Some of you might remember Rage (or RAGE), an iD Software-created post-apocalyptic title from 2010 that featured solid driving and shooting mechanics but had little else to commend it. We thought we’d seen the back of it but it seems Bethesda are issuing a sequel called, predictably, RAGE 2.
Also predictably, RAGE 2 has undergone an overhaul. Gone are the drab colours and limited environments of the first game. According to the first gameplay trailer, the gameplay features a whole lot more to see, do, shoot, and jump over. We’ve even detected a few splashes of actual colour, which were introduced to the trailer gradually lest those who played the first game die of shock.
Players will be spending time in the bullet-spewing boots of protagonist Walker, who is a Ranger (we’re guessing… law enforcement, of a sort). They will do battle against the returning forces of the Authority, as well as pockets of mutants and gang enclaves. Gameplay is looking a lot more varied this time around, and there’s a more fleshed-out story to look forward to as well. A game that will let you use enemy combatants for skeet shooting is bound to have a few other interesting things to participate in.
Developer Avalanche Studios is an open-world mayhem veteran, being involved in 2015’s similar, if way more sombre, Mad Max. The company is best known for the Just Cause series, which is all about explosives, gunplay, wingsuits, and car-and-missile-surfing in the name of the Glorious Revolution™. It looks like Avalanche has mashed up the solid driving mechanics from Mad Max with the madcap pyrotechnics from Just Cause, doling in a liberal amount of iD Software’s very tight first-person shooter experience to produce RAGE 2. This is looking like a very different animal on the second go-around.
The gameplay trailer was preceded by a very uptempo, punk-backed live action trailer which makes the post-apocalyptic world look like a mighty fun, if explosive and horribly dangerous, place to live. Check it out below.
RAGE 2 will be launching for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2019.