Commence necro!

Finally got en-RAGE-d. Did they run out of money in the end? That hallway where you one-shot everything with Fat Mammas and Pop Rockets, that final fight against plasma monkeys while you wait for a switch to stop blushing, that end cutscene "yep, you won, roll the credits". At least in Doom 3 the game finally picked up some pace in the last two hours or so and left a final impression that makes some people say "it gets better later". RAGE just fizzes out blowing a raspberry, and that's from already a rather repetitive trip through looping levels.

Actually what was released as Rage is actually only the first half of the "real" game. The second part was to be released as Rage 2 but was cancelled so that id would focus on Doom 4. ;)

And that one must be doing extremely well...

Yes, it is pretty much boring, but it has some nice parts like optional competitions in cars and such and nicely done towns and character models (none of them has even remotly memorable personality or voicing though), but it doesn't really have any impact on the gameplay Id has always been, even according to John Carmack, only about the graphics, so it just lacks fun and what it lacks the most is any story. Just try and finish the game, i was really like WTF?! at the end because it has no end. You just get some uninteresting shit and then credits roll. You don't even meet the main villain or do anything worthwhile. The game might be ok if you just want to waste time doing random stuff in the postapocalyptia with nice graphics but it's something out of time horrible when you expect at least a dumb story but nevertheless a story in a game, because you won't be getting even that.

Thought it was pretty shite myself, when they used one of the maps twice (in reverse the second time), I realised they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel for their ideas.

The idea was pretty much just putting together shooting and graphics because that worked since 1993, at least for Id

Yeah it was essentially a tech demo I think :)

For a test started a new campaign on Nightmare to see if there's any more fun to be had.
Nope.
Plot-mandatory races can be cleared without any extra upgrades, basic enemies have slightly more health and the giant ones have a lot more health (TV Kraken chewed Fat Mammas like breakfast cereal). You also get hurt a lot more and regen slower, which translates into longer sitting behind bulletproof sofas. Meh...

And they did that more then one time XD

In all fairness if you can get it cheap (sub 15 quid) or rent it, its worth a look, but I bought it at release and felt really gypped for buying it early to get the laughable "free" DLC that came with pre-orders.

Like most of the Id games from Doom 3 onwards, Rage is basically a tech demo and that reflects in gameplay. It does not get any better. No.

I just finished the game and I can tell you that you didn't miss anything worthwhile. The graphics and the design were pretty cool, but so are those of many other games and many of those come with a reasonably large world and a non-shitty ending as a bonus.

EDIT: Oh, and by the way, what the fuck's up with the game's title. RAGE? Seriously?

Rage is what the player gets when they reach the ending of the game through all the previous boredom

For me best part of the game was the intro. I felt quite emotional when the asteroid hits. After that i found it average at best and when i got to the end i even sat through the credits in the hope something anything was shown after all that text but nope.

Id do make good engines but games well after quake 2 they forgot how to make gameplay. I would buy rage 2 only if they finish the story and that would be the only reason to play it just to get closure on the first game.