Why You Should be Excited for RAGE 2
RAGE 2 has officially been announced by Bethesda this morning, and gameplay is going to be revealed tomorrow. As someone who played, and mostly enjoyed, the original game, I was very excited to see a sequel for it, even after all these years. But, RAGE is not a game that had any real impact on the gaming landscape when it dropped in 2011. Due to its problematic launch on PC, it’s lack of compelling multiplayer, it’s abrupt ending, and its shallow open world and gameplay loop, it was quickly forgotten.
So, upon the announcement of a sequel, I’ve been met with many indifferent feelings and baffled reactions. Why would Bethesda greenlight the sequel to such a random franchise? Well, that is something I can’t answer today, and it may be answered once we see gameplay. But I can tell you all why it is not only ok to be excited for this new game, but why you SHOULD be.
If you look back at the first game, you’ll initially notice the game’s best aspect: the beautiful animations. Sure, friendly characters and quest givers would animate with a district bounce and liveliness most often found in Pixar films, but what impressed even more was the enemy animations. Shooting in RAGE was so satisfying because of how dynamic the enemies animations were; they would reaction to getting show and traverse the environment in a way that was legitimately impressive in 2011. Sure, there may have only been 2, maybe 3, main enemy types, but how they held onto their arm when you pierced it or flung their head back when getting impaled by a Wingstick was endlessly entertaining to see. Those animations alone were the primary aspect that made shooting so satisfying. If they carry those animations through to the sequel, and update and add to them accordingly, they still have the potential to impress again.
Now, as for the rest of the game, it’s next strongest elements are definitely flawed. The car combat was underdeveloped, and didn’t remain engaging for long, even though it comprised the entirety of the PvP multiplayer. The vehicles largely existed to traverse the “open world”, but it was completely barren without the presence of other cars to destroy. Since nearly all of the storytelling took place in hub towns and nearly all of the gunplay took place in underground or indoor corridors, the presence of an open environment that seemed only to exist for the sake of car combat just felt unnecessary.
There wasn’t much in the way of player progression. But the end of the game, the only aspects that your player could improve were armor sets that gave stat boosts, and some minor weapon upgrades. Every other gameplay aspect was disposable or, more accurately, consumable. You could craft items like bandages, turrets, and the aforementioned Wingsticks, but all these items are meant to be used in combat and don’t give any long-term enhancements to your character.
The story was forgettable, and the ending was laughably abrupt. The graphics were gorgeous and beautiful, but textures were noticeably low res once you looked close enough and even had trouble loading in time in some instances. and the cooperative missions were fun, but there just wasn’t enough of them.
So, with all these flaws, why have any faith in id Software to try this idea again? Well, think of it like this:
RAGE was the first game that id created for the last generation of consoles. With the promise of powerful hardware on the first set of HD consoles came exceedingly high ambition. Their “mega texture” technology, which meant that one giant texture would cover the entire game world rather than duplicating multiple textures to cover the play space, was a big risk that ultimately delayed the game’s release. RAGE had a troubled, 5-year, development due largely to trying to fit these mega textures onto the PS3 and 360. This is what likely lead to the shallow player progression, car combat, and the barren open world. It seems they simply ran out of time to do everything they wanted.
So, let’s compare RAGE to another last generation game that didn’t quite reach its full potential on its first go: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Uncharted is far from a bad game, but it does have flaws that make the game inferior when compared to its peers. It was Naughty Dogs first game on the, then, next generation of consoles. It was also their first time making a game in such a grounded universe, which meant they had to scale back their more cartoony tendencies. The game completely lacked any multiplayer of any sort, so besides replaying the game for trophies and unlockable, there was no reason to play it after beating it’s 8 hour campaign. But, as we all know, Naughty Dog took all the criticisms of the pacing, gameplay, and longevity of Uncharted 1 and came back with the classic known as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Now, think about what id has been up to since RAGE was released. Sure, they might have heavily scaled back the planned DLC for RAGE, but they soon began development on DOOM 4, which eventually lead to the release of the amazing DOOM (2016). Their struggles with mega textures were largely alleviated with the added power of the PS4 and Xbox 1. The gameplay had a clear direction, since the original DOOM was the framework for it. Player progression was on point, as there were numerous collectables that upgraded weapons, health, and armor. And the multiplayer, while initially discarded as a soulless addition to a stellar campaign, was eventually considered to be a fun and rewarding diversion after numerous updates.
So, now that id Software has proven they can make a great shooter once again, I fully have faith that they can deliver on the great concepts and ideas that were in the original RAGE. Like Naughty Dog, they have learned from their previous attempt in the franchise. But, unlike Naughty Dog, they have also had an entire other game in between to master their game making tools before returning to RAGE. And even if you don’t think id can make a great game on their own, RAGE 2 is being co-developed in collaboration with Avalanche studios, the developer behind the fantastic Just Cause series and the underrated Mad Max. They’ve shown time and time again that they can make solid games, even if they aren’t always Game of the Year caliber.
It is all these aspects that have me not only excited for another visit to the wasteland of RAGE, but also confident that it will be a solid shooter. So, if the excitement shared by the few of us on the internet who know what’s up confuses you, then hopefully by now you either understand our excitement, or you are on board as well.
