The reason why this isn’t being formatted into a review for the site is because I spent most of the review period fixing the game rather than playing it. I feel that based on this unusual situation, it would be difficult to assess the title without allowing the technical issues to impact my overall experience. So I thought I would write a specific “opinion” piece instead, rather than give the game a score or write a review dissecting the game into separate areas and telling you whether or not the game was worth purchasing.

Had the technical issues affected every single platform that Rage released on, I would be happy to write a review. But since I seem to have experienced serious technical issues (far more serious than most), I believe a blog post would better serve our readers.

I’ll admit that I am a HUGE fan of id’s previous game franchises. I was a PC gamer way before I even owned my first console, and id’s games (along with a few other notable titles including StarCraft, Diablo, Unreal Tournament, and EverQuest) were played A LOT. I was a huge fan of the Quake series and played the multiplayer online obsessively. So, to say that I was excited for Rage is a serious understatement. With this admission of fangirl geekery for id, you can imagine my bitter disappointment when shortly after installing the game, I ran into technical issues with the drivers.

I don’t know what other people experienced other than what I read on the official AMD forums. I was too busy trying to get Rage to launch to read anything else. The first issue I encountered related to “laggy” graphics where textures seemed to “lag” whenever I moved in the game. This was a known issue and was supposedly fixed with a Rage specific AMD driver update.

After updating my drivers, the problems actually became worse and I was unable to even launch the game on the PC. Eventually, I did finish Rage but the bitter taste in my mouth after having so many initial issues was hard to wash down.

I eventually received a copy of Rage for the Xbox 360. But it took too long to arrive and therefore, I requested the game for PC last week so I could attempt to get at least some review time in. Total fail. I’ve discussed my “Raging” game encounters via both the Well Played Podcast and the GC Podcast which you can listen to here if you’re interested.

Initially, the first two hours of the game had me quite excited to play more. After the opening cutscene which subtlely hinted at something along the lines of a storyline, I was hoping to get a more indepth experience with Rage. But alas, it was not to be.

I eventually did finish Rage (on a different PC altogether) but with everyone else publishing reviews last week, it would now be pointless to write one, especially in relation to my personal experience with it.

What I’ve realised is that the glory days of id back when they were the only developer that mattered (to me, anyway) are long gone. With so much emphasis to release games for the console market, I don’t think its possible for developers who have become legendary for creating masterpieces solely for the PC to continue doing so.

It’s true that times have changed, the development arena has changed, gamers have changed along with their expectations. I think from a development point of view, it’s no longer viable to create a “good shooter.” There are too many competitors who are dominating that market so unless you release a “great game” that really stands out and pushes the boundaries like nothing before it, your game is going to get lost somewhere in the endless flood of other “good games” out there. Making your mark on the gaming world may have been a lot easier 10 – 15 years ago.

I don’t think Rage has the “uniqueness” it requires to make it a stand-out title. For me, the gameplay seemed way too linear. I didn’t really enjoy having to repeat many of the missions by doing the same thing over and over. While the buggy racing segment did offer a change of pace (and it was actually a lot of fun),  it just wasn’t enough.

So I apologise to those people that asked for my early opinion. At first, I was totally pumped to be playing Rage but that enthusiasm soon faded. Granted, some of that enthusiasm died as a direct result of the issues I had getting the game to run, but that aside, I did find myself getting a little bored with the repetitive nature of the quests.

As a long time fan of id, my loyalty to them as a developer won’t die after one bad experience but it certainly has woken me up to the fact that even great developers can sometimes get it wrong.