Back in 2010 the world got their first taste of Rage. Fast-forward 9 years and Rage 2 has arrived! With mixed reviews from the original launch, how does Rage 2 stand up? I hopped into Rage 2 on the PS4 to find out, here’s what I found!
Those familiar with the series know the story revolves around a giant meteor wiping out civilization as we know it. The main antagonist of the game, the Authority, is back to plague us again with mediocrity. The main story quests are dull and not too exciting, but at the very least you know what’s going to happen. Unlike the first game, it doesn’t simply drop off the planet on you, so there is that. Note that not only do I think the story is boring and rather lacking, it is also very short. I totaled 13 hours of play time to beat just the main story campaign.
While I’m critical about the story, the game itself is rather fun. You get brought back into the world of Rage with all new systems at hand to play with. You see familiar faces, and weapons such as the Wingstick, plus new mechanics such as the vehicle combat! They took Rage and turned it into an open world Mad Max-esque playground. With a vibrant world and a combat system that leaves you fulfilled, it’s hard to put the game down.
It’s no walk in the park, however, to say that the game is near perfect, it’s not. There are many things missing that could the game so much better than it is. One key point is the utter darkness of the game. I’ve found the game almost unplayable in parts due to the pitch-black darkness I was given. What’s worse, there is no brightness slider to adjust brightness, and no flashlight to aid you. Other failings of the game would be weapon choice. In the original game we had nineteen weapons to chose from. Currently, we have a total of eight, nine if you bought the Digital Deluxe edition for the BFG 9000, plus your Wingstick, HE grenade, and Turret Drone. That’s a far cry from the nineteen from the original. But alas, that’s where DLC comes into play!
The world is beautiful and full of life. You will always see vehicles rolling past you, bandits fighting each other, and towns with plenty of NPC life to go around. There’s also an absolute ton of side missions for you to take part in. Whether you find them by chance, or pick up a bounty from a nearby town, there’s always something for you to do. This is where the game truly shines, an absolute sandbox of carnage, mad max-esque fun!
The difficulty could be adjusted some. While I played on normal for review purposes, bosses were generally extremely too easy. Much of the time you can bypass mechanics by simply out-damaging it. Most bosses have an electronic looking board on their chest, you shoot it to weaken the boss to pop out other electronic looking probes that you kill off. Once you destroy those probes, the bosses head armor vanishes, and you can simply nuke it down with whatever weapon you have, which usually takes seconds. You can literally destroy the chest piece so quickly that the boss has no time to react, thus making him stand there and watch as you kill him without resistance.
Vehicle combat has never been my forte. I’ve never been big into driving cars around in games, let alone vehicular combat. I’ve got to say, though, that I was rather surprised at Rage 2’s take on vehicle combat. It wasn’t difficult, and it was rather enjoyable. Couple that with the ability to go out and hunt for vehicles to add to your garage and customize, it’s just that much better. It’s one option that takes the game to a new level to distract you from the subpar storyline you’re given.
As I am playing this on a regular PS4, not a PRO, performance should be noted as being great. I can honestly say I have had no issues with framerate whatsoever through my time in Rage 2. That can’t be said, however, for the menus. For whatever reason the menu system lags horribly. Going from Map, the Missions, or Weapons makes the game lag to the point I thought the system would crash. Luckily for PC players, this doesn’t happen. Which makes me believe this should be an easy fix for the PS4 version.
