Rage 2

RAGE 2Is uncompromising, honest and fun
Think that you are thrown into a post-apocalyptic, no-man's-land world full of sand and heat and that your only mission is to survive. Now take all of that and add the fact that you'll be armed to the teeth, with nearly infinite ammo and enemies on the loose. As simple and vague as it may seem, that's what happens in Rage 2. Far from being a masterpiece of narrative, the game by idSoftware in partnership with Avalanche Studios and published by Bethesda brings what lovers of puerile shooters love most. : shooting, beating and bombing.
Despite some technical flaws and one of the shallowest plots in a game of the genre in recent times, Rage 2 fulfills its role as a first-person shooter game well. It brings a vast amount of weapons, combat situations, vehicles, a good variation of enemies and a very interesting challenge.
Like in a 90's movie
From the short description above, those who lived their childhood in the 1990s will certainly be able to perceive similarities with a film from that time — and apparently that's exactly what idSoftware and Avalanche Studios wanted. Of course, it's nothing new, since the first game in the franchise, Rage, from 2011, had precisely this proposal. In that case, repeating the formula would be natural.
As the "ranger" Walker, you are responsible for getting Project Dagger off the ground. This plan was devised by three great leaders of the Wasteland, the world in which the game takes place and which we navigate throughout the gameplay, to defeat General Cross, leader and creator of the Authority, a criminal sect that is causing the biggest mess.
As mentioned above, the narrative is very shallow. Cross is not a charismatic villain and his motivation doesn't seem very clear. Evidently, Walker and everyone who wants to defeat him have more concrete reasons for doing so, whether they are revenge or simply to prevent complete domination of the Wasteland. But, to be quite honest, when you start playing Rage 2, what matters least is the plot, just like a 90's movie. The campaign has just over 10 hours, if you choose to be straight in your game line. But with Rage 2's (not that big) open world, doing side quests can bring you more weapons, upgrades, and the like.
Carrying out the missions of the three commanders of Project Dagger is not only part of a mere progression of the game, but also entitles you to upgrades to the ranger's arsenal (I'll talk about that below) and also unlocks going to the final confrontation. At this point, by the way, is that Rage 2 differs from open world shooters like Far Cry 5. You can't advance to the main missions simply by navigating the map, the player being forced to follow a sequence of facts.
Shooting game as it should be
It's in the gameplay that Rage 2 definitely shines. Few shooting games were as honest and fun as he was in this generation. There is an interesting range of weapons and abilities you can collect with Walker, always located in areas called Arks. In them, the player can expand their arsenal and improve their ranger armor. Whenever something is collected, a brief tutorial is presented, introducing the player into situations where that weapon or skill can be used. Weapons like shotguns, assault rifles and even rocket launchers are available. As for the skills, called Nanotrites, Rage 2 drinks a little from the source of Halo and Titanfall, providing the player with mastery of special moves with the use of armor.
Looking at the map, we see that there are many points to be explored. As simple as this open world may seem, its liveliness, even in a post-apocalyptic setting, doesn't make things dull. There's always something to do, like killing scattered gangs of henchmen, destroying convoys (groups of henchmen with vehicles), and raiding bandit lairs in search of ammo and weapon upgrade points.
The only part, though, where the storyline becomes essential is for improving Walker's abilities, as you need to unlock certain levels in specific quests given by the Dagger Project leaders to evolve your equipment. Each leader is responsible for a skill type. For example: by advancing in John Marshall's missions, you become able to improve everything related to the attack.
Knowing this, you need to do just one thing: sit your finger down and shoot everyone. There's no need to be stealthy in Rage 2. Part of being careful on raids in shooter games is saving ammo and managing it, something that doesn't have to be done here. The amount of bullets available either in the lairs or in the stores present in the cities is something that makes the game very fun and uncompromising. Not even health worries, because you can, in addition to acquiring the health infusers, collect feltrite capsules (a kind of life serum) by killing the henchmen and mutants that appear.
Of course, the maintenance of this entire arsenal can come crashing down when some sub-bosses appear. But this is not something to worry about, but it does bring a certain challenge, especially when the quest itself has a higher difficulty. The level of enemies, by the way, is shown by dragging the cursor over locations on the map.
Another interesting point of the game is locomotion. There is a good range of vehicles that you can earn or just pick up in the game world. To "validate" this theft, just go to one of the main cities in Ermo and register the tank, car or motorcycle you took. These vehicles, by the way, are important for some missions, not just for locomotion. There's the possibility of fast travel in Rage 2, but save that for last.
Performance over graphics
The choice of idSoftware and Avalanche Studios to privilege Rage 2's performance over beauty is very clear from the first few minutes of gameplay. Not that the game is ugly, but it is below the standard of the main shooters on the market. We played it on the PC version (obviously) on the XOne X version, it crashes at 1080p and clean 60fps, just like on the PS4 Pro. In traditional console versions, the game maintains the resolution, but runs at 30 fps. We can see that, in terms of graphics, the Xbox One X version is slightly better than the others, with slightly better colors. But were it not for this comparison, it would be almost impossible to detect. And needless to say, this version (PC) is superior!
More honest, impossible
The experience with Rage 2 was one of the most enjoyable in a first-person shooter this generation. If I could make a mix of Doom, Far Cry and Mad Max, we would certainly find the base formula for this game.
Despite technical flaws and a very shallow plot, Rage 2 fulfills what it promises from the beginning: to bring a pure shooter, without crying, extremely objective and fun. Worth every penny!

Ignore my playtime, i originally got the collectors edition for this game so i was on the Bethesda launcher and got integrated once it went offline.
I never understood why people disliked this game, the gameplay is really solid as should be expected from a partial ID game, and the open world is fun to roam around in.
The story is nothing special at all, but that's just there to move the gameplay forward.
If nothing else i would recommend picking this up during a sale if you are unsure about it, especially now that the winter sale is just around the corner, give it a shot you might like the game.

Play it for the gameplay, everything else is bullshit that gets in the way. This game would have been way better if it was an arena shooter or roguelike where you earn upgrades and new powers from some sort of permanent progression currency. Rather than the open world boredom that it is. No point wasting words on explaining the rest of the game, everything from story to world is very forgettable, Just play it if you want more gameplay similar to modern Doom with it's own spin on weapons and powers.

Pretty fun open world old school-ish shooter and sequel to Rage. Not a perfect game for sure but still deserves way better reviews than it got.
The good:
-the gunplay is so good, also with all the different abilities
-progression is very satisfying with like 10 weapons to find, a bunch of abilities and so many upgrades and skills. You are constantly getting stronger. But thankfully it's not an RPG or a loot shooter.
-finding and driving the different vehicles is fun
-enough content
-5 different difficulties, easy being you are basically a god while ultra nightmare is super unfair, see below in bad
-new game plus and perma death mode which isn't my cup of tea but I guess it's nice that it's an option
The bad:
-performance can be a problem at times sadly
-open world activities could make you believe it's an Ubisoft game
-ultra nightmare difficulty is unfair af. I did this in a new game plus while having EVERYTHING upgraded and I still struggled. First of all pretty much every enemy on this difficulty is a bullet sponge and kill you in a blink of an eye, most deaths feel cheap. Especially I found that if you knock down human enemies and they keep shooting while lying on the ground, you basically instantly die, even on max health with all upgrades which almost feels like a bug because other stuff can't kill you that fast.
-dlc politics of the game: The biggest bundle of the game you can buy on the steam store page is the deluxe edition which makes you believe this contains all dlc's especially since you don't see any dlc on the store page. Well, you thought wrong. You can also buy Coins on the store page which you can use to buy skins but you also need those to buy a mission which was a pre-order bonus if you want it which would be 5$ which isn't worth it at all, also because the weapon you get with it sucks. And then there is another dlc which you have to buy with coins, also 5$ which isn't great either but you need it for 100% achievements. If you don't care about achievements, only buy deluxe edition as this dlc is good, but the others not so much and this whole dlc system the game has just sucks

With my hours the true contents of this game is starting to show and it is a mixed bag.
Starting with the Cons:
- After a deeper look it seems there is a major chance you cant finish the game due to main quest bug, assuming you can get the game to start at all so if you do put money down this game better run good for you right from the start or refund it. Game has run nicely for me with a Nvidia card and Ryzen CPU but quite many are not so lucky. No crashes whatsoever for me.. Also price: I would not pay full price for this so consider getting it on sale.
- Bugs, glitches, constant pointless combat in the wilderness that only exists only as something to shoot at / drive over meant for the player. Open world has potential but is an untapped promise. Nice views though.
- It is evident to me the biggest issue this game has is that Borderlands beats it in so many areas as a starter. Seems to me there has not been any kind of leadership in the game that is responsible for ensuring the look & feel of the game is consistent, instead you get a feeling development has been this 'Check out this cool trick!' -kind of going for wow stuff and it shows as there are quite many times you need to suspend your disbelief when you are presented yet again with something so utterly weird you have to wonder if they could have presented these things differently or just skipped it. As for interactions In reality there is a lot of NPCs and events that rival Borderlands but since marketing dept is mostly just showing that stupid RAAAAGE face everywhere and trailers are just a mess... well people think this game is dumber than it actually is. But i suppose marketing just gave up and plasterd that Goon face everywhere like Borderlands does with the mask guy and hoped for the best. Nope, did not work at all. The Goon gang is a total nobody compared to the baddies in Borderlands and they didnt spend too much time on those either.
Pro:
- Surprisingly good gunplay, Takes a lot from current gen Doom and that is a plus. Also Aggressive gameplay is sometimes the only proper way forward so at least part of that RAAAGE thingie is warranted. (Although for some the real rage may or may not come outside the game on technical issues)
- Things to do, events that surprise you. Always something going on. Logs fill up with stuff to do.
- Not a looter shooter, I am DONE with borderlands style looter shooters with their gun collecting. You collect stuff here as well but the stuff you collect is much smaller in quantity and has less flashy effects yet i think the skill trees etc. are better than in Borderlands and i find the system here much more motivating than Borderlands skill trees + gun comparison. I like the nanotrite effects you need for combat. All in all the collecting stuff is good enough to warrant some effort. Although i find it painful that someone decided to hide all the loot containers, a pain that will follow along until you get a skill that will ease that part.
So to sum it up: Pick a good enough price point for you and get it on sales. Setup the game at once and ensure it runs properly or refund it. Chances are relatively big this wont run properly for you. If it does run then extract as much fun as you can get and there is a surprisingly lot of that and be happy with Ubi-like open world 'mess around sim'. This game is like Rage 1, a 'grandiose but incomplete vision' and now a derelict but with a 39.99€ price tag. I got mine from mystery bundle so expectations were a round ZERO but there is content here worth paying to my great delight. With caveats of course.

Although I have played the game for more than 20 hours, I cannot complete it because the last mission is bugged. Project dagger doesn't show in map and even if going to the place manually does nothing. After all these years a major bug such as this still hasn't been fixed. Shame on Bethesda.
Edit: Finished the game by replaying the second last save before starting the dagger project. For anyone reading this then do the final mission immediately after completing the second last one otherwise it would bug out.

Mindless Fun
What I liked about the game

The game play is absolutely amazing, especially when you get all the weapons and abilities. I like that you have to find the weapons and abilities. The vehicle combat is also very good; it reminds me of Avalanche’s previous game Mad Max, but with mounted guns on
the vehicles.
The weapons look awesome and feel punchy; I especially liked the shotgun and the pulse cannon.
A nice selection of awesome looking vehicles. The phoenix which is your main vehicle handles very well and is fun to use when dealing with enemy convoys.
The game has some good side activities to help grind XP, like destroying convoys, killing big monsters, destroying nests, taking over bandit camps, racing, the MBTV arena, and etc.
Avalanche has done a brilliant job designing and making the post-apocalypse open-world playground of Rage 2. There are loads of interesting places to discover throughout the game.
Loads of blood and gore.
So many things to upgrade.
Likeable characters like Lilly and Marshall.
What I disliked or was disappointed with

I wish there was more main missions and side missions, especially with such a big open world game. I wasn’t really keen on the bounty missions, because they felt really repetitive.
The story felt a bit rushed. I wasn’t keen on the ending as well.
I wish they did more with the characters, like Lilly and Hagar.
Shame you can’t upgrade the other vehicles.
The game has the same problem as Mad Max, because throughout Rage 2 you are basically doing the same things over and over again, like taking over bandit camps, killing mini bosses, destroying convoy’s and etc. You have to do a bit of grinding to unlock the very few main missions the game has to offer.
I wish they did more with the races and the MBTV arena. There is only one racetrack operational, the other race track in the wilds never gets used. The MBTV arena could have been more rewarding, instead of just skins.
What happened to the mini-games from the previous game?
The game needed some radio stations pumping out some rock music, especially when have do a lot of driving.
Bikes don’t handle very well.
Conclusion
Rage 2 has the same problem as Mad Max, because basically the game gets too repetitive too quickly. Avalanche create these fantastic looking open-worlds, but the problem is, they don’t know how to keep the player entertained from beginning to end. Rage 2 has very few main quests and side quests, which is disappointing for a game with such a big open-world. One of the saving graces of Rage 2 is the combat which is just outstanding, but even that doesn’t stop the gaming becoming a bit boring. The vehicle combat is also very enjoyable. Compared to Mad Max, borderlands and even the first Rage I would say that Rage 2 is the weakest. I would recommend picking this game up on a heavy discount.
7/10