Rage (video game)

For the game engine, see Rockstar Advanced Game Engine. For other uses, see Rage (disambiguation).

Rage
File:Rage cover.jpg
Developer(s)	id Software
Publisher(s)	Bethesda Softworks Aspyr Media (Mac)
Director(s)	Tim Willits
Artist(s)	Stephan Martinière
Writer(s)	Matthew J. Costello
Composer(s)	Rod Abernethy
Engine	id Tech 5
Platforms	Microsoft Windows PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 OS X
Release date(s)	NA October 4, 2011 AUS October 6, 2011 EU 20111007October 7, 2011
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, action-adventure, vehicular combat, racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Rage (stylized as RAGE) is a first-person shooter video game developed by id Software. It uses the company's 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 (WWDC), and was officially announced on August 2, 2007 at QuakeCon. On the same day, a trailer for the game was released by GameTrailers. Rage was the final game released by id Software under the supervision of John Carmack.

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. Upon its release, the game received fair praise from critics and reviewers.

Gameplay

File:Rage gameplay.png

Rage gameplay. Here, a player drives their car and uses its weapons to destroy an enemy.

File:Rage gameplay 2.png

In first-person view, a player alternately throws a three bladed boomerang (wingstick) to kill his foe.

The game primarily consists of first-person shooter and driving segments, with the player using their 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 their play 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 is 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.

Multiplayer

Rage has two multiplayer modes: "Road Rage" and "Wasteland Legends". In Road Rage, up to four players compete in a free-for-all match that takes place in an arena designed to make use of the vehicles. The objective is to collect rally points that appear around the arena while killing one's opponents and stealing their points. Legends of the Wasteland is a series of two-player co-op missions based on stories that are heard throughout the single-player campaign. There are a total of 9 objectives in this game type.

Plot

In Rage's story, the asteroid 99942 Apophis hits the Earth on August 23, 2029, destroying human civilization. Survivors 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.

Development

File:Ragepreview.jpg

One of a number of early screenshots of the game released at the SIGGRAPH conference.

According to design director Matt Hooper the game's origins were in the concept of muscle cars within a desert setting, which was expanded upon by the creation of a post-apocalyptic world. A team of around 60 core developers worked on the title, which was intended to be the first release of an ongoing franchise.

Rage was originally intended to have a 'Teen' rating, but ended up receiving an 'M' instead. The Windows PC and Xbox 360 versions ship on three dual-layer DVD discs, while the PlayStation 3 version ships on one Blu-ray Disc. John Carmack has revealed that an uncompressed software build of Rage is one terabyte in size. The PS3, Windows and OS X versions use OpenGL as the graphics API. While a GNU/Linux version is speculated, there has been no confirmation of an official build. Timothee Besset had stated that he would try to make GNU/Linux builds for Rage much as he had done in the past, and was expected sometime in 2012 but he resigned his position at id Software. John Carmack has since revealed on Twitter that there are "no plans for a native Linux client". However, the game is playable on GNU/Linux via the Wine compatibility layer.

Id announced its decision to partner with Electronic Arts for publication of Rage. On March 9, 2009, the company's CEO Todd Hollenshead told GameTrailers TV, "No, it won't be out this year," when asked about a possible release date. A trailer and several screenshots were released on August 13, 2009 at QuakeCon where it showcased various locations, racing and first-person gameplay, and a brief insight into the storyline of the game. During Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, Electronic Arts released four new screenshots for Rage.

In 2009, John Carmack stated id Software was not planning to support dedicated servers for the Windows version, and instead would use a matchmaking system like console games. ZeniMax Media Inc., who had acquired developer id Software in June 2009, announced that it had picked up the publishing rights to Rage, and that EA would not be involved in the sales or marketing of the title. The announcement also noted that the development of Rage had not been affected by the new deal. Creative director Tim Willits confirmed to videogames blog VG247 that the game would miss releasing in 2010, and would now launch in 2011. Willits later accepted the award from IGN Media for "Best Game" and "Best First Person Shooter" at E3. Additionally, the game was awarded Best First-Person Shooter, Best New IP, Best Xbox 360, Windows, and PlayStation 3 game as well as the Game of the Show of E3 2010 by GameTrailers.

"No. It actually benefits us. When Call of Duty sells 20 bazillion copies, that means there are 20 bazillion people that meet our potential market. People who have never played a first-person shooter before may play a Call of Duty and say, 'You know, that was fun. Now what else is out there?'"

Tim Willits - when asked by EGM if he's worried about Rage competing with today's much more crowded shooter genre.

In his keynote speech at QuakeCon 2010 on August 12, 2010, Carmack announced that id was developing a Rage-related game for Apple's iOS. He later described the mobile Rage as a "little slice of Rage ... [about] 'Mutant Bash TV', a post-apocalyptic combat game show in the Rage wasteland", and separately hinted that he might try to port Rage Mobile to Android, although he later stated no id titles would be coming to Android due to lack of financial viability.

At QuakeCon 2011, Carmack offered many technical insights of the development and differences between the three main platforms (Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3), noting that it was not easy developing such an optimized engine to be able to smoothly run on consoles and still having the best artistically looking game on consoles. He also affirmed that the PC platform at the time was as much as 10 times faster than the current generation of gaming consoles, but this did not mean 10x the performance because of the extra layers of abstraction found in PC compatible operating systems. On September 16, 2011 Bethesda announced Rage had gone gold. On October 4, 2011 the game was released. On February 2, 2012 Rage was released for OS X through digital distribution. The Mac version, dubbed Rage: Campaign Edition, includes the bonus content of the Anarchy Edition on other systems. Multiplayer content however is absent in the initial Mac release.

Mods

The modding tools for Rage were originally going to be released with the game itself but instead were released on February 8, 2013 on Steam. Titled RAGE Tool Kit or simply id Studio, the tools were used to create the game as well as the DLC.

Downloadable content

Downloadable content (DLC) was mentioned to be planned for all platforms. The Wasteland Sewer Missions DLC pack, integral part of the Campaign Edition, was released on October 4, 2011, providing access to the sewer systems. A code for the DLC was given away as pre-order bonus with the Anarchy Edition that allowed early and free access to the DLC. The player character is given a task by people of various cities to rid their city's sewers of the mutant infestation.

Anarchy Edition add-on DLC was released on 15 February 2012 containing all the content of the Anarchy Edition excluding the free Wasteland Sewer Missions Pack DLC code. The package upgrades the standard edition of Rage to the Anarchy Edition.

On December 14, 2012 it was announced that a new Rage DLC would release called the The Scorchers. It was released on December 18, 2012 for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The plot focuses on 'The Scorchers' which are a bandit clan cut from the final release of the main game and only encountered in vehicle combat missions. The Scorchers are hatching a plan to eliminate all life by destroying the Wasteland and it is up to the main character once again to save humanity. The DLC adds a "Ultra Nightmare" difficulty level and the ability to keep playing the game even after the main questline has been completed. The pack features new characters, six new areas, new minigames, new enemies and a new weapon called Nailgun which features three distinct ammunition types. The DLC also fixes some bugs in the game.

Marketing

On January 20, 2011, Bethesda vice president of public relations Pete Hines told VG247 that a demo of the game is not likely, although one was later released on the Xbox Live Marketplace On April 18, 2011 it was revealed that those who pre-ordered the game would receive an automatic upgrade to the Anarchy Edition of the game, which includes four exclusive in-game items. Tim Willits claimed modding tools will be available a couple of days after release, although this proved to not be true. A light gun version of the game was featured in the fourth season episodes "Problem Dog" and "Hermanos" of Breaking Bad. On September 13, 2011, it was reported that Breaking Bad will be referenced in-game in three specific ways. A viral campaign was released that features Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin in which he performs stunts to get himself in the game such as dunking over a tiger to impress the developers.

Editions

Rage was available for pre-order in three retail versions: the Anarchy Edition and two region-dependent Collector's Editions. Those who pre-ordered the standard edition of Rage automatically got their copy upgraded to Anarchy Edition. Two Collector's Editions of the game were also available; one through EB Games in Australia, the other through Game and Gamestation in the UK.

• The Anarchy Edition adds a Crimson Elite Armor, a double barrel shotgun, fists of rage (an upgrade for fists that attaches metal blades to the character's hand gloves for use in melee combat) and a buggy called Rat Rod.
• The Australian version of the Collector's Edition (officially called Rage Exclusive EB Games Edition) contains everything from the Anarchy Edition, an exclusive Wingstick prop, six exclusive Rage badges and an exclusive poster of the game.
• The British version of the Collector's Edition (officially called Rage Collector's Pack) also contains all the content of the Anarchy Edition, the three-issue Dark Horse comics based on Rage and a 'Making Of' DVD.

The version released for Mac OS X was called Rage: Campaign Edition. This version contains all content of the Anarchy Edition and the Wasteland Sewer Missions DLC pack. Multiplayer is not present in this version. Only the single-player campaign is available hence the name of the edition.

Related media

On November 18, 2010, id Software released the game for iOS devices as a demo for showcasing its gameplay. The HD version of the game called Rage HD was released for all iOS devices. John Carmack hinted that he intends to release another iPhone app based on the Rage universe that focuses on the racing aspect of the game. On March 11, 2011, Bethesda and Dark Horse Comics announced a three-issue comic book series based on Rage. The original miniseries was written by Arvid Nelson, and penciled by Andrea Mutti. The cover art is being created by Glenn Fabry. The comic series, developed with the direct participation of Rage's creative director, Tim Willits, presents a new twist on the post-apocalyptic near future as one woman discovers that the survival of humankind does not necessarily mean the survival of humanity. The Earth has been devastated by a collision with an asteroid, with a tiny fraction of the population surviving in life-sustaining Arks buried deep below its surface. Those who survive emerge to find a wasteland controlled by a global military dictatorship called the Authority. But a rescued scientist learns that the Authority has lied to her and the other survivors about how this new world came to be. On March 30, 2011, Bethesda announced that they would team up with Del Rey Books to create a novel based on Rage. The novel was written by Matthew J. Costello, also responsible for the video game. It was released on August 30, 2011.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores Aggregator Score GameRankings (X360) 82.03% (PS3) 81.79% (PC) 77.94% Metacritic (X360) 81/100 (PS3) 81/100 (PC) 79/100 Review scores Publication Score 1UP.com B Edge 7/10 EGM 9.5/10 Eurogamer 8/10 Famitsu 35/40 G4 4/5 Game Informer 9/10 GamePro GameSpot 8/10 GameSpy GamesRadar GameTrailers 9.0/10 IGN 8.5/10

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 sites Metacritic and GameRankings. 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. GamesRadar gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, praising the game's visuals but criticizing its "superfluous" racing mini-games and a few "noticeable pop-in[s] of textures".

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.

External links

• Official website