Rage, Rage against the dying of the night! Rage INU Review.

Image credits to:  http://www.rage.com/us/media/screenshots

Rage. This was something of a coming back party for the id software company. You know them, those guys that invented FPS or first-person-shooter, for you simple folk. Such greats as Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake; and I am old enough to play the originals when they came out back in the day.*sigh. Spoiler! These all make Easter Eggs appearnces in this game and all are hidden quite, overly well. So, these guys kinda know what they are doing.

Rage. Earth, future, big asteroid is coming, humanity puts genetically altered individuals in "arks" to save humanity. This is pretty much the story of the story. You wake up to be saved by John Goodman I mean Dan Hagar and he drives you away to safety. This starts the revolving fetch quests and the go kill this for me which really don't drive much of the story. Help a town, help another town, help a couple of individuals in between and absent-mindedly join a resistance against the powers that be. This story won't have you pulled in, it's the action that makes this game.

Against the odds you immediately get called upon to take care of this new world after the asteroid. Old Dan asks you to service as soon as you get back to the first settlement. You strike out to take on the first dungeon or basically a corridor with some rooms. id is the corridor shooter maker and they don't let up with this title. The combat is silky smooth. Good thing too because the enemies are relentless, they don't stop once you start shooting and aiming is everything. You shoot a guy in the leg, he limps toward you, an arm, he holds it until he can attack. Mutants will climb the walls, pipes and railings to get to you and make it difficult to aim. All the while they are usually screaming at you. It's a very visceral experience.

The weapons are always changing as you will usually be well equipped by someone giving you or finding a new weapon. Upgrades to your weapons, like sights and ammo recipes to make some deadly bullets. My favorite were the Big Mammas-Big boys(bullets) plus and explosive pack; most always a one shot kill. You start with a pistol and end up with a very large gun, this is id, think BFG. Crossbows, sniper rifle and shotguns o'my, each with some sort of new ammo to decimate your enemies. The toys, the toys, you could make, sentry turrets, RC bomb cars and sentry bots, little weapons of mass destruction. You scoured the wastes for parts to make this lil' beasts and they are fun to watch tearing though enemies. Then the wing stick, OH! the wing stick, a triple-bladed flying/ homing boomerang, the finger of god is what they should call it, it could pluck an enemies head straight from their body. The best weapon of the game, hands down.

Graphically, the scenery is awesome, they ask you install this game for the full effect of the graphics, but I wasn't feeling the 22GB download. I had a some texture pop-in but it really didn't deter my enjoyment of the game it was still a sight to see. The characters are well animated and look amazing, the best I've seen on the Xbox 360 and my 480p TV. The Jackal canyon is near the end of the game and one of the most enjoyment I had playing this game; enemies, buildings and sound were fun and so intense, by far my favorite experience of this game.

The INU Review!

I really enjoyed this game for what it was, a shooter with some little story for some spice. Flinging wing sticks like candy from a parade float was some of the most satisfying kills in the game. I loved the combat for it's non-stop relentlessness and fluidity. I used the crouch sneak a lot in this game and it was awesome to catch a enemy off guard and put a crossbow bolt though their skull. The story is the turd of this game, yes, it made no sense, yes, you had no choice other than to accept it, and no it wasn't a real drag on the game thankfully. The ending is the a either sequel bait or a turd sandwich, I'm feeling sequel bait and DLC story patches. But, it was a turd sandwich too, new enemies but no boss. The boss fights are few and I can only remember one, when I was like "holy shit, are you serious." I'm gonna go 4.25 INUs. I liked it for it's combat, progression, enemies and graphics, not so much for the story. Would gladly buy Rage 2 and I don't think it would be unreasonable for id to squeeze out another title here pretty quickly considering it took them this long just to develop the beautiful engine this runs on is done. Plus, you see teasers throughout the game for this and Doom 5. This game begs to be played on hard or nightmare to really appreciate the combat.

SWS out.