But unlocking the double-jump opened up the map in a big way, especially after I put some upgrade points into it, letting me reach and explore the vertically stacked enemy bases much more easily.Īdd to that the hyper-satisfying Shatter attack, which is effectively a Force Push or Fus-Ro-Dah that sends enemies flying, and the ground-pound area-of-effect blast and there are a lot of options to keep in mind while you’re trashing groups of thugs or mutants. For instance, you begin with the ability to scramble up ledges and execute an extremely handy dash-dodge that lets you rapidly strafe out of the way of incoming projectiles or charging melee attacks, which feels great. Combat and movement start off fairly conventional, but Rage 2 does a fine job of doling out one game-changing power after another to keep it feeling fresh for its 20 hours of campaign missions and loads of optional side content. While I’d have loved to have seen them bounce off walls to the extent they do in the original Rage, they’re excellent punching bags for you to use your ever-growing toolbox of tricks on. And, though I wouldn’t call the AI smart by any means, they’re aggressive and generally keep on the move. The latter is extremely useful because enemies react dramatically to being hit, including falling down and getting up again or having helmets or pieces of armor fly off to indicate that that hurt. Right from the get-go the feedback from shooting is excellent, from a satisfyingly juicy melon-popping sound effect that accompanies headshots to the reticule flashing a skull icon to indicate a kill. “That’s fine for Rage 2’s purposes because it puts its action front and center. He doesn’t make any argument for this philosophy, so it comes off as evil for evil’s sake and makes sure Cross never becomes anything more than a cartoon villain. The original Rage’s General Cross also returns – in person this time – as a blandly evil tyrant who believes that “humanity has run its course” and should be replaced by his brand of cybernetic mutants. Throughout the course of the story there’s nothing really approaching character development for anybody, no decisions are made, and of the handful of allies you meet only the returning Doctor Kvasir stands out as remotely memorable, thanks in large part to his creepy demeanor and really gross sidekick. I wish they’d fully embraced the madcap fun with the same enthusiasm that Borderlands did with its sequel. Every time that’s brought up it feels out of place next to all the gung-ho heroics. It even goes so far as to name that character – who carries the title of Ranger – “Walker.” But it’s wildly inconsistent with that comedic tone and also tries to shoehorn in some emotional weight by introducing and immediately killing a mentor character. The opening moments have a fun Duke Nukem/Bulletstorm action movie parody vibe to them, including one hilarious gag immediately after you select your character’s gender. Now Mad Max-style raiders run rampant and a techno-fascist group called The Authority is trying to kill or subjugate everything in sight – the connections to the events of Rage are thin and distant enough that Rage 2 is effectively a soft reboot. You definitely don’t need to have played Rage to understand the simple concept of a future Earth where an asteroid impact destroyed just about everything that wasn’t sheltered underground in Arks, which are basically Fallout’s vaults (without the sadistic experiments). Regardless, I haven’t played a single-player shooter this energetic and satisfying in its moment-to-moment action since 2016’s Doom it’s clear that developers Avalanche and id transplanted some of that game’s successes into this large-scale shooter, making its action feel markedly different from and more vibrant than a Far Cry or Borderlands game.Rage 2 picks up the story of the 2011 original, brushes off seven years of accumulated dust, and declares it still good under the Five-Second Rule. A small touch of tedium from repetitive “kill everything” missions and a relatively lifeless open world? Sure – but no actual rage. The joy of unlocking a great new ability that changed the way I move or fight in interesting ways? Definitely. Excitement from thrilling gunfights? Yes. I never felt any rage while playing Rage 2.
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