I mainly just wanted to get my opinions off on rage. My opinions are my own and many we'll probably be different form yours, if you have a problem with it, well welcome to the internet.

I wasn't sure what I was getting, a shooter, an open world sandbox?,

I got Rage for a bargain price of 6$ from a friend and didn't know what to really expect since I haven't followed any information on it. All I knew about it was that it was a post apocalypse type setting(didn't know there was a sci-fi element to it). I heard that its produced by Bethseda, and developed by ID


The Feel: Theme, setting, overall look.

If there ever was a game to give off a Madmax kind of feel I think this would be the closest to it. With the vehicle combat and desert off road battles it feels pretty damn apocalyptic to me, as discerned by Mel Gibson.

The Sci-fi avenue was alright but it made me think to much of the Fallout series started by Black Isle Studios. The similarities between the vault and arc projects seemed eerily the same. your character arrives unprepared to a apocalyptic world after coming out of some high tech "stasis" like area full of high tech gadgetry and is now left plopped in the wasteland. Again the beginning reminds me to much of emerging from a vault in Fallout.

The games characters and weapons have a very cartoonish feel to them, the special ammo and weapons like the wonky crossbow and deployable turrets always seemed to unreal to me. I'm a guy that enjoys some semi-realism and this kind of stuff that comes out of the ass weaponry always pulls me a way. The Wellsprings mayor and sheriff is just to western for my liking. And that scientist(Zishar?). You think we might here a blend of dubstep sci-fi music with a little good time wasteland music. But it all seems to be western.

The graphics are wonderful, I'm one that appreciates gameplay and story over graphics. But graphics do help enhance the art design and feel of the world your playing in. And in this they do very darn well.

The Play: quests, combat, and whatever else

I tried hard to separate this games merit form other games and judge it independently. But its difficult to not judge it with Fallout which I'm sure many are loathing at these types of comparisons by now. I apologize, but here I go.

Since this is a shooter and its the meat of the game, will start with combat.

Guns do not feel weighty enough imo, I should feel an oomph when I shoot that shotgun, and that shotgun should put some oomph on the enemy. I find it annoying to see my buck shot act like its bird shot. When I shoot a human or one of the smaller mutants it should stay down. I think it should make shotgun ammo more costly but ferocious in medium-short to short engagements.

I was disappointed with the small gun/bow selection. It seems they relied to much on letting the ammo selection balance this out. Without DLC you get one shotgun, one pistol, one launcher, one crossbow, 2 automatic weapons, one rifle, etc. Pretty much only one gun for each class of weapon type. Ammo types tried to turn your one pistol from a small shooter to a big six shooter, your shotgun to a mini rocket launcher(Which is always fun), etc. I felt for a shooter we should have had a big selection of weapons compared to a big RPG game like fallout where combat is not supposed to be the main part of the game yet it has dozens of guns to choose from.

Driving, racing, and vehicle combat is what I really like about this game. I'm a little perplex with every car having its own mini-gun and rocket guidance system but overall I like blowing up bandit cars. And I've never been much of a racing kind of guy but I overall enjoyed the racing experience. I like that your mini guns run out and you have to stock up on them before a race or a stroll through the wasteland gives a good feel of having to take care of yourself even though its a bit of micro management sometimes. I wish there were more open world tracks and areas to do a bit more demolition derby and the like. There should be more ways to tune up your vehicle, I found the selection disappointing as much as the weaponry selection. Maybe add some different suspensions, engines, and wheel variants? some for all purpose road while others for more smooth track? Some nice amphibious options as well? Overall I like it but needs more options.

Crafting was ok but as always needs more versatility. I found it rediculous that certain doors cannot be knockdown with a rocket launcher or you can't attempt to open them. Give an actual reason for not being opening them besides, giving the warning sign saying "Hey you can't go in there!" You have to create grinderlocks to get into soem when the door its resting on looks like its made of thin plywood made a 106 years ago. I don't know why it just makes me facepalm. I've never been a fan of creating sentry bots and turrets, gets a little to high tech for everyone to know how to make these and again makes me feel in a cartoon.(I knows its apart of their design but I never cared to much for this kind of theme) I think objects for crafting need to be found throughout the area more often, more plants to find and more junk to craft with.

The side quests and the like are basically re-exploring areas in the main quest for someone or something. New doors open and old ones close.(literally) I fine with having to revisit old areas but not when its the whole darn game. I mean we have to go through the same little areas of the dead city later on in the main quest. (I'm not sure if its ingenuity or laziness that promotes the use of reusing the same areas over and over. But when you go through them you go in the back way or some other entry or exit so it feels different, even though its the same.

Exploring, I found it to be very limiting to such an open like game, most of the open world is reserved for highway man antics than it is for actual exploring. Many a times I wish we could go a bit off road and explore the many canyons and caves that could beehive this world. More exploring please? also I stated the whole revisiting old areas, it doesn't really help imo.


Story:

Shooters do not usually possess great and memorable story lines, and this one as well. It felt very black and white and drawn out.

A Resistance(cleverly named) is the only beacon of light in this wasted world against the technologically superior Authority who are seen as some kind of evil menace against everyone due to their fascination with experimenting with mutants. I think the developers wanted to give off a facist kind of feel to them but besides the capture and take people hostage we don't see a lot of this. When I see a villain I think i'm supposed to hate them or try to see if their misunderstood but I couldn't really feel anything for the authority or resistance. Then it goes into this whole charade of finding the arcs which reminds me to much of Fallout. The ending is lackluster and opens for a sequel. But overall didnt care to much for it or connect with any of the characters.

Leftovers: Things I liked or disliked that weren't really covered

Card game: Usually when a game makes up its own game it usually svcks, but I actually enjoyed playing this one. If they added more cards that would be great.

Map: There is no map.....and if there is I can't find it. Also the compass is to bulky and takes up a bit of the screen.

Overall I enjoyed the game, but it still left a lot of room for improvement.

Please remember this is just my opinion on the game.

Aren't reviews supposed to be Unbiased?

I think you've hit the nail on the head with a lot of points there. While I'd disagree on some specifics, you seem reasonably spot-on with a lot of your anolysis of the games strengths and weaknesses, IMO. For my part I'm prepared to live with many of the weaknesses because I find the game so much goddam fun to play, but that doesn't mean that they're not there and sometimes it's frustrating when they jump in your face - frustrating because they break the fun and frustrating because they give a hint of how things could have been so much better.

In a world where everything seems to have to be awesome or else it svcks, Rage does tend to fall in the middle. It's not awesome but that doesn't mean that it svcks either. I'd personally peg it as a better than average game that is enormous fun but never taxes you too much. Yes, there is room for improvement, and yes, it's quite obvious what some of the things that need improving are, but that's not the same as "it svcks".

Impossible for a review to be completely unbiased I think; it's good to see one that (a) admits it's biased up-front, and (b) admits what those biases are.

You should a out score in to out of 10. Base it off your review.

I feel if your going to review something be honest about your taste in games and admit what in your opinion you don't like. Some people will of course like the feel and certain specifics. But doesn't mean other people will really enjoy it for those reasons.

Overall I enjoy the game but yes it needs some improvements.

(For the posters requesting a numbered review)I'm not a big fan of numbered reviews but I would give it a 67% out of 100%.

Thanks for the feedback and the review of my review.

There's 3 very distinct parts to RAGE, the singleplayer, the vehicular online multiplayer, the old school legends of the wasteland (SP and MP). It'd be interesting when getting peoples reviews if we could get some on the latter two as well, as they tend to be completely overlooked.

Nice read though,

Hey cool, a review that doesn't say: "This game svcks, it is just like _____ and _____ mixed, and it's inferior to them."

You make valid points there, sir.
Like everyone, I agree on some things, disagree on others, as is natural for humans.

obviously you have never played other ID games. they always have a lack of weapons they don't give much. i got the anarchy edition for christmas at gamestop so that was a possibility for you.

No. Reviews are by definition a personal evaluation of something. An 'unbiased review' would contain no information other than factual game data and thus not evaluate anything at all.