QuakeCon's Rage 2 trailer gives an extended peek at its open-world apocalyptic anarchy
Id have been busy little bees this year
While Doom Eternal brought the show home at QuakeCon, its opening act - Rage 2 - wasn't too shabby either. The ambitious joint project between Id Software and Just Cause studio Avalanche looks to be coming along nicely, and the new gameplay trailer below gives us an extended look at its occasionally lurid and mostly explosive post-apocalyptic world. It features a look at some of the enemy factions, environment types, and the vehicles you'll be driving plus an encore for the stuff featured in its original debut.
To my FPS-worn eyes, Rage 2 looks like a strange hybrid of Avalanche's underrated (in my opinion) Mad Max and Bulletstorm, more than anything. Loud, dumb FPS combat in arena-like environments interspersed with open-world driving and chunky vehicular combat. Judging by how weighty and satisfying both sides look in the video below, they picked the right two studios for it, and they're both playing to their strengths.
It's clear that Rage 2's environments are going to be vastly more interesting than the original's dusty world of deserts and derelict hallways. There's verdant and misty wetlands, more advanced sci-fi environments and even wide-open jungles. It's just nice to see colours outside of grey and brown. While set on desert roads, the vehicular combat shown looks fun, like a blend of Max Max and Twisted Metal. Lots of guns, big smokey explosions and more esoteric sci-fi defensive gear bolted onto the vehicles the baddies are driving.
As grim or as blood-splattered as it may seem, the overall tone seems more Borderlands than Fallout 2, especially when the player is fighting the Goon Squad faction, who are a neon-dyed mob of howling idiots who seem as likely to blow themselves up as anyone else. Quite frankly it's a miracle there's so many of them left by the time you find them (and shoot them all), but if there's anything games have taught me, it's that low-level goonery is a growth industry.
While there's no firm release date on it, Rage 2 will apparently be launching sometime in Spring 2019.