Have You Played... Rage?

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.

I do wonder what Rage could have been without the ultimately empty open-world bits you drive around. Oh, I know automotive combat was a cornerstone of id Software's vision but it ended up a distraction on the side, creating expectations of an open world that it didn't deliver on. Aside from that, see, Rage is a fun bang-bang quest-y FPS.

Rage is a funny old thing. You have delightful little hub settlements to poke around in, chatting with people, taking on quests, and soaking in the world. That's great, that. You also have combat zones, which are linear but have a few fine dramatic set pieces, and are fun to do shooty-shooting in. Then a kinda pointless free-roaming world connects the two with driving and not-great automotive combat.

I don't know how all the bits fit together, but I like the towns and world and people and I like the gunbangs. I especially like lopping off heads with the wingstick and summoning adorable little spiderbot buddies.

I wish I could forget Rage was made by id because I'm sure there's an awful tedious part of me which wants them to stay in the '90s and quietly rejects Rage. Stop being a babby, That Part.

I don't know what's up with the car bits, though. Or why it zooms through the final act and crashes to an end.