Id Software’s RAGE is poised to be released sometime next year. There’s a lot of hype surrounding the game, as gamers always have high expectations for John Carmack, his latest game engines their impressive 3D tech. The man who brought us Wolfenstein 3D and Doom provides major releases but a few times a decade these days, so there are plenty of reasons to be excited about his latest project. As confident as people are beginning to feel about RAGE, however, I can’t shake the feeling that the game is going to be a significant disappointment. I think RAGE is going to suck.
Perhaps suck is too strong a word. Perhaps everything is going to be just fine. Perhaps the game is released and people really do enjoy playing it. Trouble is brewing in Texas, though—I can feel it. Between graphics complaints, tired plot devices and console development, I’m beginning to see ingredients to the perfect storm that just might make RAGE a game that sucks.
On the subject of ID Tech 5’s graphical capabilities, I’m just going to get this one out of the way: I’m not impressed. Despite the engine’s use of advanced mapping techniques, there just isn’t much depth to in-game surfaces. Three years after release, Crysis still appears to have more detail in its environments than RAGE does. I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that RAGE still uses skyboxes–a 15-year-old concept– rather than Crysis’ dynamic volumetric clouds.
None of this is to say that RAGE has bad graphics, but it is to say that RAGE isn’t the show-stopping bar-raiser that we’ve come to expect from id Software.
Now, there are some positives to Tech 5’s visuals in RAGE. For starters, the engine’s implementation of MegaTextures (learn more) looks great, which truly makes distant textures crisp and detailed. Soft shadowing also looks significantly improved over the hard-edged shadows of ID Tech 4 (see: Doom 3).
The character models in RAGE look stellar as well. Despite falling well short of their initial bullshots, the character models are one of the highlights of the engine. In fact, they may be too good, because the rest of the engine doesn’t keep up with them.
Talking textures
RAGE’s use of MegaTextures is, as previously stated, pretty fantastic. When you get in close, however, especially with indoor environments, asset textures look downright bad. The textures are blurry, lack in detail and suffer a nasty bump map (learn more) thrown over top for good measure. One imagines that texture fidelity would be a hot commodity in such a high-tech game, but that just isn’t the case based on the media that’s been released so far.
Sadly, RAGE seems to throw sharp and detailed characters into a world that lacks definition up close–click on any of the images within this article to see what I mean. It makes the characters look out of place.
Why would such a limitation exist in RAGE? I have a theory, but you’re not going to like it.
The lowest common denominator: consoles
Consoles are at fault for the bad textures in RAGE. I know, I know. . . John Carmack himself has stated that there will be no noticeable differences between the console and PC versions, and that the console versions aren’t hindering PC development. This sentiment is new and reassu–wait, no it isn’t. The fact of the matter is this: no matter how much potential the current generation of consoles might have, developing for them is still developing for the lowest common denominator.
Some apologists might argue that the current crop of screencaps are from the Xbox 360 version of RAGE, and that the PC version will offer superior fidelity. But when you stop for a moment to consider that all of the screenshots were taken at a higher resolution than what’s possible on any of the consoles, I’m thinking we need to fear the worst.
The story. . . oh LORD the story. . .
Contemporary game developers love the post-apocalyptic near future. For example, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and its two sequels, Metro 2033, Fallout 3, and Borderlands apparently weren’t enough to satisfy the obsession with brown and dirty environments. But RAGE is different because it has vehicles and racing and bandits, oh my! Right.
I was once a big fan of post-apocalyptic anything, but the setting has totally worn out its welcome.
Perhaps worse than the setting of RAGE is its story. Not much is known about the full plot of the game, but developers have stated that you play as a man who was a resident of this underground vault thingy when something went awry. You emerge as the sole survivor with no knowledge of yourself or the past. You are, wait for it. . . an amnesiac. The rest of the game involves you learning about yourself, and seeing where you fit into the whole big picture.
Really, ID? . . .REALLY? Can you just see the pitch meeting for the game’s story?
An enthusiastic employee with a cue stick points at a storyboard: “I’ve got this AWESOME idea that’s never been done before! It’s be about a guy who wakes up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland some time in the future. He has no clue who he is. The game takes the player on a journey of self-discovery ending in the revelation that he was the bad guy all along!”
I don’t know how RAGE actually ends, but I swear that making the main character an amnesiac is simply an excuse to throw in a “WHAT A TWIST” moment.
The amnesia trope has been done so many times that it’s hard to list all of the recent games that have featured the device: F.E.A.R., S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Dragon Age: Origins, The Witcher, BioShock, and Knights of the Old Republic are just the tip of the iceberg.
The name
Finally, they named the game RAGE. RAGE is what I get just thinking about such a crappy title. Did the writers cruise through Encyclopedia Dramatica after they ran out of ideas?
Final thoughts
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for all of id Software’s titles, so I genuinely want RAGE to be a good game. However, the company’s recent efforts–coughDoom3cough–hardly impressed, and it makes me wonder if John Carmack can still make a good game, or if he should hang up the IDE and stick to technology development. I fear the lackluster visuals in RAGE are simply proof for the latter.
I sincerely hope Carmack proves me wrong.