RAGE E3 Preview
It's been a while since we've seen an original game from famed developer Id Software, but the long wait will be over soon. Id was on-hand at the Bethesda Softworks booth at E3 to reveal Rage to the gaming press. The first thing the developers wanted to emphasize was graphics – their goal is to achieve a constant 60 frames per second for the game on all platforms. If you're not sure what that means to you, it means smooth, lifelike, and jitter free animation throughout the game. And Id isn't cutting corners in terms of quality to achieve this, the game world is detailed and varied and has a unique look to it. While on the topic of the game world, Id also emphasized that they want the game's world to be open to the point that if you can see something in the distance then you'll be able to get to it.
And as for that world's setting, it's post-apocalyptic wasteland with a look that's a little bit Borderlands meets Fallout 3 with a dash of Road Warrior thrown in for good measure. Like all good post-apocalyptic wastelands worth their salt, Rage's world is filled with mutants, bandits, and little islands of civilization. Oh, and this devastated world is a little rock called Earth, which had an unfortunate asteroid encounter. Before the impact the government put a limited number of people underground in cryostasis and you were one of those people. Now you've emerged from your slumber and must try to find out what happened to the other frozen people with whom you were supposed to rebuild society.
Id jumped around the game in the demo to show off some of the environments, enemies, and characters that you'll encounter in the game. First off was a stop at Crazy Joe's shack in the wasteland. Crazy Joe is one of the early characters that you'll meet, and he's also called "crazy" for a reason - he is endlessly raving about mutants and mutant-related conspiracies. Once you get your hands on some wheels, though, you'll be more than happy to leave Crazy Joe to his thoughts and head out into the wasteland.
Next up we were given a glimpse of the game's car combat. While they didn't go into too much detail on the vehicles, apparently you'll be able to upgrade your ride with weapons and accessories during the game. While driving down a canyon, a couple of bandit vehicles appeared and immediately began attacking our hero, but after a short fight the developer running the game dispatched them with some deft maneuvering and a flurry of bullets.
The demo also showed off one of the game's cities, Wellspring. As its name
implies, the city is built on a water source, an invaluable resource in a desert
wasteland. Walking around town and speaking with the characters revealed that
the game does have some strong RPG underpinnings and is not simply a pure
shooter. In fact, it was in town that we met up with that stalwart of the RPG –
a townsman with a problem that he needed help solving. In this case, the
subterranean pumping station was in trouble and taking the mission and heading
underground was a way to show off one of the game's interesting little killing
machines. It turns out that the troubles were being caused by a faction of
mutants bent on sabotaging the waterworks. These mutants were quite nimble, and
able to use the environment to their advantage by swinging from pipes and
leaping along walls. These enemies warranted a more discrete approach, which is
where the aforementioned machine came in – a small sentry bot on wheels with a
bomb strapped to it. Releasing the bot puts you in direct control of it from its
perspective, and the developer driving the demo drove the bot right into a room
full of unsuspecting mutants and gave them the last surprise of their lives. Id
encouraging an alternative approach to run-and-gun, now this is interesting...