deaths of nearly everyone else right
at the outset isn’t remotely impactful,
least of all on Walker, who is definitely
the kind of protagonist that needs
a rage-fuelling origin story to give
the narrative any clout. It’s not Mel
Gibson’s Mad Max, that’s for sure.
Rage appropriate
The game’s prelaunch hype made
much of the fact that you can
overpower your weapons to make
the carnage even wilder, but if you’re
expecting that from the get-go, you
may be disappointed. It’s going to take
a lot of grind and the story to be all
but done-with before you’ll get those
god-like powers.
Fortunately there are a number
of effective and inventive weapons
available to you early doors, such as
the combat shotgun which allows
you to funnel your shot into one
body-slamming slug or the explosive
magnum that shoots bullets that
you can then detonate for extra fire
damage. Activating Overdrive (like
a ‘rage’ bar... why isn’t it called a
‘Rage’ bar?) with any weapon causes
some serious carnage on top. All
good fun, but actually it’s possible,
even preferable, to just use the
assault rifle, which does a grand
job of cutting down enemies, and is
particularly good for extra-squishy
headshots. The FPS combat is, to
befair,exceptional,asyoumight
expectfromid.TheenemyAI is smart,
sometimesannoyinglyso,whilethe
gamethrowsenoughexplodable
enemiesatyoutokeepthingsfast
andfuriouslysatisfying.
Beyondthatperfectedgame-
loopthough,everythingelsefeels
redundant.Enhancementsseem
inconsequential,seekingoutArksand
alltheothervarioustypesofcrafting
materialsfeelslikea grindtoofarfor
littlereward;levellingis themerest
nodtoa moresubstantialRPG.The
worldis smalltoo;thoughthereis
quitea bitofworldbeyondthatwhich
youneedtoseein thestorymode,
there’sjustnoparticularreason
toexplorefurther.Side-questsare
uninspiring,andforallitsopen-world
pretensionsRage 2 is effectivelya
lineargame.Andhey,there’snothing
wrongwiththatin a first-person
shooter.Asanopen-worldexperience,
though,it justfeelssparse.Rage 2 wasalwaysgoing to struggle
toprovidea stand-outexperience in
a landscapealreadydominated by
post-apocalypticwastelands. Fallout
prettymuchinventedit, Borderlands
absolutelynailedit,even Far Cry got
in ontheactthisyear.First-person
shooters,too,arepretty much ten-
a-pennythisyear,withbattle royales
needingnostorylineoropen world to
justifythem.Whatid and Avalanche
havebroughttothetable is simply not
engagingenough.In the manner of a
multiplayer‘service’game, publisher
Bethesdahaslaidouta roadmap for
futurecontentthatinvolves ongoing
communitychallenges,the addition
ofdrivablemechs,newWasteland
enemies,newgearanda big story
expansion.Butsinceit’s single-player,
whycouldn’tit justbea more ‘full
game’fromthestart?And, sadly, is
anyonegoingtocareby the time it
getsfilledup?QSTICK TO
YOUR GUNS
The three-winged
Wingstick boomerang
from the first Rage
returns. In her
younger days,
Loosum Hagar, Mayor
of Wellspring, actually
trained Rage’s original
protagonist in the use
of the Wingstick. You
can now lock onto
enemies before
throwing your
Wingstick, so with a
bit of practice you can
hit enemies hiding
around corners, with
satisfyingly bloody
consequences.
There’s definitely a
trick to it: most often
we found ourselves
throwing them
harmlessly at walls
and reverting to
reliable guns instead.
Since you can only
carry a limited number
of Wingsticks, and it’s
rare to find them just
lying around (you can
restock from traders),
trust us, you don’t
want to waste them.“The FPS
combat is to be
fai exceptional
as you might
expect from id”
OXM VERDICT
A solid FPS that
delivers on the
shooting, but fails
to provide much
else worth doing.6
LEFT It’s all a
bit Mad Max,
which is good,
because
Avalanche made a
decent Mad Max
game in 2015.
FAR LEFT Um... it
was nice knowing
you all. See you
in the next life.The FPS wouldn’t be what it is today without id, the studio created the three big daddies of the genre: Wolfenstein, Doom and QuakeMore Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 075REVIEW