Third-person driving is clunky and unresponsive. Then again, the driving is clunky and unresponsive full stop. It's an onerous task that never really gets any better whether it is when you are exploring, in a solo game race or online. It seems tacked-on, ill-planned and just not very good.
The FPS elements of the game are pretty decent, as are most id games. Then again there is nothing really new here gun-play wise to the latest Doom or Quake.
Id has a style of first-person shooter and they stick to it. The crafting element to the game is an interesting touch though. Making your own exploding arrows for the cross-bow is quite fun.The straight out of Mad Max boomerang-like throwing stick is, however, just a gimmick and not really that useful.
You have the standard aray of weapons and some interesting ammo. Though I am not sure of the point of the "mind-control" bolts you get later on as the "control" doesn't really work that well.
And how lame is a remote-controlled car-bomb? It wasn't fun in DNF and it's lame in this game too. It is more useful to craft them to sell them to buy actual useful things.
Allowing the player to craft their own individual armor would have been nice and the choices (expensive too) of paint schemes for the car seemed a bit weak.
As far as the open-world element to the game goes, it is a load of hooey. Yes you can drive around in the various areas killing bandit vehicles for rewards from the bar-tender in each settlement, but that gets a tad dull. The side missions are fairly samey and the rewards are limited. The game is basically very linear, with a lame predictable plot and an ending that makes DX:HR's seem clever and witty.
I tried the multiplayer and it was laggy. The driving part of it suffers from the same problems as the solo game, with lame modes and tracks that assume you are on an uber-fast line one town over from the host. I tried to find someone to co-op but no one was around. Considering the problems people are having with co-op I am not surprised.
Article comments
1 - Adam
There has already been one patch and driver updates that came out like 3 days after its release. Which made it playable on the PC and looking very good! I know they'll have another patch very soon too! Love Rage!