E3 2011 Hands-On: Rage - Preview

One of the biggest game of last year's E3, Rage wowed the audiences with it's fantastic gameplay, gorgeous graphics and that fantastic id tech that really made the game stand out. Now it's a whole year later and Rage is one year older so what has changed? Well apparently the game has taken a dramatic turn for the generic. Now before you come knocking down my door with pitchforks and torchs in hand, let me just point out that my hands-on was just one level and the game does promise a lot more than shooting, nonetheless I left the Rage station rather dissapointed that such an original concept could be reduced to something so indistinguishable from all the other shooters out there.

The demo I played took me through an abandoned building and parts of a city. Along the way I was continuesly ambushed by creatures but they were easily dispatched. The demo featured four weapons, a sniper rifle, assault rifle, shotgun and rocket launcher as well as an assortment of secondary weapons like grenades and RC cars strapped with explosives (just like the RC-XD from Black Ops) to help dispatch the enemies. Further along I was ambushed by a boss character who, after several rockets to the face, fell to the ground. The game then tries to throw in some light puzzle elements (and I mean light) in fact I think these puzzle sections are just ways of hiding load times (think the doors in Metroid Prime).

The gameplay, while servicable, is rather bland for a game that once promised so much. You point and shoot, you take cover and shoot, you switch weapons and shoot, nothing is different this and any of the other mainstream shooters on the market. Yes id's physics and graphics are impressive but when the gameplay feels like the same game you've played dozens of times over it just dosn't feel different.

The visuals are even worst. The entire demo was just a hazy, gritty brown mess, so much so that I had trouble finding where to go next after having to deal with enemies. What I took away from the demo was that Rage has no personality, it's a shooter and not much else. Is it a good shooter? Absolutely. It's going to have to do much more to impress us in this age where shooters are the prevalent genre.

Stay tuned to gamrReview for all the latest hands-on previews of the games announced here at E3.