id Software has been going from strength to strength since the days of the Quake engine, ostensibly id Tech 1. We have seen id Tech 2 (Quake II, roots of the Valve Source engine); id Tech 3 (Quake III); and id Tech 4 (Doom 3, Quake 4). id Software is now poised to launch their latest 3D engine, id Tech 5, with the title RAGE.

During Gamescom 2011 MyGaming was given the chance to get some hands-on time with RAGE; I was first given the PS3 version to play with. The game opens with a cinematic setting up the storyline. In the year 2029, the Earth is victim of a catastrophic meteor impact that many didn’t think was survivable. As a contingency plan, Earth creates the Eden Project, which involves hundreds of sealed Arks under the Earth’s surface. Each Ark contains 12 survival pods – 12 individuals who each possess special traits that would help them to rebuild society.

Many of the surface dwelling humans survived in caves while the planet’s atmosphere was a deadly caustic dust storm. Bandits, mutants and another mysterious foe now roam the wilds, while more peaceable survivors have formed small communities at various outposts. Many of the Ark chambers didn’t stand up to the meteor strike, and the player emerges as the only survivor from their particular Ark.

Emerging into a post-apocalyptic world, players are soon confronted with the harsh reality of the situation as a bandit pounces on them. Luckily, a nearby plot device survivor comes to the rescue, guns a balzin’. After a short introduction, players are thrust into the action, sent off on a mission to eliminate nearby bandits.

RAGE features pretty standard run n’ gun gameplay, mixed with some survival elements. Players will have to scavenge for supplies from dead enemies as well as the environment, giving a good reason to explore. Starting weapons and armour are fairly low-powered, and during the hands-on time, there wasn’t much chance to explore how interesting the weaponry can become.

The PS3 performed admirably, although stories from E3 about astounded players hardly believing it was running on a PS3 seem rather exaggerated. This is not to say that the game looked bad on the PS3, and the id Software representatives were quick to point out that the game is still in development, but the terribly close level of detail texture pop-in was a constant companion. However, once the textures were all rendered in, things looked great. This constant loading of textures also had little impact on frame rates, and gameplay was smooth throughout.

Thankfully, id Software seemingly hasn’t coddled the console gamers, and enemy AI was challenging and unrelenting, exhibiting little of the imbecilic lifting of heads from cover for a few seconds while shots are lined up. They come at players fast and hard, and if they are pinned, they will constantly move about, or remain ducked down so that players must move position or flush them out with grenades. id Software has previously indicated that they designed RAGE for console controllers first.

The open world setting was also great to explore, and large distances could be covered without a intermediary loading screen. Overall, RAGE is looking to be a great run and gun style shooter, the type on which id Software built its name, but featuring some interesting layers to the gameplay that make it more than a simple shooter.

I’m a PC gamer at heart, so I could not pass up the chance the try RAGE on PC, and unsurprisingly it is chalk and cheese when compared to the console versions (I also had a peek at the Xbox 360 version in the demo room). The PC heritage of RAGE is fully evident.

The visuals are nothing short of superb, although the game was likely being run on some powerful hardware. Textures are of higher-resolution, and detail stands out everywhere, with bump mapping creating a believably rugged apocalyptic terrain. Framerates were smooth as silk, and my aiming greatly improved with a trusty mouse in hand.

So far, RAGE is looking to be a great game to introduce the next generation of id Tech, which will undoubtedly impress on a technological level. However, I’m looking forward to getting stuck in to the full game to find out if the gameplay will be worthy of similar praise.

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