Video Game Vintage Title: Rage

Rage

Rage is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software. It uses the company's OpenGL-based id Tech 5 game engine. Released in October 2011, the game was first shown as a tech demo on June 11, 2007 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference , and was officially announced on August 2, 2007 at QuakeCon. On the same day, a trailer for the game was released by GameTrailers.

The game is set in a post-apocalyptic near future, following the impact of the asteroid 99942 Apophis on Earth. The game has been described as similar to the movie Mad Max 2 and to video games such as Fallout and Borderlands. Influences on the driving and racing gameplay include games such as MotorStorm and Burnout. Players can upgrade their cars with racing certificates won from races.

Rage Plot

In Rage's story, the asteroid 99942 Apophis impacts the Earth on August 23, 2029, destroying civilization as we know it. Human survivors have come together to form settlements around oases and other practical or habitable locations. These fragile homes are diligently defended by the inhabitants against bandits, which are divided into various clans and organizations of their own, and mutants, which attack all normal humans in a voracious horde.

The protagonist, an "Ark Survivor", emerges into this setting in year 2135, one-hundred and six years after being put into stasis inside an underground shelter called an Ark. These underground shelters are the direct result of the Eden Project, a massive international undertaking in which hundreds of Arks, containing cryogenic pods, were sealed under the surface of the Earth in order to preserve enough of the human population to rebuild civilization in the future. The Eden Project, however, was far less successful than hoped. The Ark Survivor's Ark in particular is heavily damaged, with all of its other residents dead, and equipment destroyed as well, and so he wakes up alone. With no specific goal in mind and no one to help him, the Ark Survivor heads for the surface.

When the Survivor reaches the surface, he is attacked by members of the Ghost Clan of bandits. Dan Hagar (voiced by actor John Goodman), a wasteland settler, saves him from certain death and brings him to his settlement. Dan informs the Ark Survivor that the Authority, a faction that considers itself the one true government of the Wasteland, is looking for him and other Ark survivors for an unknown purpose. The Ark Survivor helps Dan's settlement and the Outrigger settlements by completing a few easy jobs. During this time, it is revealed that the nanotrites injected into the Ark Survivor's blood before he was sent into hibernation have granted him superhuman abilities to help him survive the harsh environment. However, it is these nanotrites that make him valuable to the Authority. Because his presence is too dangerous for the settlement, the player leaves and goes to the nearby town of Wellspring.

During his stay in Wellspring, the Survivor helps the town with various problems such as fighting off bandits and mutants and ferrying supplies. Eventually, he comes into contact with Dr. Kvasir, an elderly scientist who used to work for the Authority. Kvasir tells the Ark Survivor about the inhumane experiments the Authority was responsible for, such as the creation of the mutants. Kvasir puts the Ark Survivor into contact with the Resistance, an anti-Authority group. After rescuing their leader, Captain Marshall, from an Authority prison, the Ark Survivor begins attracting attention from the Authority, forcing him to flee Wellspring and then join the Resistance at their headquarters in Subway Town. Like he did for Wellspring, the Ark Survivor earns the trust, if not the gratitude, of the citizens of Subway Town by assisting them with various problems. The Ark Survivor also learns what had happened in the past century from Marshall, who is an Ark survivor himself. Shortly before Apophis struck, one of the generals in charge of the Ark project sabotaged the operation by ensuring that only the Arks with people loyal to him would be opened on schedule, leaving the rest to stay underground forever in hibernation; the player's Ark only surfaced because its systems were damaged and it automatically rose to protect any surviving inhabitants. This first wave of Ark survivors would eventually form the Authority.

With the Authority beginning to forcefully expand its influence on the Wasteland settlements, the Resistance is forced to act. With the help of the Ark Survivor, they are able to recover data that shows the location of every Ark on the planet. Marshall plans to use this data to activate all the Arks and form an army that can defeat the Authority. However, the only way to do this is to transmit the data from Capital Prime, the main headquarters for the Authority. Alone, the Ark Survivor fights his way through Capital Prime to transmit the Ark activation code. The game concludes with all of the remaining Arks simultaneously becoming active and surfacing.

Rage Gameplay

The game primarily consists of first-person shooter and driving segments, with the player using his vehicle to explore the world and travel between missions.

Combat is undertaken from a first-person perspective; the player is armed with a variety of upgradeable firearms, as well as a crossbow, and boomerang-like weapons called "wingsticks" which can be used for stealthy attacks. There are several types of ammunition available for each weapon, to allow the player to further customize his or her player style. As an example, the crossbow's primary ammunition is metal bolts, but it also can shoot electrified bolts, explosive bolts, and more. There are two standard varieties of enemies: enemies with firearms which will take cover and exchange fire with the player, and melee enemies that will charge the player and attack with melee weapons.

There are a variety of vehicular events for the player to participate in, including races and checkpoint rallies. Racing events may or may not have opponents, and some of them are armed races while others are not. Players have the ability to augment their cars with various items and upgrades they can gain by completing events. Rage also features some role-playing game (RPG) elements, including an inventory system, looting system, and different types of ammo. Players have the option to customize their weapons and vehicles, as well as build a wide assortment of items using collected recipes. Not only can the vehicles be used for racing, but like all open-world, sandbox games they can be used for traveling from one location to the other with occasional attacks from enemy vehicles. There are also side missions and a number of other minor exploratory elements.

Reception
The game received a great deal of recognition prior to its release. It won the Game Critics Awards of E3 2010 for "Best Console Game," and "Best Action Game," along with the "Special Commendation for Graphics." IGN awarded it their "Best Overall Game" and "Best Shooter" in their E3 2010 awards. It also won many of GameTrailers' E3 2010 awards, including "Best New IP," "Best First Person Shooter," "Best PS3 Game," "Best Xbox 360 Game," "Best PC Game," and "Game of the Show."

Rage has received generally positive reviews from critics according to the aggregate review site Metacritic. The game has received praise for its graphics and shooting mechanics, and criticism mostly aimed towards the game's story and poor out-of-the-box PC compatibility.

Electronic Gaming Monthly praised the game, giving it a score of 9.5/10. They stated that the game features impressive visuals, brutal and satisfying combat, fluid animations and advanced enemy AI, numerous entertaining side-missions, and an addictive multiplayer component. The one complaint they had with Rage was that the final boss fight was unsatisfying compared to the rest of the game's impressive combat scenarios. Ars Technica gave a more negative review of the Xbox 360 version, criticizing lack of story, undeveloped characters, uninteresting quests and a "broken save system" (autosave checkpoints being too far apart, forcing frequent manual saves which are slow on the Xbox 360), while acknowledging the quality of the visuals.

Game Informer gave the game a 9 out of 10, saying that "while most people will rave about Rage's technology, this game's most impressive component is its gunplay... the mutated hostiles of the wastes... crawl out of the woodwork, scamper along walls, and create a sense of absolute terror," and "the challenge posed to the player is to put them down quickly or pray that every close range shotgun blast takes a large chunk of flesh." The soundtrack was described as "appropriately moody," and the animation system as one of the most "impressive" ever made. However, the review also argued that "the driving sections are no more than optional diversions" and "the lack of content in the overworld is disappointing." In conclusion, the story and overworld were described as "dated", but the "pulse-pounding gunplay" was hailed as "a nice change of pace" that "stands out in a crowded market." IGN praised the game's graphics, calling them some of the best ever, but criticized the game's story and forgettable characters.

Rage has also been recognized in several 2011 end-of-year award ceremonies. It was nominated for "Best Graphics" and "Best New Franchise" in Xbox360Achievements' Game of the Year 2011 Awards.64 GameTrailers nominated it for "Best First Person Shooter" and "Best New IP."65 At the 2011 Spike VGAs, it was nominated for "Best Graphics"66 and "Best Shooter."67 Technical issues with the PC version has led to articles explaining to users how to "fix" Rage's problems. AMD has released drivers that attempt to fix some of the issues. On October 10, 2011 patches for the Windows version were released which added various graphical options to the game and fixed a number of driver-related graphical issues.