
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Shooter Publisher Bethesda Softworks Developer id Software ESRB M (Mature) Released October 4, 2011

- Looks awesome in most areas - Great weapon/ammo switching system - Most of the driving is completely optional

- No overworld map - The "open world" is mostly an illusion - Environments look great but are very non-interactive

Review: Dead Island (360) Review: Medal of Honor (360) Review: Homefront (PS3)
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Rage

Score: 8.5 / 10

Rage is the feeling that swept through me when I realized that I had dumped five or six hours into id Software's Rage before I realized I was playing the game under my 12-year old son's Gamertag. There was no way in hell I was going to repeat that many hours under my own Gamertag for the sake of Achievement Points.

In many ways, Rage is a by-the-numbers shooter. As a recent parolee of an "Ark" that finally cracked open almost one hundred years after a meteor wiped out most of humanity, you don't have a personality, which is good thing because the first task

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the game hands you is to kill a bunch of guys. For some reason. Because they're bad or because they look funny. It doesn't matter really -- there are things that move and they must die, which is kind of what id shooters have always been about.

And it helps to remember that the "by-the-numbers shooter" was basically patented

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by id Software. The company knows what it's doing and does it well.

There's a veneer of role-playing here that is skin deep at best and some light weapon customization. That is just fine by me, simply because the shooting and combat is such fun and id has done something I wish more games did. Once you've run through a "dungeon" slaughtering everything there's an escape hatch built into the level so there's no need to back track. Suddenly there's a ladder or a zip line or other means of escaping the level and continuing on, kind of like a Zelda game.

One thing Rage has that's new for an id game is vehicles. For the most part, the vehicles are there so you can quickly get from one mission to the next. There are few "must-do" races but any challenges or objectives in the vehicles are almost entirely optional. Driving to missions provides a great way to set the game, provide context -- at least visually -- for the kind of world you're surviving in. It builds up the setting but unless I absolutely had to, I ignored the driving elements but I think that had more to do with the fact I powered through the game as quickly as possible so I could start reviewing the next game on my packed 4th Quarter list.

Rage's setting and environment have all the makings of a full-fledge gaming franchise or at least some solid downloadable content to populate the game world. It would be a shame to see all that effort creating a world go to waste. The shooting is good and the driving/car combat/racing aspects offer a lot of potential to fill out the world even more. As is, Rage is still recommended.

- Aaron Simmer

(October 31, 2011)