Id Software's first genuinely new game in a long while was announced a while back, but it didn't turn as many heads as it would have back in the old days. For many gamers - even old-school id fanboys like myself - the last few years have been relatively quiet for the FPS pioneers, their involvement in the game development process seemingly limited to just rehashing old titles in new ways and leaving most of the grunt work to their partner studios.

So the announcement of an all-new id Software title that wasn't Wolfenstein or Quake-related probably should have come as a bit of a breath of fresh air. But we're living in a new world these days. Carmack's genius is up against heavy competition in the graphics world - both Unreal Engine 3 and CryENGINE are well-established brands in their own right. There's a plethora of other titles that feature amazing graphics as well that are using their own in-house engines (and if you believe Crytek's Cevat Yerli, we're not going to be seeing any major improvements in videogame visuals, even counting Carmack's involvement).
Not only that, but id have clearly shifted focus away from the PC. While they maintain that it is still an integral part of their development process and overall vision for a title, it's clear that consoles are king - and that's sad news for those of us who are still die-hard PC FPS purists struggling to find a place in today's gumby controller-based world.

The screenshots and trailers from Rage that have been released have been fairly impressive - but again, by today's standards they're almost par for the course. So what makes Rage worth any time from your valuable attention span when there are so many other great games clamouring to get it?



Well, that's what we went to GamesCom in Cologne, Germany to find out.
In EA's massive, opulently ordained section in the business area of the GamesCom show there existed a small room. In that small room sat id Software game designers Matt Hooper and Tim Willits (now sans mustache but with some form of laryngitis that rendered him almost unable to talk, leaving the heavy lifting to Mr Hooper). The room also contained a large screen television of the LCD variety and a current build of Rage, as well as a small group of people given the opportunity to check it out (of which I was one, otherwise this'd be a rather short and boring article).

The game kicked off. Matt gave us an overview of the story - in a nutshell, a massive asteroid is on its way to Earth. A bunch of survival pods - arks - are buried deep under the ground with what is hoped will be enough people and things for humanity to survive. After the impact, they pop up a bit earlier than anticipated, and hilarity (and violence, and the story of Rage, etc) ensues.

We were presented with a scene not unlike those in the screenshots of the game - semi-arid wasteland, massive outdoor set-piece, incredible detail in the surrounding environment, beautiful sky maps, and lots of grass and trees and other foliage swaying gently and realistically in a light breeze. At first glance, it looked pretty nice - though again, nothing really unexpected for this day and age.



What was unexpected was how unbelievably sharp, crisp and fast the game ran, considering that it was being demonstrated on an Xbox 360. Or at least so I thought, because Matt was using an Xbox controller to play the game. After a few minutes of watching though I became convinced that there was no way in hell this was running on console hardware unless Carmack really was a god. At the end of the presentation though I asked and confirmed that it was indeed running on a PC. So good news for PC owners there - it looks and runs really, really nicely on a PC. I never saw it drop a single frame in any scene, no matter how complex and no matter how much was happening - whether the console brothers can keep pace with the same level of detail will be another story, but Matt pointed out the game is using the same assets across all platforms.

Rage is a completely open world - a massive, sprawling expanse of wilderness and danger. While it has elements of sandbox-style gameplay (like Grand Theft Auto, for example), id consider it to be a "directed" sandbox game. "Having the player never feeling lost is one of our main goals," said Matt, when explaining how the player is moved between elements of the story. The player can explore the huge environment at their leisure, stopping to investigate various points of interest along the way.

The giant scope of the environment opens up a new element for an id game - for the first time, there will be vehicles you can whiz around in. This is clearly a big part of the game, as evident in the screenshots and video. While we didn't get hands-on time, we saw several driving scenes - the driving model looks relatively solid and about what you'd expect in an action game. It is fast and fluid and again, even though you're moving around the landscape really quickly, the engine performance is such that there wasn't a single slow-down the entire time.



You'll be driving around the map as part of your general exploring, but there's also opportunity to take part in certain races - at which point the game sort of turns into a Mario Kart-esque thing where you're buzzing around a track, collecting weapons and boost pickups and trying to blast the other guys off the track. It seems likely that these races will be integrated into the story as well as being optional little side missions you can do occasionally (again, like GTA).

Cars are a big part of Rage - as you go through the game you can collect different vehicles, each of which can be customised cosmetically or with more practical things like better weapons, improved armour, or more boost. They're all stored in a virtual garage which allows you to access them whenever you want (assuming they're not damaged - paying for car repairs looks like it'll be one of the more common tasks you'll be performing throughout the game).
The driving looks fun, but it wouldn't be an id game if it didn't have walking around in corridors shooting things. This, of course, it has in spades. The internal environments are lushly detailed and suitably apocalyptic (with a very Fallout 3 feel, but I guess that's just what happens when you want to make a game in which civilisation has basically been wiped out). We got a quick look at some of the weapons - there's a wing-stick boomerang thing, which you can throw at targets and have it smack them around then whiz back to you. There's a crossbow, perfect for silent killing at a distance. There's the usual array of shotguns and machine guns, though apparently you can get different types of ammo for each weapon which has different effects (ala BioShock).

All that sort of stuff looked like classic id, so I don't imagine too many people getting excited by reading about it. We only saw a couple of these close-quarters shooting scenes but it was enough to know they look similar to what we've seen before, in id games and in other games. So on to what else is new and interesting.



Rage is pretty focused on being an action game, but id have also introduced some more RPG elements. It's not a full-blown RPG by any means, but there's enough in there to give gamers something a little bit different without diverting focus from the action elements. For example, there is no stats or skills system, but you have a typical RPG inventory which you can pack with various things to help you. There's an "engineering" system which allows you to collect certain items (maybe looting them from the corpses that you create) and combine them to build helpful things, like Aliens-style deployable sentry guns or neat little spider robots that will escort and protect you.

There are also more RPG-style interactions with NPCs - you'll walk around and have conversations with various people as they help you figure out where to go or make threats or whatever. I found these scenes to be a little bit awkward and unnatural though - very much the classic RPG style where the dialog seems forced and stilted; characters just start talking to you like they know what you're doing when you just walk up to them out of the blue. I haven't figured out if this is just a side-effect of this style of game or if it's something that can actually be fixed with better script-writing, but it sort of seems a little dated these days. Matt also pointed out the idea is to not have too much dialog to make sure it is kept simple for the player - it's just there to help direct the flow of the gameplay, rather than be more of a cinematic RPG style experience.

Another thing I found slightly disconcerting was the almost total lack of a walk bob - the player seemingly just glides, ghost-like, to his destination. Whether this is how the game will be shipped or something that they're still tweaking is not known, but it's just a little bit on the weird side.
Unfortunately it's too early to talk about multiplayer. No doubt it will be a big part of the game but we have no details as yet, other than it looks like it will be a pretty cool setting for some multiplayer action romps. Hopefully it's not a tacked-on afterthought like Doom 3's was and actually gets the full id treatment to create an engaging and compelling experience that takes advantage of the game environment.



So. What do we have? A new id action game, all new IP, built on their new id Tech 5 engine. It is a slight departure from the beaten track with a bunch of new elements, including the RPG stuff and the driving. Visually it is, of course, top-notch and no doubt will only get better as it gets closer to release and Carmack figures out more crazy shit he can cram into it. The big question - is it enough to differentiate itself from other titles? Obviously having the id name behind it will give it a head-start most other games don't have. Definitely keep your eyes open for more information as the game progresses, but it's still too early to tell if you want to start lining up to buy it now.

For more info and media, be sure to hit up our locally hosted Rage game page.