around or blind fires but sometimes both allowing you to easily pick them off

the paths are very A to B with side & hidden paths to feign a sense of exploration & voice overs are terrible ive seen better in old kung fu movies converted to english

it just feels like an outdated game repackaged with a pretty face nothing more in this day & age of advanced technology people demand the very best and ID couldnt deliver

The low score on this title is most due to the fact that it's the first game I've ever played (out of hundreds, dozens of FPS among those) that consistently caused motion sickness.

Rage is what Borderlands would have been had it stuck with it's original art style and dumped 99% of it's guns. It's an (technically anyway) open world shooter comprised of all the tropes apocalyptic games you've come to expect. It's made by Id (and this fact is brought to your attention by in game ads, for the company that made the game... Yeah I was confused too), which delivered a similarly shallow, yet pretty for the time, shooter in Doom. And honestly if you like Doom you'll likely love rage. It's pretty, it runs smooth, the guns feel different along with the various ammo types, and it controls great. Firefights are desperate affairs, each being an edge of the seat moment. So why a 2?

For all the surface sexyness you're getting there really isn't much going on story-wise. It's an endless series of fetch quests with no over-arching narrative at all (until roughly the last three missions). You don't interact with the world at all, you more stand there and trigger monologues. You have no say in what you do, and there is absolutely no indication of character at all for who you are. Also, when the story finally does kick in, the game ends. It's like the first matrix movie ending with Morpheus telling Neo he has to take either the blue or red pill. Fin.

Pros: Pretty, satisfying gunplay... uhhh... pretty...

Cons: Story, missions, way too much racing (it felt like I spent roughly 70% of the game in a vehicle), limited amount of weapons, wobbly sick-stomach inducing camera.

If you really want an open world apocalypse game you really are far better off playing Borderlands or Fallout 3 (or New Vegas). In Borderlands you get the great loot keeping things interesting, and in Fallout you actually have a say in the narrative... and of course it's a good one.

In short: Underwhelmin

First the positives: gorgeous graphics, lots of weapon and ammo combinations make for a fun shooter...for a bit.

Now the rest: If you're looking for a Fallout-esque open world you will be sadly disappointed. Yes, you can drive all over the place, but there's no real option to go off the beaten path. Really, you can only drive where the game designers want you too. Same deal with all the quests/missions/whatever. No thought required whatsoever. You shoot the bad guys and then proceed through the only open door or passable route. Rinse and repeat. Other smaller things that bothered me? You can't jump over ANYTHING, so there's no jumping over railings or anything else to surprise the baddies. Driving physics were silly, playable, but silly.

Honestly, the only reason I kept playing it was to see when it got good. Still waiting...

Well first off the game was very impressive graphics wise and the story was good but done before the weapons are mostly useful( loved the crossbow with mind control bolts). some ppl are putting it down cause its not as much as a shooter as they thought well it aint cod and if you are expecting that kind of gameplay you will be dissapointed but i will say mechanics wise the shooting part works well i just wish there was more of a cover mechanic or be able to blind fire like the AI does,speaking of the AI its a bit of hit and miss it can be really solid one min and then then next its walking into your remote turrent.Driving is also solid and does take some getting used to the races are pretty easy to win for upgrades and i only came in 2nd once out of 20 races.Some ppl will not like the length i thought being 3 disc it would take 40 hours or more to finish but the multiplayer is on the 3rd disc so you get a game that i did all sidequest and played on normal and finished in 12 hours i really was hoping for more . i did not play multiplayer so i have no comment on that. this game would have been amazing it it was 40 or so hours and had even a 2 player coop. its like borderlands and fallout combined just not even close to fallouts length or borderlands fun factor.its worth a rent just way too short for me to recommend as a buy but well worth a rental.

The game's beautiful graphics only comes at a distance. With this game's complete lack of roaming you will never have access to these areas. There is even very little roaming in the actual instances (you will find your self trying to walk over small debris only to run into an invisible wall).

The AI is very simplistic. The human (or Authority) fighters will take cover on an object like any typical FPS. However, they lack the ability to protect themselves because you can easily shoot their heads while they're in cover.
The whole cartwheeling, jumping, and climbing AI people are talking about are activated by triggers. They are aren't actual decisions made by the AI.

The story and missions will have you wondering, "why in the heck am I doing this?" It lacks any depth nor description and it feels like your run-of-the-mill MMORPG quest sequence. Are single player games this lazy now? When I was on the last mission of the game, I did not know! The story and characters let on that this was only the beginning. Plus, there was no boss!

Fighting bandits in cars is not even near a challenge. You'll have auto-locking rockets that will blowup them up instantly when they enter your vision. The races are incredibly easy, I hardly lost one and when I did it was a simple restart to begin the next.

Did I mention this game is very easy? I had to switch to Nightmare (the hardest difficulty) because I thought I was burning through it too quickly. However, it was still easy!

You will have this game beat within 10-12 hours. It took me 15 hours because I did half of the races and most of the side jobs.

This game is just a "rent me" and nothing more. You will have fun, but will regret spending $60 on it. Also please stand up to companies trying to show off their new game engines with their newly released games. Because, the games turn out being just tech demos like this one and unreal tournament 3.

-Thanks

This is one of the greatest games ive played the graphics are the best ive seen and the gameplay is very entertaining. it may be a little slow at first but id say once you get the second vehicle it gets awesome the missions get more challenging. The local multiplayer was a plus for me great missions for coop and races

Rage is definitely worth the 6 year wait. The graphics are really good and the gameplay is also well thought out. For the people that are giving the game bad reviews because they say it's a copy of borderlands, let me explain something to you. Id software has been developing this game for 6 years. Now if you do the math, that means they've been working on the game to make it as good as possible since 2005. Borderlands was released in 2009. So really if you think about it, borderlands copied rage. Borderlands was cartoony, repetitive after awhile, and had way too many guns that did the same thing. Don't get me wrong, borderlands is an okay game, but it pales in comparison to Rage. Rage's graphics feel realistic at times to the point where you feel like you're actually in the game yourself and the weapons are unique because you're able to upgrade them as you progress in the game. The driving parts also brings me back to my twisted metal days. The controls are responsive. You tap the e-brake and you stop instantly. It feels like i'm dodging bullets like the matrix when i'm strafing back and forth. Id software helped make first person shooters what they are today. There wouldn't be a borderlands if it wasn't for id software. Why would they need to copy an average game like that? Rage doesn't take some things from fallout, like the end of the world theme and stuff like that. But rage has objectives and points you in the right direction, where instead fallout kind of throws you in the cold with almost nothing to start with and says good luck. Only bad thing i can say about rage so far is that it takes up a great deal of harddrive space if you install it but it still has loading time. If i'm going to take up almost 20gb of space, there shouldn't be any loading time. Other than that, i'm enjoying the game.

It took 6 years to make this game, and it uses the new id Tech 5 engine, designed by the same company that makes this game. Not only is it amazing looking, it’s extremely fun to play too.

There is so much content for this game that the Xbox 360 version comes packaged with 3 discs. The textures and color qualities are absolutely amazing looking; I like how the clouds have a biblical art style to them (very large and fluffy), and how the details in the environment look crisp from a distance. This game definitely pushes the system’s capabilities to its limits, to where textures load in slowly at times, but that doesn’t mean the game sucks, lol. The controls are solid and have a nice fluid feel to them. Also the ai is incredible. You’ll definitely be mesmerized by the way the characters in the game interact with the environment around them, and they’ll give you a challenge too.

There are still some great games coming out this year, but this game may very well be my best of 2011. I give this game a 10 because no matter the amount of any flaws one might find, there’s so much good in this game that it trumps any bad.

It’s a fps/racing game that mixes survival horror, thriller, suspense, action, and adventure, and best of all it is fun to play.

"Pretty" and interesting at first... but became boring and showed no unique personallity after about 30 min of gameplay. After an hour, YAWN.... Multiplayer? Meh... Maybe this game just isn't for me, I'm sending it back so someone else can enjoy it.

Hmmm this game is good the graphics are outstanding but the story line is very bad
look past the story and just play the game

This game is awesome. Great gameplay, gunplay feels solid, cool story, lots of side missions (if that's your thing), racing, awesome graphics, and lots more to keep your attention. Honestly, can't ask for too much more.

Final Word - If you're looking for a great FPS to kill some time with, look no further. While this title is relatively short, it's sure to please with all of the varied elements you'll find here. Check it out, no doubt.

This game plays off Fallout, with the Vault Boy Bobblehead collectibles, and it has the graphics of Borderlands. The story line is amazing as are the weapons and vehicles. The little mini games such as Races are fun and get your heart racing. I highly recommend this game for gamers who like the Fallout series and the game Borderlands. Bethesda has once again amazed me.

I like this game! I shot many bad men and shot many bad cars! I drived around and shot many of them with differents gun and many type of granolades and boomerings!

You don't to punch much and make it very fun to shoots! This game has good visual graphic and I like to look at it. If it were girl I give it a 9 and kiss it. HAHAHAHA sorry for that. It's such good game I play it today and like it a lot! Too many disk though.

Everything looks great as far as the game is concerned. I didn't have any issues with loading or the game freezing but.. from the minute I turned it on I was thinking Fallout 3 so I gave it a chance. 5 minutes in I'm thinking to myself this is Borderlands. I'm not lying when I say this but 3.5 hours in I'm bored. Looks great, sounds great, but if your an older gamer you've done this a million times.

Just to throw it out there I just finished Zombie Island and I'm so sick of the go do this go grab that maybe that is why I'm bitter.

If you've played Borderlands, Rage will get boring real quick. It's not really a shooter, not really an RPG. The graphics and gameplay are smooth and top notch, but the story line is old, the action is repetitive and the game loses it's excitement after a few hours. Multiplayer is all driving battles and this left me also wanting more. Save your money and wait for Battlefield 3 or Modern Warfare 3. If you want a great RPG with shooter aspects blended in, rent or buy Fallout if you haven't already. Maybe my rating is a bit harsh, but this really is just a smoother running version of Borderlands so points are lost for lack of originality. The save feature is terrible...no auto save, you have to remember to save yourself. The weapons are boring, the storyline is rehashed from places we've seen all too many times and the action is...well...just not that fun. If games like Fallout and Borderlands never existed this might be a somewhat enjoyable experience but since they do Rage did nothing to further along the RPG/Shooter genre. Also, the last 1/3 of the game is horrible and feels rushed and unfinished.

22gb and three disc, you would think the world would be massive, not so much. The storyline took me 9 hours and made no sence to me, 80% of this game was driving since this game didnt have xp the only way to get upgrades was via winning races.

Every mission or side mission you find yourself going back to the same few places over and over to re kill what you have already killed.

For those who keep hearing or thinking this game is Borderlands breed with fallout you are going to be very wrong.

7/10.

This game is the reason im happy to have gamefly, if I would of paid 60 bucks for this I would of been upset.

FYI, this game has 2 creatures only and the're big mutants in dead city and on normal I found very easy to kill, nothing like the borderland spiders and hounds and many amazing bosses.

Happy Gaming.

If you loved Borderlands, you'll like Rage. It's a fun game but definately a step below Borderlands and could have easily been a great game. It just needs to be more open, too much if the game feels like your going through a tunnel with no options but to follow a very narrow path. Yes, you can often choose among many different missions to undertake and do them in the order you like but once you're on a mission, it's the same old follow the tunnel routine common to most shooters.

Rage is typical. It's fun, but there's nothing new or interesting that we haven't seen in all of the other future/post-apocalyptic games, and that saddens me. The graphics are nice and the action is pretty good, but over all it's just another shooter in a distopian environment full of people who hate you or that want to give you a job because you're the only one (somehow) that has the ability to shoot the ones that hate you because the ones that hire you can't. Yep, it's typical. Driving around breaks up the monotony, but the vehicles are stale and I feel more time could have been spent on them. They feel weightless and always land on upright (and that irks me). Overall, Rage is an ok game that doesn't try very hard to reach beyond what's already done.