Rage 2 (For PC): Great Action, Mediocre Story

The neon-soaked post-apocalypse is upon us. Rage 2, the first-person, open-world shooter by Avalanche Studios and Id Software, is a PC game that delivers over-the-top action, killer car combat, and neat retro 1980s flair. That said, the game suffers from a barren open world, an abundance of tedious missions, a simplistic story, and a forgettable cast of characters. While gameplay is certainly king when it comes to video games, Rage 2 could have been so much more compelling with an interesting story and a tighter open world.

- Gabriel Zamora

At the beginning of the game, you pick either a male or female protagonist before proceeding to loot power armor from a dead ranger. There’s an overarching plot about an angry general who hopes to take over the postapocalyptic world with an army of cyber-enhanced soldiers, but the story doesn’t dwell on these details. All you need to know is that the general destroyed your town and you’re out for revenge. You set off to find three leaders across the wasteland, and perform tasks for them that eventually lead you to the big bad. These tasks include car races, arena battles, exploration, and base raids.

Rage 2 features a game world that I can only describe as stretched thin. It’s bigger than the one in the original game, and coming across some of the weapon and ability caches is rewarding. But like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, there’s too much nothingness between objective markers. You occasionally come across a gang war on the road, but this doesn’t happen often. There’s too much downtime in between tasks.

Much like 2016’s Doom, Rage 2’s gunplay is all about running around environments as you pick off targets. Outmaneuvering enemies and plastering them onto walls is delightful, and the action only gets better as you progress. Character movement is silky smooth and speedy, and when you upgrade a few key skills, the game feels just as tight and responsive as Doom.

Enemies do a decent job of keeping up with you, be it through clever obstacle traversal or slick jukes. Everyone is armed to the teeth, and all too often enemies fight one another as eagerly as they fight you, leading to some hectic encounters where rival gangs shoot at anything in sight. If you’re feeling particularly bloodthirsty, dive in and have a blast. Alternatively, you can watch from the sidelines as the gang members shoot each other to pieces, and then pick off the winner.