Rage (video game)

"After the Impact" redirects here. For the speculative documentary, see Super Comet: After The Impact.

Rage
File:Rage video game logo.svg
Developer(s)	id Software
Publisher(s)	Bethesda Softworks
Engine	id Tech 5
Platform(s)	iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release	PC, PS3, Xbox 360 iOS
Genre(s)	First-person shooter, sandbox, racing video game
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Rage (stylized as RAGE) is an upcoming first-person shooter game by id Software. It will use the company's new id Tech 5 engine. The game was first shown as a tech demo on June 11, 2007, at Apple's WWDC, and was officially announced on August 2, 2007, at QuakeCon. On the same day, a trailer for the game was released by Gametrailers.com. A handheld spin-off has been released for iOS.

Information available so far indicates that the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world similar to that of other popular video games such as Fallout. In an interview with GameSpot, designer Tim Willits revealed that the game is set in the near future following the impact of the asteroid 99942 Apophis. Matthew J. Costello, who worked on the plot of Doom 3, is also working on the Rage plot. Influences on the driving and racing gameplay include games such as MotorStorm and Burnout, according to another Willits interview by Shacknews. Players will be able to upgrade their cars with money won from races.

Gameplay

The user plays as a member from an Ark (a world-wide movement which took scientists and other significant people, and froze them underground in cryo-pods so they could rebuild Earth) but then the player comes to realize that his Ark has malfunctioned and that he is the only survivor. Apparently this environment is perfectly suited to the rough-and-tumble dune buggy racing seen in games like MotorStorm, as that sort of gameplay will be an important feature of Rage. Players will have the ability to augment their cars with various items and upgrades they can gain by completing races, but the game is not specifically a racing title, as available trailers of the game have shown some first-person shooter content as well.

Rage will also feature some role-playing game (RPG) elements—an inventory system and the capabilities of weapons will be based around types of ammo. Players will also have the option to customize their weapons. There will also be side missions. More on the RPG elements have not been detailed. At E3, Tim Willits stated that at the game's core is a first person shooter with car-combat added in and without the racing being the sole and central focal point. The game will be set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland created by an asteroid impact. The world will be populated by the human survivors of the impact who were preserved from the asteroid by being buried in the Arks. The world will also be populated by mutants who will serve as the player's main enemies at least for the first half of the game, as id is currently talking of a major change at the midway point of the game.

Multiplayer

Rage has two multiplayer modes: Combat Rally and Legends of the Wasteland. In Combat Rally, up to six players compete in a free-for-all match that takes place in an arena designed to make use of the vehicles. The objective is to collect rally points that appear around the arena while killing your opponents and stealing their points. Legends of the Wasteland is a series of two-player bonus co-op missions based on stories that you hear about as you play the single player campaign.

Synopsis

In Rage's story, the asteroid strikes on August 23, 2038, and the few pockets of survivors are forced to begin a new civilization.

The world is populated by human survivors of the impact, who have come together to form settlements around oases and other practical or habitable locations. These fragile homes are diligently defended by the inhabitants against bandits and mutants, which are divided into various gangs and organizations of their own. Bandits and mutants serve as the player's main enemies for much of the game, although id Software has hinted at some sort of significant change around the halfway point in the storyline.

The player emerges into this setting after being preserved inside an underground shelter called an Ark. The Arks are the direct result of the Eden Project, a massive international undertaking in which hundreds of Arks (cryogenic pods) were sealed under the surface of the Earth with twelve people inside each. Each passenger possessed a special ability or trait that, combined with those of the other members, would help them rebuild society. The Eden Project, however, was far less successful than hoped. The player's Ark in particular is in sorry shape upon the start of the game - all of the other residents of the player's Ark are dead (presumably because of the impact), and the equipment of the Ark is destroyed as well, and so the player wakes up alone and uninformed. With no memory of his identity or objective, the player is forced to head for the surface to find sustenance and allies.

Hostile Factions

The Authority: As their ambiguous name implies, very little is known about the Authority. While their motives are unclear, they offer rewards to anybody who turns in an Ark Survivor. Obviously, avoiding them is in the player's best interest. It is also hinted that the Authority has been experimenting on the mutants.

Mutants: While not necessarily organized enough to be a distinct faction, mutants are nonetheless a common presence in the wasteland. Although a few have been wrangled for use in entertainment on Mutant Bash TV, plenty remain loose in the wasteland. Few details have been released, although one trailer depicts a mutant over two stories tall tearing apart a billboard, indicating that many victims of mutations have been altered dramatically. It has been evidenced that the Authority has conducted experiments on the mutants, resulting in the giant mutants.

The Wasted Clan: A dim-witted bunch that enjoys mechanics, home-brewed alcohol and fighting. The Wasted are most commonly found in (what used to be) industrial areas, where more scrap and parts are on hand for their automotive projects. In fighting, they'll sacrifice any semblance of tactics for the sheer effectiveness of blunt objects to the face, and prefer to reach for the nearest club and come at the player from any direction they can (although they will use guns on occasion). It's hinted that they may be the last of the British people.

The Ghost Clan: Sinister and stealthy, fearsome and fearless. The Ghost Clan is arguably the most id-like of Rage's enemies, dealing in the occult and staging gruesome sacrifices in order to gain a seat in the afterlife. Feared even by the other clans, Ghosts use the environment to their advantage while fighting - climbing around walls, leaps of faith, and hanging from beams are some of the many ways they evade the player, while their boomerangs provide both melee and ranged opportunities for them to cut intruders to ribbons.

The Scorcher Clan: The asteroid Apophis was the steed of a demigod - so says the Scorcher Clan, who believes that tapping the energy of the asteroid (and thus its supposed supernatural owner) will make them invincible. As their name suggests, the Scorchers like fire - lots of it - and they make this abundantly clear with the amount of it they paint onto their bodies and cars. Their leader, a brutal fellow named Reaver, absolutely despises the Shrouded Clan, and displays his leadership with a picture of the asteroid itself, emblazoned on his car. He likes fire.

The Shrouded Clan: Behind the gas masks and orange scarves, they are deserters - the Shrouded Clan is made up of those who abandoned their own clans in disillusionment, and banded together to disguise their identity and motives. They are skilled engineers, and use their cunning to booby-trap their lairs, as well as craft RC bomb cars and automatic turrets (like those the player can make).

The Jackal Clan: aka "The Jackie Clan", howls in the night signal the coming of the Jackal Clan. Part animal and part human, they are a savage group of hunters and combatants. The Jackals act more like a pack of wolves on a hunt than a well-trained military force. They adorn their bodies with bones, furs and animal scalps that give them an appearance more beast than man. They are savage in nature and vicious in combat.

The Gearheads: The Gearheads are the smartest bunch of bandits in the wasteland. Not relying solely on brute force for survival, these bandits have built advanced machinery and weaponry that make them a force to reckon with. These bandits look to technology for their salvation and vow to never let “mother nature” destroy them again. Some believe that founding members of this group may well have been Ark survivors that gave up on society and went their separate ways.

Timeline

• 2004: Scientists detect an asteroid the size of Manhattan spiraling in deep space. Excitement turns to concern as predictions have it passing dangerously close to Earth’s lunar orbit sometime in 2029. The asteroid is dubbed 99942 “Apophis” – after the Egyptian god of chaos.

• 2024: Apophis is privately assigned a Torino rating of 7, the highest ever on the scale to measure the likelihood of an object impacting Earth. Publicly, the US and other collaborating governments announce a rating of 4. NASA and the European Space Agency believe the rating will be increased to 10 within 12 months.

• 2025: The “Ark” project begins. Capsules are buried deep underground and designed to burrow out at preset dates several years after the disaster. The goal of the project is to preserve knowledge, genetic samples and other items essential for human life. thousands of Arks contain groups of “inhabitants” who are injected with Nanotrites, a new untested super-science of the day, allowing them to survive cold sleep.

• 2025–2027: The government stockpiles massive arsenals of weapons and supplies within hardened fortifications deep inside the Earth.

• August 2029: News reaches the general population as smaller meteorites impact the Earth ahead of Apophis. The Ark project is initiated.

• December 2029: Apophis strikes the Moon and slams into the Earth carrying the force of 1,000,000 tons of TNT. Entire countries are devastated , cities are erased, and lakes and rivers evaporate. The Earth is cast into a multi-year impact winter as the sun is blocked by dust and debris in the stratosphere. With-in one year, 80% of all life disappeared on Earth.

• 2035: The dust starts to settle as survivors crawl out of caves and shelters to a world that is nothing like before. Civilization is gone, and little hope remains. People group together in loosely formed clans. Small settlements and camps are constructed as many try to find shelter from the unknown dangers lurking in the wasteland that has become Earth.

Development

One of a number of early screenshots of the game released at the SIGGRAPH conference.

Reports indicate that id is developing Rage with a "T-for-Teen" rating in mind, and that the Windows, Mac and Xbox 360 versions will ship on either two or three dual-layer DVD discs, while the PS3 version will ship on one Blu-ray disc. John Carmack has revealed that an uncompressed software build of Rage is one terabyte in size. While a Linux version is speculated there has been no confirmation of an official build, though Timothee Besset has stated that he will try to make Linux builds for Rage much as he has done in the past.

id announced its decision to partner with Electronic Arts for publication of Rage. On March 9, 2009, the company's CEO Todd Hollenshead told GameTrailers TV, "No, it won't be out this year," when asked about a possible release date. A trailer and several screenshots were released on August 13, 2009 at QuakeCon where it showcased various locations, racing and first person gameplay, and a brief insight into the storyline of the game. During GamesCom in Cologne Germany, Electronic Arts released four new screenshots for Rage.

In 2009, John Carmack stated id Software is not planning to support dedicated servers for the PC version, and instead will use a matchmaking system not unlike console games. ZeniMax Media Inc., who had acquired developer id Software in June 2009, announced that it had picked up the publishing rights to Rage, and that EA would not be involved in the sales or marketing of the title. The announcement also noted that the development of Rage had not been affected by the new deal. Creative director Tim Willits confirmed to videogames blog VG247 that the game would miss releasing in 2010, and will now launch in 2011. Rage is due out on September 13, 2011 and will be available on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Willits later accepted the award from IGN Media for "Best Game" and "Best First Person Shooter" at E3. Additionally, the game was awarded Best First-Person Shooter, Best New IP, Best Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3 game as well as the Game of the Show of E3 2010 by GameTrailers.

In his keynote speech at QuakeCon 2010 on August 12, 2010, Carmack announced that id was developing a Rage-related game for Apple's iOS. He later described the mobile Rage as a "little slice of Rage ... [about] 'Mutant Bash TV', a post apocalyptic combat game show in the Rage wasteland", and separately hinted that he might try to port Rage Mobile to Android.

Promotion

On November 18, 2010, id Software released the mobile version, RAGE HD, for iOS devices. John Carmack also hinted that he intends to release another iPhone app based on the Rage universe that focuses on the racing aspect of the game.

On January 20, 2011, Bethesda vice president of public relations Pete Hines told VG247 that a demo of the game is not likely.

On March 11, 2011, Bethesda and Dark Horse Comics have announced a three-issue comic book series based on id Software’s upcoming RAGE video game. This original miniseries is being written by Arvid Nelsion, the acclaimed creator of Rex Mundi, and penciled by Andrea Mutti. The cover art is being created by Glenn Fabry, best known for his work on Hellblazer and Preacher.

This comic series, developed with the direct participation of RAGE’s creative director, Tim Willits, presents a new twist on the post-apocalyptic near future as one woman discovers that the survival of humankind doesn’t necessarily mean the survival of humanity. The Earth has been devastated by a collision with an asteroid, with a tiny fraction of the population surviving in life-sustaining Arks buried deep below its surface. Those who survive emerge to find a wasteland controlled by a global military dictatorship called the Authority. But a rescued scientist learns that the Authority has lied to her and the other survivors about how this new world came to be.

On March 30, 2011, Bethesda has announced that they will team up with Del Rey to create a novel based on RAGE. The novel will be based on the world of rage and it’s characters. The novel is set for release on August 30th and will be written by author and game writer Matthew J. Costello.

On April 18, 2011 it was revealed that those who pre-order the game will receive an automatic upgrade to the Anarchy Edition which will include four exclusive in-game items. These include a double barrel shotgun, Crimson Elite Armor, Fists of RAGE (spiked brass knuckles) and a car called the “Rat Rod Buggy.

Community Support

The PC-centric gaming community has been praising ID Software for their continuing support, taking special note on Tim Willit's quote in an PC-centric gaming news article.

“Pull down the console, type ‘id studio’, then press enter; Then, bam, there’s all the tools we use."

— Tim Willits, Rage, ID Software, May 5 2011

External links

• Official Rage website