RAGE - ID's Worst (High-Profile) Game
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
- RAGE is the 2011 first-person shooter released by ID. It's not looked upon too fondly today and is widely considered to be inferior to most of ID's other works. However, in this review, I want to analyze it to see if it's truly a bad game.
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00:00 Intro
01:38 Acquisition + Tweaks
02:50 Premise
04:12 FPS Gameplay
06:55 Weapons
11:06 Equipment and Crafting
14:12 Enemy Design
18:26 Vehicles (are a trainwreck)
23:36 "Open World" and Quests
28:18 Level Design
30:55 Visuals + Megatextures
34:02 Sound Design
36:12 Coop
37:57 Final Level + Ending
40:20 Concluding Thoughts - Hry
I loved this game lol. Granted at the time I didn't analyze games to the same extent I do now.
Rage suffered from not knowing what it wanted to be. It tried to be the lovechild of Fallout and Borderlands raised by Mad Max and ended up having no identity at all
Rage suffered from having to be released on outdated consoles
Rage 2 figured it out 😊
I'd count "the color brown" as one of the horsemen of the modern shooter of this area. Everything is so dingey and brown. Some areas in Rage aren't brown, but those ones are just.. Grey and dark instead. lol
When we had games like Modern Warfare, or Warfighter, Soldier of Fortune, the brown color coding was insane.
That was one of my original considerations when I first came up with the Horsemen. However, there's only four Horsemen, and so many bad tropes in this era. I ultimately decided to focus them on gameplay mechanics that would rear their heads often. The ugly color palettes were certainly a thing, but they didn't influence the industry quite as much as features such as sprinting or iron sights.
I don't really plan on playing any of the brown-grey generic military FPSes of the time on my channel. I usually like my games to have substance or originality to them. I'll gladly consider their bland color palettes to be an honorary horseman, though.
@@marriedtomychair Yeah I knew you were limited by 4, but holy cow did that brown color pallet infect so many games.
Yeah I don't care for the array of generic military shooters, but sadly they infected a lot of other games. Even Thief 4 had a really washed out color pallet as an example of something else you reviewed. Either way, don't interpret this as a criticism. I'm loving your video essays.
@@marriedtomychair
It is nice if the render can hit per pixel densities point blank. So it holds up no matter what. And id tech 4 maxing out a RTX 4090s bandwidth shortly before its total vram you dont get the nasty ugly pop in.
That era of games were way better than today's era.Todays games are just colorful fortnite copy with cringy skins.
Something about this game I absolutely love. I remember thinking when I first played through it that this was a frame for a really great game with HUGE potential. I even used to say to myself if I had my own game company I would completely remake the first Rage. Then they did release a Rage 2. It was a disappointment higher than the first and that's saying something.
I didn't hear a single character say the protagonist's name until Rage 2. Something about Rage charmed me. Rage 2 entertained me because it's like FarCry, but you play as the Doom Slayer.
I have a personal theory that Zenimax\Bethesda sabotaged the RAGE franchise because they did not want competition to Fallout, especially in a way that exposes how bootleg Bethesda engines are. It is 2023 and they still don't have vehicles, trains or even working ladders, something iD Software had already done in 1996 and 1997.
If people shat on Bethesda's gamebryo like they should have through the late 2000s, Bethesda would have been forced to use another engine and that could have changed all release date plans and would require spending money to train staff in whatever engine they chose.
The fact they chose Unreal Engine for Elder Scrolls VI rather than anything iD software made is further proof they have some petty gripe where they would rather PAY A LICENSE and get the historical competitor to ID Tech engines than use ID Tech for their games FOR FREE.
This inner hostility probably is part of the reason Carmack left ID software to go to Oculus when he could have stayed in iD as a consultant or supervisor and still put his primary focus on Oculus.
Man, you're gonna have a ton of subs one day. I only just recently found your channel, and I really appreciate the perspective you bring to these reviews.
Been watching your videos all day. Really great channel! Thank you and Keep it up! Also, I happen to be one of the ¨few¨ that love Rage. Replay it at least once a year.
Doom 2016 was anything but the return to form, really. While underwhelming, there are a lot of old ID design philosophy sprinkled here and there across this game. Basically, if you line up every ID game since Catacomb 3D (and exclude Doom 2 since it's basically a level pack addon that was made only because they wanted a proper disc release of Doom), there is a clear pattern visible. The design elements evolved, flowing and transforming from one game into the next: Quake, after all the reworks, was essentially an attempt to make a tree-dimensional version of Doom, Doom 3 is the continuation of ideas of Quake 2, etc. And Rage, in spite of being full with dubious 'trendy' stuff, fits in this mold.
While Doom 2016 doesn't. In spite of being a decent and fun game, it has little to nothing to do with almost anything ID had been making before it. Flow, leveldesign, balance, core mechanics, even the idea of building a game around arenas if foreign to most of ID's output.
Doom 2016 is a return to form in the sense that's it's a return to chaotic horde shooting, a la the original Doom. I was rather off-handed with that comment, so I admittedly didn't think it through too deeply.
I see what you mean that Doom 2016 is a bit of a sore thumb among ID's lineup. It's worth keeping in mind a decent number of people were dissatisfied with the direction RAGE took. So Doom 2016 can be seen as ID taking a handful of steps back, or maybe a detour, or maybe a left turn at Albuquerque. So in that regard, I believe RAGE was an important stepping stone for Doom 2016.
It was always amusing to me, that everyone went all "OMG Goodman !!!!1111". Are we really supposed to be impressed by a character that is voiced by an actor ? Must be something extremely local that only USians can really understand.
A lot of media rides off of having big (or vaguely renowned) names attached, even if their presence isn't immediately identifiable or significant. Voice acting is especially weird in this regard, because they often don't grab people with distinct enough voices for it to matter. I would not have known Goodman was in this game if I wouldn't have off-handedly heard about it.
I personally don't care too much about it either, but I assumed someone would complain if I didn't mention it. Pop/celebrity culture is remarkably prevalent in English-speaking countries in general, so starring specific actors always gets media extra attention. Don't ask me why.
Here’s my opinion on what they could have Done
1. Better cutscenes to we can see the character
2. a voice actor to play as the character Nicholas Raine
3. a final boss
4. a better ending
5. a movie of this
First time I played RAGE, it felt like kind of wrong step into multiplatform gaming direction. Second time playtrough was after I have lernt "proper strafejumping". So, I started checking every id tech engine game for "proper supershotgun hit'n'runs". That's why I preffer Doom 3 over Doom 2016/Ethernal and RAGE over RAGE 2. Return to Castle Wolfenstein with "nofatigue" over Machinegames' Wolfenstein.
That satisfaction from slowly developed skill over "press SHIFT to DASH" mechanics.
Check the speed diffirence in RAGE
czcams.com/video/dwJMpAK1uGY/video.html
sound is back at 2:00
btw I remember RAGE for it's distinctive NPC models and great polish dubbing. It also looks suprisingly good for today standard after you unlock ultraperformance in config.cfg
Glad to meet somebody else who hates 'shift to dash'. It's the biggest reason I didn't like Doom Eternal as much as 2016. Dashing is a band-aid to cover up bad game design.
I agree that most modern shooters aren't quite as satisfying to move around in as older shooters. I personally disagree on Doom 3 having better movement than Doom 2016, but I can see where you come from.
I've always had a hard time getting into Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Maybe I'll try 'nofatigue' next time I play it.
@@marriedtomychair "nofatigue" gives infinite stamina but the most important and most satisfying is "strafejumping" for id tech 2 and 3 engine- Quake 2, Quake 3, RTCW, Soldier of Fortune 1/2, Star Trek Elite Force 1/2.
Player movement has hardcoded speed cap and ground/air friction, while sprinting and jumping. But, if you strafe sideways and move camera 30 deg then jump, you will get acceleration bits over the cap infinitely. Similar to rocket jumps.
Craziest example of this - old Quake 3 defrag pro races ( from 320 units speed cap up to 1800 units).
Id tech 1 - Quake, gold source games and Painkiller have "circlejumping" instead. Much easier to understand and perform well... especially if you bind "+jump" to "MOUSWHEELUP" and "MOUSWHEELDOWN".
You will outrun thoose pesky homing projectiles in Gunman Chronicles ^^
what level / map is 32:? I tried to play all the secondary missions
I believe it's the final mission of the Scorchers expansion.
The game was initially codenamed Garage due to the car combat and customization and was shortened to rage. You know (Ga)Rage.
I’ve been going through old games that I bought but never played, and I ended up playing Rage and Duke Nukem Forever back to back. The way these legendary FPS studios struggled with the modern world is…interesting.
This game was basically rushed and unfinished, after Doom 4's cancellation (wich this game was basically an tech demo to) zenimax basically said to ID "finish this game as soon as possible and go work in a new Doom game" wich would eventually become Doom 2016
The enemy animations, interactions with the environment, reaction to hits, all would be expanded in Doom 4
Although Doom 4 wouldn't be like rage but more like Wolfenstein the new order
This game was the greatest dissapointment from ID software (even before DOOM Eternal). In this game you even get less ammunition than in Doom Eternal. 5 shots and you can search for 20minutes to get the next 5 shots. WHAT THE HECK is so damn difficult to understand in the words "First Person Shooter"??? It's a "Shooter" like in "shooting". Not a "First Person Ammo Searcher" or a "First Person Weapon Switcher" like Doom:Eternal.
Rage is a good game that performs like a mother effer on console which blew everyone else put of the water. As an FPS on 360, nothing came close. People seem tp forget that BL1 could run fps's in the teens on 360 and we just put up with it. The mere fact that people have the fps stadards they do no is partly due Rage and games like it.
1+ internet respect for using a soundfx from Gunman Chronicles.
I agree with you about the A.I., it is quite solid in that regard.
They had technology they wanted to build and tried to fit a game into it afterwards which is the opposite of what you want. The game design and mechanics should be the priority with the technology built to service those ideas. Rage wasn't awful and had memorable visuals, but very standard FPS gameplay, and the same enemies/AI throughout the entire game. No weapon really felt cool or unique. Different ammo is kind of variety but ultimately very little difference in execution. Wingstick was the only unique thing I can remember and even then nothing special compared to something like the gravity gun from HL2.
That's a great way to think about it. One of HL2's primary advancements was its physics engine, so it only seemed natural to give the player a tool that heavily utilizes those physics. RAGE would hardly be any different without megatextures. They have certainly helped the game age well visually and they lend RAGE some visual charm. However, they're just kind of there as a technical accomplishment forever looming in the background.
Yeah, RAGE has a very standard arsenal outside of a handful of genuinely creative ammo types (mind control bolts and shotgun poprockets spring to mind). It's a growing pet peeve of mine, though I am willing to forgive grounded/historic FPSes for it. I released a video on DUSK the other day and heavily commented on how standard and risk-adverse its arsenal was, even if the weapons were quite satisfying to use.
I absolutely loved this game one of my favorites
The driving and vehicular combat in this game is pretty good, compared to the atrocity called Rage 2.
This is the worst high profile game Id ever did, and it was a very solid one, even full on good at places. Look at the full picture of high profile release from the last three years and think about that.
ID has a great track record overall. Their worst game (that your average joe would know of) being more mediocre than anything else is a testament to their consistency.
it got great gunplay and graphics in my opinion. but its just feeel like game should be 2x bigger with more racing and side missions and post game content . they dropped ball with endgame but if you compare it to bioshock [infinite] or borderlands . rage got best gunplay and combat while it runs on toaster
I fucking love this game
I enjoyed RAGE the combat was enjoyable for the most part. Vehicles in the first area at least. The races are easy but the rocket rally’s can go to hell. The final mission is kinda bear bones but I did like that it provided a challenge. Overall I really enjoyed RAGE it’s not the best game but it isn’t awful.
In the best way possible you give out the same energy as the guy video game reviewing in end of bandersnatch
Rage is a guilty pleasure game for me. Having just finished another playthrough on Nightmare difficulty, and for what it is, it holds up well. Obviously Doom 2016 and Eternal are leagues better but I still enjoy the game and it still runs very well. Authority SMG shotgun with pop rockets go *BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR*
Yeah, RAGE isn't outright a bad game, the title to this video is just on the harsh side. It has its moments, for sure. The pop rockets are definitely one of those moments. Personally, I don't think Eternal is much better.
@@marriedtomychair the first playthrough of Eternal was fun, but subsequent playthroughs and the DLCs (TAG 1 on UV was a mistake) started to wear down on me much later.
As of this comment I am currently going through Rage 2, almost done with the game ""Story"" wise but I still have Rise of the Ghosts and Terrormania to go through. Outside of an odd bug in the vehicle tab that pisses me off (going over the upgrades for the phoenix too quickly will freeze or softlock the game), it's alright, but there's too many activities which can get boring.
I didn't disagree with everything You said mainly the ending being Subpar. but the vehicle combat is great and has great control. And this is coming from someone that has trouble playing racing games on easy. Also you can bring down those watchgun towers with vehicle weapon. There's also more differences between each faction other than color and beefiness. For example the ghost will run kick off of walls and grab ledges to swing while the gearheads don't do any of that. Also if you're on a killing spree any benefaction or even the authority the enemies with guns will get as far as way from you as they can.
Also find myself selling the hand grenades until later into the game since they vaporize any common unit making it impossible to loot them.
Also the rare flowers that are so hard to find that only sell for fifty one bucks are used to create a permanent health Buff.
Reasonable points.
Personally, I think the vehicular combat is relentlessly miserable. It's a gradual resource drain involving respawning enemies who have far too much health and way too much invincibility. So many of my biggest pet peeves in one package. Honestly, the invincibility shield in particular is one of the worst things I've ever seen in a game, and the vehicular combat could be incomprehensibly improved by its exclusion. But even if you cut that, you otherwise have close to no incentives to engage with the driving mechanics, especially in the latter half of the game.
I'm not as experienced with racing games, so I may not be the best judge of controls, but the handling gets gradually worse with higher tier vehicles. You're basically forced to use the stronger vehicles later on because of how the enemies scale, so you're inevitably going to be stuck in a vehicle that turns more like a bus than a car. I might be fine with this if Rage didn't forcibly render the early-game vehicles with better handling obsolete.
I thought I did acknowledge the factions had some unique characteristics (like the guys who use crossbows and the ones who use rc cars). Unfortunately, it's all typically short-lived and really minor things . You're still going to largely be up against hitscanners with assault rifles or guys who charge you with clubs. The mixups are welcome, they're just too fleeting.
I was completely unaware of the health upgrade thing. That probably would've slightly dampened my issues with feeling too frail, even with the best armor in the game. The killing spree thing also sounds like a funky little detail, though I never noticed it while playing.
@@marriedtomychair Usually on the killing spree there only be 2 or 3 left and one of them Will scream F this And they'll try to fall back but by then you've already shoot them in the back and their Dead.
@@marriedtomychair The ghost are more like mutants, the gearheads use turnts and spider bots. The jackals use the dynamite crossbow. The one enemy that I felt that you were right about the Sponginess are the jackals since they were just basically are a mix between the ghost and the gearheads.
@@marriedtomychair There's actually a whole bunch of side missions which you have to talk to local people We'll give you armor upgrades new blueprints even upgrade on your existing blueprints.
You had to be careful though since there are 2 That can upgrade your health one only does it for 60 seconds and the other one does it permanently
It bums me out. I think the game gets almost brilliant when you're going through the city with the mutants and you fight the big boss at the end. That, for me, was one of the highlights. The game has some good ideas, and the combat is, overall, a lot of fun... But it just feels undercooked. Like you said a lot of the items you can get are basically useless, or there "because."
I think RAGE, more than anything else, is why Doom changed directions. Contrary to popular theory. Rage was the first time id really stumbled on a release. Even Doom 3, which many people had issues with, was still a huge success. Rage? Rage wasn't really well received. I got it on a huge sale with the DLC included. I enjyoed it. There's a lot of artistic effort visually, but it does ultimately come down to being a tech demo. It's a real shame that Raven wasn't around at this point to take the tech and make a great game with it like they had in decades/years past.
I'm in the same camp. I quite enjoyed the mutant city level, it's certainly the highlight of the game. But something is clearly missing from Rage as a whole and it's tricky to pinpoint. I have a soft spot for Rage, contrary to what this video might let on, but it's objectively a rather middling title.
Most ID games from Quake 2 onward have arguably been tech demos before refined gameplay experiences. Doom 3 and Rage have been the most blatant examples. Doom 3 in particular was a graphical marvel. People benchmarked cards on it back then. It sold half on that, half on its association with Doom. Rage is impressive graphically as well, but it simply didn't entice audiences in the same way.
@@marriedtomychair Doom 3's tech lead to one of my favorite games of that generation. Prey. Don't get me wrong, though. When Doom 3 released I made that an experience. Covered my windows, turned off the lights. Played the Hell out of it. Non-stop. Even the new Doom's didn't inspire that urge in me.
@@OpenMawProductions I did enjoy Doom 3. It's nothing spectacular, though it aged surprisingly well. I've been slowly playing through it in VR recently and it's been surprisingly fun. It's almost a perfect fit for VR, honestly.
Prey 2006 is great. I made a video on it shortly after this one!
rage had fantastic parts of it. Great world, the driving was fucking cool, the weapons were great, wing blading swarms of mutants was great. This was better than any thing fallout made after fallout 2. The crafting was cool, some of the hidden stuff/challenges were great but it was too little. The game was WAY WAY too fucking short and small. The final boss is a joke. It' s just a lot of mutants. I desperately wanted more.
I quite enjoyed Rage but felt absolutely nothing while playing Rage 2.
Thanks for the fov tip
It sucks, but in an endearing way. I kind of like it, but yeah, it is subpar in most areas. Cool video.
Doom RPG and Doom 2 RPG are one the best DOOM games ever
Cool
This game is so bland and sad I can feel the blandness and sadness just by watching your video. Great video btw
For me it's a Solid 7/10.
Not great, not even *really* good but also not really bad. It's just okay.
they dropped ball with endgame . it feels they just drop game suport towards end of development and release what they got . very polished but very litle content for mechanics game offer
I love this game and always will
Worst maybe but not bad
Great game
No, the worst Id's games were Quake 3 and Doom Eternal.
Pretty agreeable, honestly. I still think RAGE is the worst of the three, but I've never care that much for Quake 3 and Doom Eternal. Eternal isn't bad but it definitely disappointed me, and I wasn't even following the massive hype train. Quake 3 is just an oddball title and not what I typically want my FPS to be.
I'd say Rage 2 is worse, but that game was co-developed by Avalanche Studios.
Rage 2 is legit slept on objectively
skill issue
Your four horsemen suck. Every game has sprinting and iron sights.
This strikes me as a misinformed view. I can't be sure if it comes from a lack of understanding of the terminology or if you simply do not have much experience with first/third-person shooter games. Also, I'll assume you mean "every shooter" by "every game", because entire genres such as RTSes and bullet hells would inherently contradict your point.
I can list a decent handful of shooters with neither sprinting nor iron sights off the top of my head: Doom (1, 2, 64), Halo (CE, 2, 3, and ODST), Half Life 1, Descent, Quake 4, Fallout 3, Duke Nukem 3D, Vivisector: Beast Within, and FEAR 1.
Games did not always have both iron sights and sprinting, with iron sights in particular only existing in a limited capacity prior to the popularity of CoD4. Stating that any of those games above have either of those features requires bending agreed-upon definitions. Iron sights is a more specific phenomenon than being able to aim down a scope, and sprinting is more specific than the game having a form of fast movement speed. I can explain my definitions in more detail in a follow-up comment, if you wish.
Have a good one!
@@marriedtomychair The problem is that you're presenting these as some quirks peculiar to games from that era when in reality it's more like they were popularized back then and are now included in virtually every FPS (that isn't deliberately trying to be "boomer.") The list you provided are all pre-2010 games.
The only two "horsemen" that make sense are regen health and the two weapon limit as those can really be said to be trends that have since died out (though not sure about two weapon limit). Iron sights and sprinting just became part of the FPS palette and are in no way relics.
Good video overall, though.
Sorry, much love to carmack, but ID isn't id without romero at least.