simpatico
Member
A lot gets bandied about these days about gameplay. I contend that RAGE 2 had solutions to the majority of the problems we face today, but a combination of factors prevented it from getting the attention it deserved.
Things RAGE 2 gets right. Not only right, but among the very best-in-class.
Emergent gameplay driven by animation and physics. The combat loop in RAGE 2 is outstanding. It reacts to every input from the player immediately, and the consequences are smoothly animated. Early in the game when your weapons are weak, the first handful of shots on target knock off chunks of armor. RAGE 2 doesn't rely on an armor bar to inform the player of their progress and how much armor remained. You could clearly see the chunks flying off and also how much of the enemy's body was still covered. This marriage of animation and physics sends a clear message that his shots are landing and having an understood effect. If an enemy is rushing toward the player with a melee weapon, your shots knock them off course, cause them to stumble and fall. This is all surprisingly immediate and fluid for a game of its age. The armor system also allowed them to use bullet sponge enemies to balance the gameplay the way they wanted, without it ever feeling like a bullet sponge enemy. Sinking shots into a t-shirt clad looter in The Division for 3 minutes just feels different than plinking pieces of armor off with every bullet landed. Any time you damage the enemy, it's clearly communicated with animation and/or the physics effects of the armor chunks flying off and bouncing around the ground. The world feels very interactive because of this. Your causes create effects every time. Enemies aren't cardboard cutouts, but tangible inhabitants of the world.
Arsenal. RAGE 2 gives the player a suite of weapons that would make vintage Ratchet and Clank blush. They obviously skew into the fantasy realm, but all the gaming mainstays are well represented. The shotgun becomes an absolute WMD after a few upgrades. The wingstick provides a really cool alternate throwable that you don't find in other games, and the player has a few magic abilities. It's an embarrassment of riches. However, it's up to the player to make use them all. The fun factor is directly tied to the creativity and imagination of the player. It's totally possible to beat the game without having any fun whatsoever, but it would be very hard. The difficulty is somewhat tuned to encourage these creative approaches. Think Doom Eternal but with humanoid enemies and no formulaic "enemy is weak to X so I have to use X when fighting it". As expected, a lot of game reviewers didn't meet this bar for entry. Like the guy taking cover in his Doom Dark Ages video review, there was a lot of malpractice surrounding the "professional" reviews of this game.
The vehicle aspect is a missed opportunity considering how much you use it and the pedigree of the developer. It's not bad by any means, but it could have been absolutely amazing. As it stands it's serviceable, with the greatest sin being the control and handling of the vehicles themselves. I'm a racing game junkie, so other people might not even notice this. I just had a hard time dependably predicting where and when I'd lose grip in a given turn. But the vehicles are upgraded and built up alongside the player throughout the game. It's not bad in any way, just not as brightly shining as the on-foot portions.
The landscape is beautiful. One of the biggest cons the game has is all that fucking pink. I don't know what Avalanche was thinking here, but it didn't turn out. Luckily on PC you can grab a reshade to tune the pink into a dark maroon color that helps it tremendously, but overall, I wish the stylized color grading was just left on the cutting room floor. The desert is vast and atmospheric. Blazing trails in your mad max buggy of choice is fun and lends to a sense of freedom. There also isn't a ton of UbiSlop map markers polluting the menus. At times it can feel a bit vacant, but it is the desert afterall.
Graphics-wise on modern hardware the game runs smooth as silk. My 6750xt and 7800x3D combo have no problems supersampling 1440p -> 1080p with every setting completely maxed out. In most cases I'm pinned to my monitor's refresh rate at 165fps and never dipping below 140fps even in the most chaotic combat areas. The drop in frames is not felt whatsoever, just noticed on the frame counter. The animations really sing when everything is flowing as smoothly as it should. Stands among the best in any FPS for my money. Certainly better than anything we've seen from a AAA FPS in a long time. Everything is nice and crisp, which if you're coming directly from a game that relies on slop scaling, it will immediately look sharp and well resolved. Particles also erupt from every angle when a hectic gunfight is underway. It's a symphony of destruction and a feast for the eyes.
What went wrong?
A variety of factors, as I mentioned earlier. I'll try to lay them out.
1. Not being iD software. RAGE was the first sign of life we had from iD since the Doom 3 release, so a lot of gamers were upset that the sequel to RAGE was being farmed out. Though I contend it was always in capable hands. Avalanche Studios is the dev behind Just Cause and Mad Max, so a game with the elevator pitch of RAGE 2 is a natural fit. I think they delivered, but there was always going to be a lot of scrutiny considering they're replacing the beloved iD in this case. Hell I need Avalanche to get to work on a new FPS. Who knew these guys had such strong FPS chops? Where did they go I wonder...
2. Console hardware. RAGE 2 really depends on a fluid 60fps or better to shine. The fundamental gameplay systems depend on it. Packaging it at 30fps with drops was never going to work because it went well beyond impacting the visuals. All that emergent animation-based gameplay does not work when the frames are not flowing. What you're left with is wide open for scrutiny and it's not illogical that most people saw this as a problem with Avalanche.
3. Pink. I have no idea who made the call to have that color be such a big part of the visual presentation, but it was a bad call. If this was the only point in this section it wouldn't be a problem, but compounded with previous points, it becomes another detractor in a game that is already on thin ice with fans.
4. Publisher BS. The DLC for RAGE 2 can only be purchased with in-game tokens that cost real money. As you can imagine, this really hurt the public impression of RAGE 2. People saw the middling review scores, the pink everywhere and oh shit, they're also doing greedy stuff on the DLC front. I hate this DLC model too, but gamers at large seem to be selective about who gets called out for it. Don't forget BioWare used this method up until Anthem, but you never really hard the grousing like you did with RAGE 2. Again, it was a wounded animal at that point and every flaw was going to be magnified.
In conclusion, if you've never played RAGE 2, you should play it. If you played RAGE 2 in the launch window and retain a middling impression of it, delete that impression and give it another chance on modern hardware. The game can be had for single digit dollars at your key seller of choice, or maybe even GMG depending on sales of the day.
If RAGE 2 came out today it would be instantly a contender for GOTY. A lot of that is because the average quality of new release has gone down so much. But even being released when it did, I think if the performance was a rock solid 60fps on both consoles and maybe titled differently (not following up an iD IP) it would easily be top 10 or even top 5. As a catalog entry, every FPS lover should own it. Especially considering the price.
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