"Melancholy" Doesn't Have The Same Ring To It

I beat Rage about a week ago. I don't understand the title. No one really seems enraged. Angry, happy, crazy? Sure. Tired, dirty, worn out, absolutely. There are a lot of guys with faces that could have been extras in a Leone Western (though all the women are very clean and neat, so it's more like a John Ford Western that way). But there's no one I'd described as enraged.

I haven't discussed the game since I complained about the hoops it was setting before me, but I did continue to play it. I didn't beat all of it. The end came much faster than I expected, so I kind of forgot about all the races and side missions I could have done. That's OK; they all would have boiled down to the same things. Retrieve this, kill that person, escort this moron.

As far as shooters go, Rage isn't a bad one. It's fairly easy to hit what you aim at, though a lot of the enemies fancy themselves acrobats so getting them in the crosshairs is a little more challenging. Also, it takes a lot of bullets to kill enemies. Even ones with no armor. I've wasted entire clips of machine gun rounds bringing down one blade-wielding idiot in a loincloth. I have a love/hate thing with the in-game interface. You can hit the BACK button to get into menu screens if you need to switch what weapons or tools you're carrying, but to switch between them while playing (say from the sniper rifle to the shotgun) requires holding a shoulder button, then moving the right joystick to your selection. If you want to select a different type of round for the weapon, you use the left joystick. Neither of those is easy to concentrate on if I'm trying to do it while retreating from a charging enemy (and the enemies in this game love to charge). I do like having different types of rounds, so I have the option of holding the heavy duty stuff in reserve for the toughest fights.

There's a strong driving component to the game as well. You're assigned your missions in the various towns you'll live in during the game, but they frequently require you to venture into the Wasteland to get where you need to go. The trails are pretty clearly marked, and the onscreen map will show you how to get where you're going (wish they did that when you're on foot during missions), but it also limits where you can go. It isn't a wide open environment; you're working within a fairly restricted area. Also, you'll almost certainly be attacked by gangs in their vehicles while you're out, so there's a lot of car-to-car combat. I imagine there could be an element of strategy to it, but I mostly just get them in my sites and shoot until they go "boom". The races are pretty enjoyable, maybe just as a change of pace. There are no consequences if you lose, you just try again.

Credit to the people in charge of the music, they knew how to manipulate the player. There are several missions where the soundtrack will have a sequence that to my brain screams "You're under attack!" Nobody ever attacks during those moments (I'm pretty sure the music shifts to something else entirely when shooting starts, but I'm too preoccupied to notice), and the music is on a loop. Even so, it would get me every time. I'd be creeping along slowly, hear the shift, and begin swiveling my character in all directions, scrambling for cover. Part of that is also enemies' tendency to come from all angles. Through walls, through the ceiling, over the railing of the catwalk you're on. When they do that, they intend to get up close, so they come straight for you, and it's a question of whether I can shoot them enough before they reach me. Because they're relentless and quick, so it can be easy for even one or two of them to make me feel overwhelmed. It made me expect attacks all the time, and the music keyed in on something that preyed on that expectation. So kudos there.

Pity I can't say the same for the story. I said I never met anyone I considered enraged. Well maybe it's supposed to be me, but the game certainly doesn't give any indication of it. I don't even know my character's name. I know he has one, I remember other characters using it, but it doesn't stick with me. He's a cipher to the extent his name is irrelevant. I don't know why he was part of the ARK Project, I don't know why he's so willing to go along with joining the Resistance, or why he doesn't seem bothered that everyone - and I mean everyone - just assumes he will go kill people for them. I know nothing about him, his interests, motivations, beliefs, what he left behind to go into that ARK, what he hopes to accomplish having seen the world that's here.

Take Timesplitters 2 as a comparison. There's no dialogue, the cutscenes are rather short, and don't necessarily tell you much. Even so, I know Cortez grew up in a world overrun by the TimeSplitters, and he's gone back in time to gather Time Crystals that can help overthrow them. I understand what he's doing and why (and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect fleshed out his character somewhat, if not entirely seriously). It's not that hard, but Rage failed. Scratch that, "failed" implies an attempt. They didn't even try. I find I don't like or dislike my guy. I'd feel bad for him being sucked into this, but he doesn't mind, so why should I? Any feelings I experience are towards other characters. Pity for regular folks, hatred of Redstone, irritation with the Resistance, who supposedly have plenty of members but expect me to do everything.

I don't even feel much towards the Authority. I shoot them and they shoot me, but it's because I've barged into some place that belongs to them, like a prison. Not terribly surprising they shoot at me. The towns the game is set in mostly to run themselves. The Authority show up when I start causing trouble, and they act as an occupying force, but you don't see them do much. They stand around, tell people to move along, but as far as acting like assholes, no. The one time you enter what I assume is a city wholly Authority is at the very end, and all you see are sentry robots, soldiers, and mutants who've been modified with armor grafts and pulse cannons. That kind of experimentation is certainly questionable, but I'd like to see more of what life is like in an Authority city. How crushed the people are (if they are).

I think they're planning a sequel, because that ending was incredibly abrupt and unsatisfying. I'm not opposed to setting up sequels, but there's a way to do it and still have a satisfying ending for the current game I'm playing. Activating a satellite so other ARKs emerge and that's it, ain't much of an ending. It's more the sort of thing that signals the middle of the book, the start of rising action leading to the climax. I didn't feel like I'd done anything. I at least expected an escape sequence before the place blew, or to steadily fight my way out past even more mutants, but no. Kind of a letdown.

Oh well, they can't all be winners. Rage might have been banking on the multiplayer aspect to carry the game, but I don't have a hookup for that, so it's a non-starter, at least for right now.