It’s taken me a while to finish Rage 2, the first-person shooter from Bethesda’s id Software division. The game came out on the consoles and the Windows PC on May 14, but I had to deal with a lot of other duties in the meantime, including attending last week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).
Tim Willits, the studio head at id Software, told me a year ago that Rage 2 was one example of the “golden age of id,” or a series of games that would show the world that it is still the king of first-person shooter games.
I’ve included a video of my final battle with General Cross, the bad guy, and his pet monster. As you might discern in the video, the guns of Rage 2 are quite satisfying. The characters could be better, and the over-the-top crazy colors could be toned down a bit for my taste.
The game can be difficult at times, and I had to fight the ending scene multiple times. (I advise you to go into it with a bunch of health, health-crafting materials, and a lot of ammo). I had trouble remembering all of the different “nanotrite” superpowers that I had, but I tried to level them up as best as I could.
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The story isn’t much, but I like the fact that Walker actually talks with people, striking up conversations for much of the game. Unfortunately, the script isn’t all that great. There isn’t much of a plot, except that you have to take back the wastelands from the Authority and fulfill the wishes of three regional leaders in order to take on General Cross in the final battle with the Authority.
If there’s a flaw, the combat can get pretty repetitive, and the desert battles remind me a lot of titles like Mad Max. However, the campaign isn’t terribly long, and you don’t have to run pointless tasks around the wasteland like you did in Mad Max before you can get to the end.
With the general, I had to remember all of the skills that I accumulated in the course of the game. Of course, this ending seems to do little more than set you up for a cliffhanger follow-up game. AndI would be OK with that. If I were reviewing this formally, I would say it should get an 80 out of 100.
The game is out on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. Bethesda gave me a digital PC code for the purposes of this story.
