2019 is a very good year for the first-person shooter fans we’ve already enjoyed Metro Exodus, Bethesda now released the RAGE 2 and the Wolfenstein: Youngblood is coming up next!
In front of all that catalogue of games for fans of fps, we finally get our hands-on with Rage 2, an unexpected continuation of a title from id Software, over the years it has become a cult shooter.
id Software has decided to develop it with the help from Avalanche Studios to offer us a more free, crazy and fun experienced sequel that hits well on the playable level on the shooter/action side but, in everything else, does not stand out. Especially, in a year with so many competitors, it takes more than just action and shooting to stand out.
Greetings, ranger
Something you will realize immediately after starting the game in Rage 2 is that the game makes the same mistake that, Metro Exodus committed in its initial minutes, telling us a story in a somewhat hasty way to justify, quickly, our exit to the outside and to explore with total freedom the post-apocalyptic world of Rage.
We are Walker, and, after the attack of the Authority (the opposing group of the game) to our city, we are the only Ranger alive, having to contact old allies to start the Dagger project and finish, once and for all, with the greatest threat that we have ever faced.
Once we have licked our wounds after this attack in which we lost a number of friends and family , we will get on our vehicle and start the adventure, being able to go to three different points, in the order that we want , to contact those old allies, perform missions and begin to collect resources to meet our ultimate goal, kill General Cross, leader of The Authority.
A world opens alive and well built … although feels repetitive
As soon as we left Vineland, our abode before the Authority attack, we began to feel that open world of Rage 2 that is very alive and well constructed on an artistic and playable level with a lot of enemies, facilities to explore, places to claim, patrols to avoid …
To travel the world we can walk or use any of the vehicles we find during our adventures as well as having an initial special car called Fénix and Icarus, a helicopter that we can find in a certain location that will allow us To greatly speed up each and every one of our trips.
Something improvable, on the other hand, is the driving mechanics of these vehicles, which, at least with keyboard and mouse, seem a bit clumsy both when braking or turning and when we want to use some of the weapons that will be equipped in the same.
In addition to this somewhat clumsy driving, the biggest problem of this world open to our eyes is that most of the things we do that we find are quite similar to each other, very little changing the ultimate goal that will be, mostly, kill all the enemies to later perform an X or Y action. To this, we must add some fun events such as car races or performances for the MBT program that will face us with extra violence and shooting events.
The funniest shots to date
Although the open world has its clear and dark what is undoubted is that, as far as shooting mechanics are concerned, Rage 2 is a real marvel at the playable level both for the smooth and precise control of the aim and for its different weapons that they will allow us to destroy our enemies in a most varied way.
We liked it a lot and that we have also seen in other games is a substance that enemies leave when they die and that allows us to recover part of our life. This substance also evaporates a few seconds after each death, which will encourage us to move around the stage to collect it and recover our life, avoiding that we have to use medicine cabinets except at very critical times.
Another interesting point is Overload, a skill that will be charged as we kill enemies and that, by activating it will allow us to power wildly the power of our weapons and recover part of our character’s life.
On the other side of the scale, we find the mechanics of the special enemies that we will face throughout the game, which are too similar to each other and, at least in our opinion, seem somewhat repetitive. The development team could have done a little more to offer us more diverse final bosses with different playable mechanics.
Powers, collectibles and progression of Walker
For the end of the capital sections at a playable level we wanted to leave all the powers that Walker will have to face his adventure, which we must unblock finding a few treasures scattered around the world that will give us access to new weapons or skills special motivating, in passing, the exploration of the entire map.
Another aspect to highlight is the progression that we can make with our character, improving weapons, skills, characteristics or vehicles in need of different materials or collectibles that we can find, once again, touring their crazy world, in addition, to entrusting to our allies certain projects that they will also allow us to improve some Walker features.
A simple campaign that will not go down in history
Rage 2 offers us a simple campaign of just over 10 hours that, of course, will not offer us a story too interesting and not very well posed, focusing on offering us the greatest possible playable fun.
The execution of the same, as far as missions are concerned, is also very simple and, at a certain point, forces us to complete different secondary missions to gain reputation with our new allies to continue with the main story. It is a way to artificially add hours of play that lately is becoming fashionable in games of this style and that, at least to us, we do not like anything and we spoil the whole experience.
What we liked most is the many winks at both the first Rage and the pop culture of the 80s and 90s with some very hilarious moments that transport us to the past and that, without a doubt, will please the most veteran gamers.
In addition, Bethesda, to add more wood to the game, will add new free content during the coming weeks to offer us even more things to do and, soon, DLC will also arrive for payment to offer us new adventures. You can find more information about it here.
Graphics and Audio
Turning to the technical aspect, Rage 2 has been smooth at all times, being able to move without difficulty to more than 60 frames per second in all kinds of situations, regardless of the number of enemies, effects, explosions or everything that happened on the screen.
On an artistic level, the world is colourful and full of details that fit very well through our eyes and the work at the sound level has also been executed impeccably in the weapons sounds, motors, etc. as in the soundtrack as well.
Final Thoughts
Rage 2 is a rampant action game that gives us a lot of fun in shooting mechanics, a lot of winks to previous idSoftware titles and the culture of the 80s and a well-designed open world with a content that could be more varied.
If you like the genre, the new release of Rage will leave a good taste in your mouth, but for different aspects such as some missions or mechanical somewhat repetitive and feels like a step below another resurgence of classic titles of id Software as the reboot of Doom or the new Wolfenstein.
Even so, we believe that it is a game that all lovers of the genre will enjoy and, probably, also to all those who like open-world games with many collectibles to recover or strengths to explore.
We have prepared this review on a PS4 Pro version of the title with a code provided by Bethesda.