Developer: ID Software, Avalanche Studios
Rrp: £34.99 (Steam and Bethesda.net) and £39.99 (Epic)
Do you know what I feel a game should never do? Block progression, especially if you’re going to force me to use the WORST mechanic in your game. That is exactly what Rage 2 does (which funnily enough is also exactly what the original did), admittedly its only one race but you have to come in first… in a car that handles like the original Mass Effect’s Mako vehicle. There’s no way to skip this, no way to make it easier other than to turn down the difficulty setting and even that didn’t help me, I spent five hours trying over and over and over and over to beat this stupid race. It’s literally the reason I ended up giving up on the whole game. Please understand though, I had done literally everything else there was to do up to that point. I went to every bandit camp and did every side mission (a few a couple of times because it took me a bit to realise some of the missions were procedurally generated missions of kill x bandit gang in x location). If there was a ability, weapon or vehicle to upgrade it was maxed out. But I just couldn’t get past this race and thusly the entirity of the rest of the games content was locked off from me.
Now I’m sure there are many of you who read this that will say something along the lines of “You should have stuck with it.” or possibly the now slighty retro “Git gud.” And to that I have only one thing to say. NO. I will not subject myself to this over and over, not on a game that is quite frankly just ‘alright’. Doom 2016 and Eternal have better combat, if I want a post apocalypse I have Horizon Zero Dawn, Fallout and even Far Cry (plus way more) to pick from. And if I want to go niche and say I want a open world game with a focus on vehicle combat set in a post apolcalypse I have Mad Max.
Honestly I’m glad I didn’t pay more than £10 for this game.
