The RAGE story setup is simple: the world was nearly wiped out by an asteroid and you emerge from an underground vault. Blinking in the bright light of the sun, you take a few moments to admire the scenery and are then abruptly attacked. Id's wasteland is not a friendly place. Most of those you meet in Rage desperately want to kill or capture you, and gradually you begin to find out why. Despite the presence of upgrade systems, mini-games, side quests and car racing challenges, Rage is primarily a shooter. It's a fairly traditional shooter, too, favoring smaller zones of combat instead of the open spaces seen in Far Cry 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Larger explorable areas exist in id Software's wasteland, but they're merely playgrounds for the vehicles. You can ride around in buggies and heavily armored cars, blast rockets at bandit vehicles and speed over jumps to smash floating beacons and earn extra rewards. It can be fun for a while, but by the time you get to Rage's second half, it starts to feel more like filler. The gunplay is always entertaining, as you adventure through corridors and interiors lined with hiding spots as mutants erupt from unseen spaces and bandits fire pistols and shotguns. Rage is not revolutionary shooter, but it's extremely well made.
The weapons in Rage feel powerful, and not just because they're loud. Hit a mutant in the leg and you'll see it snap back. Bandits under heavy fire will scramble behind cover with their hands over their heads. Charging mutants can be abruptly stopped with a well-aimed shotgun blast. Hit an armored enemy across the chest with assault rifle spray fire and he'll react to every impact. It may sound like minor detail, but the high degree of correlation between shot and effect has a huge impact on making each weapon exciting to use. There's a big difference between a shotgun blast that simply kills a mutant and a shotgun blast that knocks them into a backflip and blows apart their skull.
