“Welcome. And congratulations. I am delighted that you could make it. Getting here wasn’t easy, I know. In fact, I suspect it was a little tougher than you realize.” Alright, alright, I didn’t write that. That charming prose belongs to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003). Awesome book. But in theme, these few lines apply greatly to your predicament in Rage, id Software’s heavily anticipated first-person shooter for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.

You’re a nameless survivor of the Eden project, cryogenically frozen and willfully entombed within a technological shelter, giving humanity a lifeline against the threat of meteoric extinction. 106 years after impact, is ascension to the post-apocalypse worth it for gamers? In short: it certainly is, but not for reasons you might expect.

For starters, the plot in Rage isn’t going to get your juices flowing. You’re ushered out of Ark 437A, saved from a pair of bloodthirsty bandits, and soon taking on murderous assignments from the only person you’ve met since thawing. Penny Arcade kind of hit the nail on the head. This identity crisis of sorts is felt more keenly when you first see yourself from the third person, venturing into the Wasteland on an ATV, unflinching destruction on the mind. You can’t help but wonder... who is this guy? This might seem like a strange qualm, but id Software is here presenting a brand new IP rendered (brilliantly!) via a brand new engine. It would have been more memorable to ease into it with more leisure, more disorientation. Fortunately, this may be the only reproach one can raise. As a survivor of the new world, you’ll have a lot more to think about than who’s staring back at you in the mirror - like how to spend your time and money.

There’s a lot to do. Gambling, trading, odd jobs, races, and of course gladiatorial combat against a carnival’s worth of mutants (you survive? you get paid). That stuff is mostly on the side. The main quests you pick up from a small core of high-profile individuals scattered across the Wasteland. Activate them, and the mini-map will conveniently guide you to what are essentially dungeons, or hollowed out ruins that bandits and mutants call home.

About the Author

Pierre Bienaimé

Scribeling

Pierre Bienaimé is an incipient blogger extraordinaire, with a soft spot for shooters, platformers, turn-based strategy, and games that reside outside of the box. After having taught English as a second language in London, he decided that a second bout with his dream of spewing verbal fire in games journalism was in order. He is currently an editor for GotGame.com, as well as a contributing writer to Gamerlive.tv, Nintendojo.com, and GameRevolution.com.