Rage 2 Reviews
Some of the best first-person shooting on PC, but the rest of the game struggles to keep up with it.
With weapons including a firestorm revolver, the shooting is thrilling and stupendously violent – but the vast post-apocalyptic setting is a letdown
Although Rage 2 features fantastic close-quarters combat, things tend to slide downhill once you drive out into the open world.
It's probably not a good thing that my mind kept wandering to other games that do everything this game does, but better.
Each piece holds satisfaction and joy that belies its base description, however. Combat in Rage 2 feels smooth as glass, with every gunfight playing to a violent rhythm. Travelling throughout the world is fast and engaging, with every pit stop bringing new wonders of varying quality.
The parts I like far outweigh the parts I don’t. I’ve got my weirdo NPCs, my Ark hunting, my Whoopinkoffs and Dimbledicks. I’ve found every Ark, now, but I still plan on gambolling between side activities. I still want to explore, even though I wish I was exploring a world that had been less generically destroyed.
Going into release I was actually pretty hyped for this game. An over-the-top shooter with goofy weapons and powers sounded like something right up my alley, but what we got is yet another forgettable entry in the Rage franchise. It does nothing to warrant being brought back from the dead, so I have to ask Bethesda, why bother? Maybe some things are best left in the past.
Combat is by far the biggest selling point of Rage 2, and Avalanche Software should be proud of a title that continually draws comparisons the super-tight Doom reboot in my mind.
As a first person shooter, Rage 2 has some of the best action of the year but as an open world adventure it squanders everything on a listless story campaign and banal mission design.
Rage 2 is ugly, silly, and dated, and yet, I still enjoyed the hell out of most of my time with it. The game delivers the kind of low-stress, high-satisfaction fun you don't often get from big-budget games these days. If you're willing to check your brain at the title screen, I suggest you jump into this apocalypse now.
The list of things I don't like about Rage 2 is much longer than the things I like about it, but the one thing it does better than I even expected is combat. Once you've filled up your toolbox of weapons and powers, you have seemingly endless ways to take on the game's foes. Unfortunately, its bland story, drab tone, and scattered open world drag it down, but the fierce firefights kept me engaged the whole way.
Even after 8 years, the Rage series is still having an identity crisis. It has all the signifiers of an open-world game, but it lacks the overall narrative that makes the world compelling, and its best bits—that is, its gunfights—take places in either small, complexly designed arenas or in hallways, like a linear shooter. The greatest irony about Rage 2 is that it might have been an even better, more interesting game if it was more like the first game with a fresh coat of (pink) paint. What it is now is just a bunch of sound and fury, which can be fun for a while, but it's ultimately an empty experience.
Rage 2 is presented as a wild ride through a post-apocalyptic playground, with people invited to attend a festival of blood, guts, and spray paint. Wacky characters and bright colors adorn the box art and marketing materials, but the reality of the game is much less colorful.
Rage 2 is a surprisingly powerful shooter hidden behind an unnecessary open world and often boring presentation.
Review in German | Read full review
Rage 2 is an excellent shooter, and not much else. Want a complex story? Wrong address. Looking for an original, authentic world to explore – nope, not here. But if you want to shoot, shoot, and then shoot some more, be invincible and also crazy, then hop in – you're in for a ride!
Review in Polish | Read full review
Rage 2 was one of the most anticipated games of 2019 but unfortunately didn't manage to fulfill our expectations as much as we wanted. Just like other titles from Avalanche and ID Software, combat is enjoyable and satisfying while story is very stereotype and void of any charm. Besides that, it doesn't take long before gameplay becomes boring because of inappropriate structure of objectives and empty world of the game. Maybe if Rage 2 wasn't an open-world game and ID Software developed the game on its own, the results would've been much better. In any case, if you want to keep yourself entertained until the release of other major first-person shooters, you can give Rage 2 a try.
Review in Persian | Read full review
While Rage 2 falls short in most areas, it excels in the one that matters the most: gameplay.
Since we took our first steps in Avalanche Studios' vision of doom, we have found it difficult to put control aside. The combination of open world, mutant freaks and superpowers is far too entertaining, actually well above our expectations. Sure, some routes get reasonably tragic sometimes, but what does it do when the world is otherwise as complete as it is? Along with the eminent control and dynamic battles, it makes Rage 2 one of the most addictive titles of the year so far.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
Bringing Avalanche on board seems like it has been a masterstroke, as id Software’s peerless shooter library gets another superb entry.