So RAGE was Filled with Corridors and Rooms, Big Deal

Beautiful, expansive worlds with a plethora of enemies, tools, and diverse characters with whom the player character can interact aren’t just for open world games. Different areas to run around in, a wide range of environments, several missions giving the player excuses to return to some of those nifty environments, these things occur in linear games as well. Rage is, yeah, linear, but linear is no STD-infested harlot ruining each game it can get its hands on, linear is capable of healthy relationships as well.

Initial details and footage of Id’s latest project, Rage, hinted at a massive post-apocalyptic world where the player could roam about freely, shooting mutated things in the face as they went. Id said they wanted to try something different, add some more modern mechanics to the formula they use for the genre they know best: first person shooters. As such, Rage was given a dose of open world and a dash of minigames along with a surprise racing ingredient. The expectation was a grand souffle, or maybe a cake, or perhaps some other sort of extravagant and large meal filled with deliciousness, but Rage didn’t turn out as expected when the oven timer went off. Rage is linear (oh, gosh, I said linear!), the minigames are lackluster, the races were decent diversions at best and the vast, open world was really more a rather well-cordoned off museum tour complete with aggressive museum goers in buggies firing missiles. All the levels were well crafted step-by-step affairs with plenty of scripted environmental hazards conveniently shutting off exit routes and firefights breaking out, each presenting a slightly different challenge than the last. Plenty of areas encouraged players to take advantage of the various tools and different ammo types that were provided and… why… wait what part of this linear experience was the bad part again?

Linear used to be everything, and now more open world games came out holiday of 2011 than ever before in entire years. The industry is moving on on the development side, perhaps, but if all the ridiculous support for all things nostalgic has taught me one thing it’s that people like old things still. And beyond that, linear isn’t even old, it’s just hidden in smoke in mirrors like the massive set pieces of games like those of the Assassin’s Creed (a largely open world game) series, or the scattered and directionless nature of games like the The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (a very open world game) which give players the option to run around and do what they want, but the moment they’re off in a dungeon somewhere they’re really just… going down hallways into rooms. Just like in Rage. Oh no, hallways, corridors, rooms!

The debate on Rage shouldn’t be about whether or not it’s an open world game and it shouldn’t be judged for being a bad open world game (because it’s not an open world game). Rage is a linear first person shooter. Yes, it’s more expanded than in the days of old, giving players that guise of “openness” by having them drive around in canyons over and over, and suspiciously providing exactly one quest for each and every area suggesting players go back and get something only to find the area has changed ever so slightly. Anything but the quests wasn’t really worth doing for most and for good reason, the game was in the missions, it was in finding reasons to shoot more things. The variety in the AI (who admittedly was far too keen to stick their head out from behind cover) in tactics, the different ways a combat situation could be approached thanks to the engineering system, the impressive draw distance and environment design (though it couldn’t be explored), these are all things Rage did well and perfectly reasonable excuses to buy and enjoy a first person shooter.

What are your thoughts?

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http://www.ripten.com Chad Lakkis

Great read. I’ll admit that the thought of playing linear games scares me as well though if done right it could make for a great experience. I guess the biggest plus here is that it’s a new IP, what really turned me off about the linear play of a franchise like Final Fantasy in FFXIII was how it wasn’t anything we had seen before. I haven’t played this yet but I’ll give it a go and let you know what I think after. Curious to see what other readers have to say.
http://www.facebook.com/nickreaume Nick Reaume

I enjoyed RAGE a lot. I bought it on day one, and sure it didn’t live up to the open world game play that we thought it would be, but it still worked as a first person shooter. It was definitely more open world than Call of Duty and had a lot more customizing. All of the different ammunition types, the different things I could make, and the racing kept me on the game until I beat it. So yes, when people in my store talk bad about RAGE while selling it, I get upset, because the game was awesome.
- http://www.ripten.com Chad Lakkis
  
  Do you think it was falsely represented during the period the game was advertised before release? I know one game which I won’t name that was touted as a mix of World of Warcraft and Halo. Needless to say it failed miserably and I don’t doubt that some of that was due to the lofty expectations set by those advertising it.
  - http://www.facebook.com/nickreaume Nick Reaume
    
    I don’t think it was falsely represented during advertisements, just not enough information was given and most of the game was largely speculated from the sales standpoint. They really told us it would be an open world FPS with some small RPG elements that would have the best graphics possible and a landscape that would rival games like Fallout and Elders Scrolls. We were just all just misinformed.
  - http://www.facebook.com/nickreaume Nick Reaume
    
    I don’t think it was falsely represented during advertisements, just not enough information was given and most of the game was largely speculated from the sales standpoint. They really told us it would be an open world FPS with some small RPG elements that would have the best graphics possible and a landscape that would rival games like Fallout and Elders Scrolls. We were just all just misinformed.
  - http://www.facebook.com/nickreaume Nick Reaume
    
    I don’t think it was falsely represented during advertisements, just not enough information was given and most of the game was largely speculated from the sales standpoint. They really told us it would be an open world FPS with some small RPG elements that would have the best graphics possible and a landscape that would rival games like Fallout and Elders Scrolls. We were just all just misinformed.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1009478830 J.g. Lukaras
    
    now i really want to know what this unnamed game is….
http://twitter.com/MatthewP39 Matthew Perkins

I think the biggest down fall to Rage was its presentation. The mechanics were solid, the graphics were good. The problem for me was the story and how the missions were set out. It was like marking off a shopping list instead of turning another page in a good book. Fetch this item for me, kill this bandit. Alright your done? Head to the next village were they can use you as there errand boy. Not saying that is a bad concept, its just your character seems to have no initiative on his own except when someone points him were the bad guys are.
- Todd Schlickbernd
  
  I definitely agree with this, the failings of Rage were not in the gameplay and especially not in the fact that it was linear, the problem was that the linearity of the game wasn’t necessarily justified within the story, which is, yeah, disappointing, but a fun game is a fun game. I got that whole “I’m just going to do what everyone asks me apparently” feeling really quick, but it didn’t take away from the fun at any point. Just made it less immersive.
http://www.facebook.com/Shadow1331 Lee Moughton

I have to disagree about what you said about the AI “sticking there head out from behind cover” i did not see this while playing the game, yes if you stopped firing for a second or two they did poke there heads out to see what was happening and i think any low level grunt worthy of that title might well do that, and then you rightly blew it off !. But they also limped for cover if you wounded them as well as run for cover if you ran in there blasting everything with your shotgun, i found the AI to be very clever is some areas, the guards with the sheilds would try to flank you and if you managed to take out there shield they would look for cover and retreat. so take it back !

p.s. maybe you played it on easy level….
- Todd Schlickbernd
  
  I played it all the way through on Hard, and the AI were indeed very intuitive. Clamoring for cover, hiding if they were wounded but turning to fire if you showed up, etc. But I played roughly 70% of that game with a sniper and I can guarantee you that there was far more head-leaning than was necessary. A lot of the time it could be forced as well, placing turrets would get them to pop out from behind cover, which ultimately is a fun piece of gameplay, but sniping in that game is very, very potent.
Pantherx69

I was never bothered by the lack of ‘openness’ to be honest, it was the constant screen tears and absurdly blurry graphics that prevented immersion in the game. Once I got those issues fixed my residual aggravation colored my view of the gameplay so negatively that I ended up abandoning it in favor of other games. I’ve only decided in the last couple of days to revisit it and try and get a fresh look.

So far the biggest knock against the game is that I don’t feel that I don’t invested in the world I’m supposed to save and as such I don’t feel driven to move the story forward, I only do so once there’s nothing left to do in the area I’m in….much like Borderlands. Except that at least in Borderlands you’re driven forward by the desire to get better stuff. In comparison Metro 2033, which is much more linear than Rage (it’s pretty much one looong corridor), made me want to move forward to see what would happen next.
Pantherx69

I was never bothered by the lack of ‘openness’ to be honest, it was the constant screen tears and absurdly blurry graphics that prevented immersion in the game. Once I got those issues fixed my residual aggravation colored my view of the gameplay so negatively that I ended up abandoning it in favor of other games. I’ve only decided in the last couple of days to revisit it and try and get a fresh look.

So far the biggest knock against the game is that I don’t feel that I don’t invested in the world I’m supposed to save and as such I don’t feel driven to move the story forward, I only do so once there’s nothing left to do in the area I’m in….much like Borderlands. Except that at least in Borderlands you’re driven forward by the desire to get better stuff. In comparison Metro 2033, which is much more linear than Rage (it’s pretty much one looong corridor), made me want to move forward to see what would happen next.