Rage (stylized as RAGE) is a first-person shooter and racing game developed by id Software, and published by Bethesda Softworks. It uses the company's new id Tech 5 engine. The game was first shown as a tech demo on June 11, 2007 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, and was officially announced on August 2, 2007 at QuakeCon. On the same day, a trailer for the game was released by Gametrailers.com.
The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world similar to that of other popular video games such as Fallout and Borderlands. In an interview with GameSpot, designer Tim Willits revealed that the game is set in the near future following the impact of 99942 "Apophis". Matthew Costello, who worked on the plot of Doom 3, also worked on the RAGE plot. Influences on the driving and racing gameplay include games such as MotorStorm and Burnout, according to another Willits interview by Shacknews. Players are able to upgrade their cars with money won from races.
On October 27, 2016, Rage was made backwards compatible with Xbox One.
Gameplay
Rage features some role-playing game elements — an inventory system and the capabilities of weapons that are based around types of ammo. Players also have the option to customize their weapons and select one of three (four with the Anarchy Edition or Campaign Edition) outfits after completing several story quests. There are also side missions.
Creative director Tim Willits stated that at the game's core is a first-person shooter with Vehicle Combat added without the racing being the central focal point. Players have the ability to augment their vehicles with various items and upgrades they can gain by completing races.
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 your opponents and stealing their points. Wasteland Legends is a series of two-player co-op missions based on stories that the players hear about as they play the single-player campaign.
Story
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic version of a wasteland created by an asteroid impact, based on the real life asteroid 99942 Apophis, which will pass by Earth in 2036. In Rage's story, the asteroid strikes in December 2029, and the few pockets of survivors are forced to begin a new civilization.
The world is populated by human survivors of the impact, who have come together to form settlements around oases and other practical or habitable locations. These fragile homes are diligently defended by the inhabitants against bandits and mutants, which are divided into various gangs and organizations of their own. Bandits and mutants serve as the player's main enemies for much of the game, with later addition of more organized and dangerous forces.
The protagonist emerges into this setting after being preserved inside an underground cryogenic pod. The Arks are the direct result of the Eden Project, a massive international undertaking in which hundreds of Arks were sealed under the surface of the Earth with twelve people inside each. Each passenger possessed a special ability or trait that, combined with those of the other members, would help them rebuild society. The Eden project, however, was far less successful than hoped. The protagonist's Ark in particular is in bad shape at the start of the game. All of the other residents of the Ark are dead, and its equipment is destroyed as well, so the protagonist wakes up alone and uninformed. With no information on his location or objectives, he is forced to head for the surface to find sustenance and allies.
Enemies
The foes found in Rage consist of mutants and various bandit clans. The clans include:
In the later stages of the Campaign, there is also a group called the Authority. They are a highly organized and weaponized military force that controls the land.
Timeline
- 2004: Scientists detect an asteroid the size of Manhattan spiraling in deep space. Excitement turns to concern as prediction's have it passing dangerously close to Earth's lunar orbit sometime in 2029. The asteroid is dubbed 99942 “Apophis” — after the Egyptian god of chaos.
- 2024: Apophis is privately assigned a Torino rating of 7, the highest ever on the scale to measure the likelihood of an object impacting Earth. Publicly, the US and other collaborating governments announce a rating of 4. NASA and the European Space Agency believe the rating will be increased to 10 within 12 months.
- 2025: The “Eden” project begins. Capsules are buried deep underground and designed to burrow out at preset dates several years after the disaster. The goal of the project is to preserve knowledge, genetic samples and other items essential for human life. Thousands of Arks contain groups of “inhabitants” who are injected with nanotrites, a new untested super-science of the day, allowing them to survive cold sleep.
- 2025–27: Governments stockpile massive arsenals of weapons and supplies within hardened fortifications deep inside the Earth.
- August 2029: News reaches the general population as smaller meteorites impact the Earth ahead of Apophis. The “Ark” project is initiated.
- December 2029: Apophis strikes the Moon and slams into the Earth carrying the force of 13.3 Gigatonnes of TNT. Entire countries are devastated, cities are erased, and lakes and rivers evaporate. The Earth is cast into a multi-year impact winter as the Sun is blocked by dust and debris in the stratosphere. Within one year, 80% of all life disappeared on Earth.
- 2035: The dust starts to settle as survivors crawl out of caves and shelters to a world that is nothing like before. Civilization is gone, and little hope remains. People group together in loosely formed clans. Small settlements and camps are constructed as many try to find shelter from the unknown dangers lurking in the wasteland that has become Earth.
- 2135: Later on Nicholas Raine helps the Resistance and they decrypt Raine's ID drive that has locations, codes and reentry times for every Ark that was ever buried. This ID drive is the only way to beat the Authority and set free all the Ark's that the Authority imprisoned beneath the Earth. But in order to activate the drive, Raine needed to infiltrate the Authorities Capital City, get to the Ark control system and upload data from the OD Drive. Once Raine uploaded the OD Drive, the Resistance put in place their own people to help those who emerge from the Ark's and form together to build an army that could defeat the Authority.
Development
Reports indicated that id was developing Rage with a “Teen” rating in mind, and that the Windows, Mac and Xbox 360 versions will ship on either two or three dual-layer DVD discs. John Carmack has revealed that an uncompressed software build of Rage was one terabyte in size.
On July 14, 2008, 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.
On November 5, 2009, John Carmack stated id Software is not planning to support dedicated servers for the PC version, and instead will use a matchmaking system not unlike console games.
On December 15, 2009, ZeniMax Media, who had acquired developer id Software in June 2009, announced that it has picked up the publishing rights to Rage, and that EA will not be involved in the sales or marketing of the title. The announcement also notes development of Rage has not been affected by this new deal.
On May 3, 2010, creative director Tim Willits confirmed to video games blog VG247 that the game would miss releasing in 2010, and will now launch in 2011.
On June 17, at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, Tim Willits accepted the award from IGN Media for “Best Game” and “Best First Person Shooter”.
On October 4, 2011, Rage was released in the United States for Windows, Xbox and PS3. Australasian release was announced on October 6, and the European release on October 7.
On October 8, 2011, patch for the Windows version was released which added various graphical options to the game and fixed a number of driver-related graphical issues.
On February 2, 2012, Rage was released worldwide for Macintosh in the form of digital download by Aspyr Media, Inc. The Macintosh version was called the Campaign Edition, as the multiplayer content was cut from the game.
On February 2, 2012, second patch for the Windows version was released which added new features and addressed various compatibility and performance issues.
On December 18, 2012, The Scorchers DLC was released for all platforms. Currently, it looks like that it was only made available for North America, a part of Europe and Australia; the game owners who live in the other parts of the world have no access to the DLC. ( Confirmed (RU).)
Cancelled port
Linux
Regarding the status of the Linux port after the July 14, 2008 announcement, John Carmack said, "It isn't a launch platform for us, but an executable may still show up". Later he said that a Linux port is unlikely in response to an email where he says "It isn't out of the question, but I don't think we will be able to justify the work" and "It probably wouldn't be all that bad to get it running on the nVidia binary drivers, but the chance of it working correctly and acceptably anywhere else would be small". Three weeks later Timothee Besset, the person in charge of porting id's products to Linux, discussed the future of the Linux port in a more positive light, stating on September 13, 2009 that "Fundamentally nothing has changed with our policy regarding Linux games… I'll be damned if we don't find the time to get Linux builds done.".
Reception
Rage received generally favorable reviews from critics. IGN gave it an 8.5/10, praising it for its visuals and gameplay mechanics, but criticizing it for its storyline and characters. Both ZTGD and X-ONE Magazine UK gave Rage a 9/10.
In terms of sales, Rage has sold over three million units worldwide, across all platforms. [1]
On XBOX 360 (), it sold over 1.54 million unites worldwide. On PS3 (), it eventually reached 1.24 million units. Finally, PC () only sold 0.33 million units, significantly less than on consoles.
Trivia
Did you know...
- ... that the "Arks" were shelters made to help selected people survive the impact of the asteroid 99942 "Apophis"?
- ... that mutants, unlike normal human enemies, disintegrate a few seconds after they are killed?
- ... that the Resistance is a group of people who oppose the Authority?
System Requirements
Minimum
- OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD
- RAM: 2 GB
- HDD: 25 GB free disk space
- Graphics: 265 MB graphics memory
- Sound Card: DirectX 9 compatible
- DirectX: Version 9
Recommended
- OS: Windows XP SP3, Vista or Windows 7
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad or equivalent AMD
- RAM: 4 GB
- HDD: 25 GB free disk space
- Graphics: 512 MB graphics memory
- Sound Card: DirectX 9 compatible
- DirectX: Version 9
See also
External links
- Official website
- Official forum
- RAGE at Xbox.com
- RAGE at PlayStation.com
- RAGE at Aspyr.com
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