If you played the first Rage, you know that you will enter a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by an asteroid. After its impact, Earth became a wasteland, and the mutagens brought by the asteroid changed people. Now the world is ruled by gangs, mutants, and especially The Authority, the most technologically advanced faction that wants to restore order. The problem is that he wants to establish it with his dictatorial regime. But there are people who can resist it, they're the Ark people. They were buried underground in cryogenic sleep, doped with nanotides, adding the skills that made them the strongest people on the planet. In the unit we played for one of them and tried to destroy the Authority. Now we're going to continue with the other two, but with another hero - an ordinary soldier.
The original game was more straightforward, had little freedom or size, but offered a new and interesting world, complemented by well-captured characters, as well as well designed action and atmosphere. Now it will be different. The world is opening and it will be about its vastness. We get into an environment of approximately 6x6 km, much smaller than we are used to in Just Cause games, but it is still big enough. Its smaller size has a reason - the environment is predominantly a wasteland, which, say, is predominantly deserted and boring (although visually impressive). It will be important to move vehicles between campsites, towns and other places you can discover. They are properly close together so that you do not have to cross the map for half an hour. There will be a few big cities and dozens, maybe a hundred smaller sites to clean.
The entire gameplay will be based on clearing sites from enemies. While you will initially receive several story missions in which you recognize several important characters, it will then be your task to free the environment for each of the three contact characters, without a mission, sandbox. You choose what you dispose of. Whether a campsite, convoy, fuel, or you just go to get supplies. At the end, after about fifteen hours of play, it will close again with a series of missions so you can continue playing sandboxing and enjoy the next hours of cleaning the rest of the environment. Possibly other activities and challenges that will gradually come to the environment with updates. Still in addition to killing enemies, you will be able to take orders to search for people, or participate in the arena TV show Mutant Bash, or car racing.
The event itself is conceived amusingly, the authors focused on explosions, scattering enemies around, but also their fun pieces, such as firing grenades with baseball bats. You will certainly not be bored. At the same time, the creators did not exaggerate with RPG elements, and therefore no pop-ups or enemy levels. Nothing to compel you to endlessly collect loot like in a looter shooter. It's close to games like Borderlands or Bulletstorm, but it's halfway between Rage and this style of gameplay. Just Cause in a post-apocalyptic country.
RPG elements, on the other hand, are quite deeply integrated. There are several trees to improve your character and its abilities, you can upgrade every vehicle you get, including unlocking new accessories and skinning. Everything you do for things gained in attacks, where each area has several boxes with different content, whether crystals, money or booster weapons. Maybe the only pity that the basic weapons are few, you can improve them, but the supply is limited. There are traders, whether traveling or in cities where you can buy additional equipment and options.
Improvement is profound, abundant and well adjusted. You still feel how you improve and get new skills. You are an ordinary soldier, but as you get to the center of combat and are a direct foothold of all resistance to the Authority, you will gradually gain the skills of the Ark people and get deeper into the core of the enemy.
It's exactly the style of Avalanche games, it's a move away from the original Rage, but Bethesda obviously wanted to try a game that could be expanded and the players would spend tens of hours there. Those who enjoy the explosive action in the sandbox can be found here. Maybe the big mistake of the game is the absence of cooperation. It's a game that asks you directly so you can enjoy fun gameplay with your friends. At least with one. Let's see if it ever comes into play.
Visually, the game is very impressive, perhaps not as varied as you would expect when the authors said they would also have jungle and other climate zones. However, it is still a wasteland and the environment outside the camps is mostly empty, except for occasional cars and gunfights. In any case, the visual is impressive. From views, lighting, explosions, animations of enemies. The performance itself is very good and the GTX970 goes ultra around 40 fps in 1080p, on consoles wait 30 fps on weaker versions of Xbox One and PS4, 60 fps on more powerful Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, although unfortunately everywhere only 1080p.
The design and details of individual campsites and small towns, where the Avalanche has played and moved its austere style two categories higher, will also surprise. Maybe also because the whole map is smaller than we used to Avalanche and they have paid attention to details. On the other hand, the map is even more limited, it is no longer open like in Just Casue, but it forces you to drive along roads where cliffs, chasms are at every turn, and attempting every shortcut is usually in vain. At the same time walking is almost impossible and completely unnecessary.
What still needs to be improved in Avalanche are animations that are still not good, and especially at the beginning spoiled the impression of the game, which then had to correct the gameplay itself. Fortunately, there is not much animation. Surprisingly, though, Avalanche focused on interviews where people still have a lot to say in the cities and complete the picture of the post-apocalyptic world. You will also meet famous people from the first Rage, see what they are doing and how they continue their fight.
Overall, Rage 2 is an interesting change in the style of playability of this post-apocalyptically tuned brand. Some may sit down, others may not. If you play Avalanche games like Just Cause or Mad Max, you already know the direction. It's an open sandbox action full of explosions, but with repetitive tasks and minimal story. Now in fps style with high quality shootouts, as well as depth of upgrades and enhancements. It's something between Far Cry: New Dawn and Borderlands spiced with Bullestorm flavor. It does not try to be a looter shooter, but it is also designed to relax enemies.
