Is Rage 2 worth an hour?
This is “Worth an Hour” where we ask whether something is “Worth an hour of your time” – today we are taking a look at the highly anticipated Rage 2!
Rage 2’s Plot
Rage 2 is set around 30 years from 2011’s Rage. The game is described as post-post apocalyptic. So, the world that we all knew from RAGE 1 has changed slightly. If we remind ourselves that in the first Rage, about 120 years prior to the events in the first game the earth was hit by a massive rock. Wiping the majority of mankind out. Leaving behind a wasteland, littered with factions, bandits and mutants.
Skip forward to 2019 and Rage 2, the wasteland is now booming with life. While there is the dusty deserts and wrecked ruins. Living, breathing areas such as swaps and colourful forests are apparent. There is life starting to emerge from the devastation.
Walker
You take on Walker. A special kind of ranger. SPOILER ALERT! Well, it’s in the first mission and it’s a tutorial mission, so can it be classed as a spoiler? Anyway, Aunt Prowley takes him on and raises him after the death of his parents. She get’s stabbed by General Cross. You then find yourself in an area where a holographic version of Prowley informs you of special powers that you possess.
Walker is one of the last remaining rangers in the wasteland of Rage 2. Walker is an Arkist. An Arkist is one of a select few who, from the old world, was frozen in freezers before the huge rock hit. He was infected with Nanotrites. A Nanobot which prolongs his life and gives him special abilities.
The Nanotrites are also responsible for the main villains in Rage 2. The Authority and General Cross. The Authority aren’t a pushover either. They’re highly equipped and have their sights set on the Nanotechnology to have complete control over the wasteland.
It is now your job as Walker to prevent General Cross and the authority from making everyone’s life a misery. You must take down the dictatorship of General Cross.
Although Rage 2 continues the story of Rage 1, I, personally don’t think that it is necessary for a play through. It’s a completely different story.
Huge thanks To GameGator for the breakdown of the plot, you can find a very impressive write up of Rage 2 by clicking here!
Graphics
Firstly the game looks FANTASTIC, I played this on a Playstation 4 slim and not the Pro, on a 55” HDTV and it looks beautiful and despite the wasteland that it is set in, the colours really do POP!
The graphics are incredible and the level of detail is something to be in awe of. But what sets Rage 2 apart from the rest of the shooters out there is the sheer colour that is in this game.
Think Mad Max went crazy and start playing with your little brothers finger painting kit and got luminous paint EVERYWHERE. That’s Rage 2. Think Coachella and the 70’s had a baby. That’s Rage 2.
There’s lots of luminous and florescent pinks, blue’s, purples, it’s everywhere and it’s a breath of fresh air. Especially when you activate the game’s OVERDRIVE feature. (Which you get by eliminating members of the authority in quick succession, which gains you combos, get enough combos to build up the overdrive meter and boom you’re like a kid in a candy shop after drinking 2L of soda. Your health get’s a slight increase, which increases as you go up the upgrade tree.) The whole screen gets colourful and you’re off wrecking havoc like there’s no tomorrow. – Though despite the vast amounts of colour in this game, there is a lot of gore!
Characters
Now understanding all the different characters within the game can be a little difficult for some. But what I especially liked in Rage 2 is that each time a character of relevance was introduced to you, before they tell you what they want from you, there’s a very short breakdown from Walker himself. Detailing who this person is and why they’re important.
Where to next?
Rage 2 is NOT linear. It is much like Grand Theft Auto. That’s not just because it is open world. It’s because there are your main missions which you could complete and be done with it. But, Rage 2 kind of forces you to complete side missions to increase your Walkers level before you move on to the next main mission. Therefore increasing the life of the game. There’s no rushing this one!
There’s also a range of projects that each of the three main characters give you that also need to be levelled up before you move on. Projects are perks that you can upgrade Walker with. They can help upgrade things like damage, how many grenades you can carry or how accurate your Wingstick is.
Rage 2 does NOT hold your hand, you have got to figure things out by yourself. That’s how I found it. The missions are listed above on kind of like a mini-map/compass which details where the next mission is and how far you are away from it. Plus along the way you will encounter things that aren’t listed on the map. They’re simply shown as a “?” A great way of promoting discoverability and not just rushing through from point A to point B.
Now, as I said previously Rage 2, does NOT hold your hand. Which is a great thing and makes playing this game more rewarding. On an early mission you have got to go back to the Winner’s Lounge after finishing a race. I found myself asking myself “Where on earth is the WINNERS LOUNGE?!” It weren’t until I wandered around aimlessly, opening the map a few times that I found it. Whether or not that’s indicative of how good of a gamer I am. I’ll let you decide that one.
Rage 2: Bosses
Speaking of how good you are as a gamer. Bosses are HUGE, MEAN and UGLY! They usually take form of monsters and they can be quite difficult to kill. I think it’s all down to how good you are as a gamer. I didn’t find them too difficult to kill. It was more the little minions around them that were more difficult. I got my rear end handed to me on more than one occasion.
As I did when trying to take over various strongholds, I made the mistake of trying to take out a higher difficulty of enemy. (The difficulty is listed before you decide to take them on, as kind of a warning to say. You may want to think twice about this) – I did find myself giving up on more than one occasion here. Sorry John Cena.
Rage 2: Vehicles
Lastly Vehicles. You will be using them a lot! You can fast travel. But I think it’s better to use a massive monster truck or a gun enabled car. It’s just so much fun to drive around in a barren wasteland and doing whatever you want! Point to note. Use your nitrous. I didn’t realise there was a boost button for a while and was wondering why the car feels so SLOW.
Rage 2: In Conclusion
Overall RAGE 2 is definitely worth an hour of your time. Many many many hours of your time in fact. It’s fantastic, frantic, hectic and crazy. But my god it’s insanely fun to play. I cannot stress that enough. It is a breath of fresh air and a blast to play.
Pick Rage 2 up this week. You will not regret it!
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