RAGE

9/10 for the feeling of shooting from a shotgun alone.

I honestly don't get how people on here have a positive experience with this game. I went into it not expecting really anything other than a post-apocalyptic shooter and yet I still came away disappointed, frustrated and unfulfilled. Either its some strange nostalgia, lower expectations than what I had and such low amounts of experience with other games that this one seems good in comparison. I wasn't even able to bring myself to fully finish the game at the time of writing this since playing the game is like being slowly lowered onto a industrial saw rear first. Booting the game for the first time should've been a warning sign. The 32-bit version of the game didn't boot with a mouse cursor for menus, I couldn't even control my character when I got out of the first cutscene. So I booted the 64-bit version. Which crashed on the very first cutscene, took almost a minute to load and didn't have achievement support due to its nature of being compatible with mods. Lovely. The achievement thing is a nitpick and you can still get them by switching your save games around but still. Some of the settings also seemed non functioning as there was still music playing even though the setting was at 0. And said music is loud enough at times to drown out things like voices. Lovely. So I fixed some things and continued on to the Wasteland. The start is interesting enough with the Ark and the meteorite and how everything is all Mad Max-esque. But the game then takes a nose dive so deep, it feels like I fell head first into the Grand Canyon. While the weapons are mostly fine in terms of their presentation, they all handle like ♥♥♥♥, especially since the mouse sensitivity is so bad, that even when I lowered the in-game setting to 0 and my mouse DPI to 400, I could still do 7 full 360's with just a centimeter of movement. I had change the launch options for the game on Steam just to make it more playable, especially since the mouse became choppy as hell in menus on a lowered sensitivity. Lovely. All enemies expect the mutants are bullet sponges and every single room is just a box where enemies come after you wave after wave. The enemies are actually such sponges, that the Gearheads later on tank rocket shots. Even if they're almost point blank. On normal difficulty. Quest design was bare bones, just go to place X, do Y maybe even Z while shooting bad guys. The shooting at times was so unenjoyable that I wished for it to stop. Which is not something you want in a shooter. The driving is fine and arguably one of the better parts of the game but thats not saying much. While the driving itself is alright, vehicular combat is annoying as hell since the guns face only forwards, so you have to facing the enemy to shoot. This can be very frustrating due to the fact that the cars don't handle precise turning that well and enemy cars rarely stay in place, understandably. It also feels just mad unnecessary to the point where the game might've benefited from just being a linear level shooter, instead of a pseudo open world. One that is not expansive, unlike what the description would have you believe. The cars feel like they serve no purpose and the only real fun thing you can do with them is race. And thats it. The game also just looks like ♥♥♥♥. It's that perfect mix of brown, black and gray. Uninspiring and just a pain to look at. Art direction is fine, don't get me wrong but it's so unappealing at times that it makes Fallout 3 and NV look lush and beautiful by comparison. The character designs are pretty alright and distinct enough, but there is nothing else there. Its barely style and no substance. There is also practically no story which is not surprising as this was a shooter from the early 2010's made by id Software. Famously known for riveting stories and rich worlds. I can't recommend you go through this game unless you have no money for anything else, have more patience than me or are a masochist. If you want better shooters to play that came out during, before or after this, I'd recommend Doom 2016 or Doom Eternal, F.E.A.R, any of the Bioshock games or the Wolfenstein reboots. Hell, if you just want something apocalyptic, just play Fallout 3 or NV and even Metro 2033. Those games will provide a more enjoyable experience and you'll come out of them feeling fulfilled and happy, instead of bitter having wasted 11 hours of your life.