In June last year, I already talked about Rage 2 : Then the developers showed the combat system in a closed space. And after six months, I finally saw the “reverse” side of the project – an open world, which is engaged in a completely different team.
Rage 2 develop two studios at once: ID Software And Avalanche Studios. But, despite the statements that they make the game together from beginning to end, it is noticeable that the creators Quake And Doom They are responsible mainly for the fight, but the authors Mad Max And Just CAUSE focused on the functionality and diversity of the open world. And if shootings almost do not raise questions, then how Rage 2 will look and feel, it was still difficult to imagine. All that we knew was that there would be various biomes and a lot of transport, including the personal pumped car of the Glaveroi, “Phoenix”, on which it will be possible to drive through them.
Whether it became clearer? Definitely. Are I calmer now for the game? Not really.
The trailer for the open world
Kill a rubber duckling
The gameplay demon consisted of two parts. The first is a separate closed mission. Here you are, Walker, your “Phoenix”, here is a motorcade of enemies, mesn them all in powder. The task turned out to be diverse and quite complicated: electric shoes flew out of opponents, motorcycles were connected by energy areas, some enemies had power protective fields, and the leader of the convoy – a huge truck – used a whole arsenal to prevent me from getting close.
True, my Phoenix was also not a simple jeep. A machine -gun turret with a semi -automatic aim https://sister-site.org/sky-vegas/ is ready for battle, and the cartridges in it are full. For large enemies – several volleys of homing missiles. For power fields-Amy near-action: you drive up to the protected enemy, charge a couple of seconds a gun, owi-uh-and there is no more power field. And if you're lucky, the enemy’s car itself will be thrown somewhere into the abyss. Finally, the Phoenix has a rechargeing turbocharger, which will not be lagging behind opponents, even if you flew out of the highway.
But if the accompanying I scattered quite simply, then the main truck turned out to be stubborn and incredibly tenacious. The rubber duckling would be proud of his driver: I couldn’t win (and not only me), I had to choose between the repeated passage of the entire mission and the study of the rest of the demo. But, even given the rush, looking for weaknesses at the truck and dodging attacks was quite exciting.
The developers asked not to pay attention to the not very well-minded driving physics: they say, this is still a pre-Beta version, this aspect of the game is not tuned and so on. No question, this is quite understandable and understandable. In the end, to the release for almost six months – you never know what they will redo there. But the problem is that driving was a key element of the presentation. Mission with the escort – driving. Movement around the open world – driving. Racing Mission – there. Dear developers, let me ask how I can get a positive experience from the presentation if its main element does not work yet?
Problems on Pandora
The second part of the demo suggested a more free approach: I was released into the “wasteland”, gave a couple of points of interest and left to do their own business. You can just drive around the world, or you can perform several plot quests.
First of all, I checked the card. I counted seven biomes of different sizes on it – and this despite the fact that half of the map was hidden by the "fog of war". I could not call into neighboring locations, and they didn’t give screenshots, but the variety of landscapes in itself pleases.
The main (and seems to be the only) entrance to Wells Pringing
Within the desert biomes where I was dropped, there was one main point – the city of Wellsprind. And this … a spilled shelter from Borderlands 2. Architecture, neon signs, central square – wherever you look, the sensations are the same. Difference in the little things: there is no watercolor filter, people are much less friendly, but to the level of safety of the shelter Wellsprind as before Jupiter – bandits attack the mayor’s residence in the city center, and the devil knows how they made their way there. The protection is trained from hand, and to protect the ruler of the city falls out to Walker. Although the mayor of Haigar, unlike her subordinates, herself is well controlled with a vinguistic boomerang and a pistol.
It is the mayor that gives Walker the following task: to put a bug to its competitor, the richest man of the city. The one, as usual, is arrogant, thick and with a huge monster in the basement – spilled jabba Hatt. But only celebrities can meet him, so you first need to become famous: win a racing arrival and shoot a bunch of enemies on a local television program, clearly created according to the franchise of Professor Genka from the last parts Saints Row. These activity are outside the city – there is an occasion to study the open world with meaning, and not just to drive in search of troubles!
Mayor Losum Haigar and her opponent, rich Clagg Clayton
Not a minute of peace
There are enough points of interest in wastelands. Some of them are on clearly defined locations; These are tasks like “kill everyone on the enemy avantvopost” or “free the gas station” – probably, with their help it will be possible to open new opportunities for pumping, fast movement points, and so on. Other activity is waiting right on the road. So, sometimes you can meet enemies passing by and accidentally start a fight.
Professor Genki, shy down!
And in other cases, at your appearance, scripts will work. For example, approaching the bridge near Wellspring, I saw how two strange aircraft appeared right above him, they gave a salvo (if I hadn’t slowed down, I would have landed under the distribution), landed several paratroopers and teleported back to the unknown to the unknown. After that, I drove in the same direction a couple of times, including after quick movements, and each time there was this ambush.
In fairness, I never tried to destroy all enemies. In addition, perhaps this script was deliberately repeated precisely within the framework. But if such ambushes will wait in the same places constantly … It seems to me that it will get tired as quickly as, for example, permanently residing bandits in S.T.A.L.K.E.R.. But there are at least much less attackers here, and if you wish, you can calmly drive past without getting involved in a shootout.
Subsequently, I met a couple more such crept -out events: Rage 2 generally constantly provokes on a waste of cartridges and conflicts. Or not to give up destructive impulses, but I still remind you that ammunition on the trees do not grow, and we are not only talking about cartridges, but also about grenades with vinguistic. I somehow carried away and shot half the ammunition, but in the end I turned out to be one gun to face with a huge creature. Let's say, I was very regretted about my past bouts of bloodthirstiness.
Urine of them all!
The presentation shown not only the work of Avalanche, they also did not forget about the combat system. The developers have clearly demonstrated that many Uoker abilities can be conveniently combined. For example: we throw Vortex (attracts, and then throws enemies into the air), jump onto it to rise higher, “strapim” to the enemy group right in the air and use Ground Slam – a fist on the ground, the damage from which increases depending on the height falls. Four seconds, three abilities, a bunch of corpses, zero cartridges spent.
The weapon itself was also presented in more detail. It turned out that the shooting from the hips and the aiming fire in almost every gun differ. So, the shotgun in aiming mode is not given out by a scattering of fractions, but by a powerful power wave, which hits much more and more precisely and throws the opponents over long distances. The pistol from the hip shoots at the speed of some ultrasound and single-aimed.
And you can just throw a protective barrier, jump, hang in the air and shoot the boles who needs!
And just strange types of weapons were enough. For example, the semblance of a nail with whose help you can stuff the enemy, then shoot somewhere in the ceiling by a flooding cartridge, and all shells will try to draw to it, tearing the enemy into pieces. Or a grenade launcher that shoots a few shells at once – they fly slowly until they find a goal, after which they are brought to it, they come closer and detonate in turn. If you liked to experiment with different methods of murder in Bulletstorm – Perhaps you will find her spiritual heiress in Rage 2. Unless they don’t give out points for sophistication, although they, it seems to me, would have come in handy.
The second date with Rage 2 turned out to be more productive than the first: the game entertained, even though the fair part of the gameplay has not yet been brought to mind. I fought with pleasure, talked with characters and caught references (though it is hardly always deliberate). In a word, if six months ago it was completely incomprehensible who and why I needed Rage 2, now I am ready to show cautious optimism: it seems that the tandem of the studios still felt for something unique in the jestered concept of the shooter in the open world.
There are still enough concerns regarding the fate of the project, but the developers have a few more months to do everything as it should. Rage 2 is released on May 14 on PC, Xbox One and PS4.