Platform: PC, PS2

Genre: Action

Publisher: TBA

Developer: Akella

ETA: 2004

Related Links:

Review: Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)

Review: Enter the Matrix (PS2)

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Axle Rage

With all of the games out there that take place in a post apocalyptic world, there are entirely too few that include roving motorcycle gangs in any way.  Sure there are mutants, despotic former generals who rule their territories like kings, and spiky haired berserker toughs with equally spiky armor, but seeing well-armed, highly mobile street gangs cruising on their iron horses is entirely too uncommon in gaming.  It would appear that the folks at Akella agree as they are working to remedy the situation with Axle Rage a thoroughly biker-gang-oriented game set in a post apocalyptic world for the Playstation 2 and PC.

The title is a combination of riding bikes and hand-to-hand combat, trying to be the love child of the Road Rash and Streets of Rage series.  Set in the crumbling megalopolis of  Nailsdale, the game’s hero and namesake, Axle Rage, works as a freelance biker in a town where gangs rule the roost and two equally unsavory powers are vying for control, all the while the local population is hooked on “sham”, Nailsdale's narcotic of choice, to bring them some sort of temporary escape from the chaos in the city.

With dingy, decaying city streets and crumbling buildings players will wander through environments trying to give the sense of a city that has nothing to hope for, with tall, tattered skyscrapers mocking them with the success and growth they once symbolized.  The colors for Nailsdale are an appropriate mix of gray and brown, a sharp contrast to the colors on some of the characters in the game with their bright colored leather riding jackets like one might expect someone to wear right after buying their first superbike.

Players should also have quite a bit to explore as they traverse Axle Rage, as the game’s city is planned to be quite sprawling with more zones opening up as time passes.  All the while, gamers will be switching between riding their bike, weapons at the ready, but also having moments where they’ll be hoofing it so to give their enemies a complementary knuckle sandwich in a more intimate setting.

Features:

- Vast game universe: fully interactive open urban environments of Nailsdale: different zones and districts; tumbledown skyscrapers and dens; wretched doss-houses and sparking glass-and-iron hi-tech buildings.

- Unique combination of fast-paced third person viewed hand-to-hand fights and - motorcycle combats in the streets of a wasting away megapolis.

- Highly interactive game world and environment. Axle can use almost every object as a weapon or simply break the shelves, bottles and other furniture and objects just for fun.

- Vast number of cold steel weapons (up to 32) and combos or special moves to use them.

- Complex scripting system allows creation of numerous partly-interactive cut scenes for more dramatic, cinematographic style plot development.

Looking at the information available, Axle Rage very much looks like it’s taking what made Grand Theft Auto III popular and running with it (large environments and and underlying thug sensibility), bringing the basic mentality into a post apocalyptic world then cross-pollinating it with a splash of Road Rash and Streets of Rage.  We still have quite a wait for this game to come out with it being scheduled to be released some time in 2004, and so far no North American publisher has been announced.  However, Akella’s PC titles frequently make it to these shores, so it seems more a question of when than a question of if as to whether or not gamers on this continent get to take Axle Rage for a spin.

- Mr. Nash

(November 23, 2003)