Rage Preview
The team that invented the first-person shooter shows us the future.
US, May 4, 2010 - Tim Willits wanted to stress one thing when he recently gave an extended demo of Rage: this is the next big thing from id software. Remember, these are the guys that invented the shooter through timeless classics like Doom, Wolfenstein, and Quake. This is the company with a technical lead that dabbles in rocket science in his spare time. Rage isn't a spin-off, an add-on, or a one-off. This is the best, current example of what happens when id goes all-in on a new franchise.
And based on what was shown in that demo, that means that gamers should prepare to be blown away.
Rage is a post-apocalyptic shooter that visually evokes other recent genre hits like Borderlands or Fallout 3, though with much more of a graphical wow factor than its competition. You play as a member of the Ark program, a group of humans selected to live underground in relative safety while an asteroid went about destroying all life above. The idea was that you and other Ark members would emerge once things cooled down and repopulate the planet.
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/108/1087379/rage-20100503032654330.jpg)
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Things, as they tend to do in videogames, go awry. Some people survive the apocalypse. Others are morphed into mutants. Society crumbles and things go all Mad Max, which doesn't make things very pleasant for your character once he finally gets another look at daylight.
From the moment you get your bearings, you're free to run off in any direction and see what the wide world of Rage has to offer. Most will likely continue straight into the storyline, though, by following the directions of the folks you meet and the little quests they offer. It's an open, but directed, style of action we're told; one that combines the slick first-person shooting id has become famous for with some light role-playing and action elements that you wouldn't necessarily associate with a game like this. Follow the story and you'll shoot your way through mutants, bandits, and all manner of nasty beasts. Take a moment to look around and you'll find a complex upgrade and item creation system, vehicles to race and fix up, and lots of little side quests that you can use to fill up your wallet and beef up your arsenal.
We've seen and written about Rage in the past, and many of the gameplay elements on display were repeat showings. Things like vehicular combat, a wicked bladed boomerang, and item scavenging were quickly shown to refresh everybody's memories, or get them up to speed. During this time, all I could do was sit back and marvel at the graphics. Rage is easily one of the best looking games I've seen, even with the entirety of 2010 left as development time for id to further polish it. The crazy part? The demo was shown on an Xbox 360 and id was happy to point out that the current PS3 version was running even more smoothly. Thinking about how the PC iteration will look on a top of the line machine makes my head spin.
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/108/1087379/rage-20100503114108734-000.jpg)
Rage is looking really, really good.
There will be plenty of chances to drool over the visuals of Rage in the future, rest assured. For now, I'll try to focus on what was shown during the demo.
It's easy to get lost in writing about the impressive feature set of Rage. There's a huge world to explore, vehicles to ride, bandits to blast, side-quests to take part in and lots of weapons to find special ammo for. It's tempting to talk about it as if it is an RPG, but at its core Rage is most definitely a shooter. It's just a shooter with a lot of options.
During the demo I got to see several different combat scenarios. The first was in a vehicle and it wasn't so much of a contest as it was a total slaughter. Bandits that were unlucky enough to be in the way were torn to bits by the mounted machine guns…or simply splattered all over the desert floor.
What followed next was some of the slickest and most impressive combat around. The mission at hand involved thwarting some plans to poison the local watersupply, and that meant a trip down into the sewers. Here id began to talk about how it is working to make sure every environment is unique, and every different faction and enemy type you meet up with has a unique behavior. This area gave a peek at how that ambition will play out.
Rage has quite a bit of environmental interaction, which we first saw courtesy of a crossbow and some electric ammo. It's a sewer area filled with water, so you can probably guess the results. Swapping weapon and ammo types on a controller is done with a bumper press and two radial menus, a process that looked rather fluid. That's a good thing given the fast-acting enemies and the awesome looking AI at work. This particular sect of bandits moved a bit like monkeys on crack, swinging from pipes to move between levels and swarming the player from all sides.
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/108/1087379/rage-20100503114055937-000.jpg)
Friend? I guess not.
At the bottom of the sewer, id decided to show off its gadget system. By scavenging parts, the player can build little gizmos to use as destructive tools. We saw everything from a little remote controlled bomb to stationary turrets. Gadgets can be assembled at any time during the game, meaning that item collection becomes useful the second you find the last spare part. That's right, there's no work bench required to build and unleash a spider-bot that can scout ahead and even attack enemies around a corner. If your gadget doesn't get destroyed, you can pick it up and use it again. If it does, you can scavenge a few parts to perhaps help you build another in the future.
In this situation, id chose to toss out a series of turrets. It seemed like a great plan, but the artificial intelligence made short work of this seemingly unstoppable wall of firepower. The fast moving bandits quickly flanked the turrets, kicked them over, and then turned their sights on the player.
Next I was shown a totally different area, above ground in a building and filled with a level of detail that looked like a finished product. Again, id stressed how this was a unique area without repetitive features, and the enemies here certainly acted differently than the crew that infested the sewers. This was more of an all out brawl, capped with some explosive bits of the environment engulfing some of the bad guys in flames.
![[IMG]](http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/108/1087379/rage-20100503114045984-000.jpg)
Seriously impressive AI at work here.
What made our demo of Rage so overwhelming was the seamless nature of the action. Other developers might have lingered on the customizable ammo types, the streamlined interface, or the impressive enemy AI routines that looked so good I could have swore they were scripted. But the only way to really appreciate what Rage is doing is to see all of these things working together, in one very fast paced and pretty action sequence. And when there's a lull in the shooting, you'll be wandering through a colorful wasteland that can easily be described as the next step on the route to photo realistic videogames.
What I saw from Rage looked like a finished game, and a really good one at that. Yet, the game isn't due out until 2011, and id still isn't making any promises about multiplayer other than that it will exist and that it will be awesome. There's a long way to go until release, but this latest look at id's next major franchise has me completely excited. Once again, it looks like the team that invented the first-person shooter is pushing the boundaries.
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