Rage: Saving humanity rocks

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When humanity discovers an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, it starts the construction of "Project Eden".

Rage
From: Id Software
For: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Four and a half stars (out of five)

The goal of the project is to preserve knowledge, genetic samples and other items essential for human life. Capsules are buried deep underground, designed to burrow out several years after the disaster.

The towns at the centre of the game look fantastic, and here is where you find most of your missions by talking to people, reading notice boards and taking part in combat races. Think Mad Max: old, beat-up trucks and cars with guns.

I think if the developers had put as much effort into the main character as they did with their new game engine and sound, I would have come away from my first play session most impressed.

The story revolves around you, a survivor from the project. Strangely, you don't speak a word in the entire game. All the NPCs just talk to you, and that's it.

The game's auto-save is poor - few and far between, though luckily you can manually save at any time - but Rage is a really enjoyable game to play.

If you are not going to do anything hugely innovative with an FPS, then it needs to do the basics brilliantly for it to stand out in a huge market.

Rage is a great pick-up-and-play shooter.

It's a mix of FPS action with driving and vehicle combat and a very watered-down loot system.

You know you are playing a good game when you come away from a session and look at the clock and wonder where the time went.

Rage is mission-based, and there is very little in the way of exploration. You can drive around the wasteland and get into car fights, but that's about it.

Most of your pick-ups and loot will come from missions. Most missions are well thought out but a few force you to traverse the same old areas. There are story missions, side missions, racing and mini games to earn money. A fun part of Rage is acquiring different ammo for each weapon. Just a couple of examples are: ammo that turns your shotgun into a grenade launcher; and mind-control darts for your crossbow.

The only niggle I had with controls was not having easy access to all my weapons. You can only have four weapons on the quick-use wheel at any one time. If you need a different weapon you have to go into your inventory and swap out your old weapon.

Holding RB brings up your weapon wheel and your ammo wheel. Use your left stick to choose ammo and your right stick for picking your weapon. In the heat of battle I found it to be not as responsive as I would have liked.

The enemy AI is amazing. Each bandit clan has unique behaviour: jumping, bouncing off walls, coming in through the walls, or coming up through the floor boards.

When you lose all your health you don't die. Instead your built-in defibrillator kicks in and you must complete a mini game to determine how much health you get back.

Lose all your health again before your defibrillator recharges and you will die.

For multiplayer, there is Road Rage mode, which is free-for-all vehicle combat for four players. To be honest, it's pretty poor. Legends of the West co-op mode, on the other hand, is worthwhile. You and a friend via Xbox Live/PSN or splitscreen take on side sorties to some of the characters you come across in the main story. It's a lot of fun.

Overall, I really loved playing Rage. It looks amazing and is a top-notch FPS. I can't wait for more in the future, but hopefully with a main character I care about and who talks.